Top Tips to Stay Sustainable this Black Friday
Black Friday is the biggest shopping event of the year. According to Mintel, Black Friday sales generated around £12.3 billion in 2022. Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales offer great deals on items like Nintendo Switch game consoles, home appliances such as Air Fryers, or a new mobile phone. It's a good opportunity to find bargains.
When is Black Friday 2023?
Black Friday 2023 is on Friday 24th November. It is closely followed by Cyber Monday, on Monday 27th November.
How does Black Friday affect the environment?
Both Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer consumers money-saving deals for a single day.
This often leads to impulse purchases and, as a result, post-purchase regrets. According to Mosesque, one in three shoppers returned products they purchased during the event.
High returns lead to wasted packaging, poorly packed returns, use extra transportation and handling resources, and are time-consuming for businesses.
Following the increase in shopping on these days, there is a knock-on effect causing increased workloads on warehousing, dispatch and the logistical sector also. This leads to consumables, such as packaging materials being used a lot quicker, or potentially ineffectively.
Issues such as insufficient packaging optimisation can cause improperly packed products. For example, a large box filled with excess protective packaging for a small item, because there may be no appropriate-sized boxes left. However, it may not be practical for your packing station to have a large selection of different-sized boxes.
Improperly packed products lead to excess packaging wastage and increased packaging costs. Aside from wasting resources, improper packaging can lead to breakages.
Damaged products are costly to a business; bad for the environment; are usually avoidable; and lead to customer disappointment.
Customers may be even more disappointed if their Black Friday deal arrives damaged. This could be especially true if it is the last one available. In such a case, it would be impossible for the retailer to replace it.
Here at Springpack, our packaging experts understand the trials and tribulations that come alongside packaging optimisation for Black Friday. We are Ecovadis accredited for sustainability , and we offer environmentally friendly solutions for any type of business.
Springpack specialise in perfectly timed deliveries which allow you to keep your packaging supplies lean, and our next-day deliveries ensure you never run out.
We also offer a free packaging audit service, we will overhaul your entire packaging process from start to finish, identifying inefficiencies and improvements that can be made.
Don't just take our word for our service, check out our Case Study with Oprema.
What are Sustainable Packaging solutions for Black Friday?
There are numerous sustainable switches you can make right now to improve your sustainability.
Paper Tape
Switching to paper tape immediately reduces your single-use plastic usage, which is a great step forward for sustainability in your packaging process.
Paper tape is curbside recyclable, and does not need to be removed from cardboard to be recycled.
An added bonus of paper tape is that it can be easily printed to your branding, and is a great bespoke packaging solution.
Armour Wrap
Changing your machine film to Armour wrap, the 330% stretch machine film, can reduce your plastic usage by up to 50%. Armour Wrap is specially designed to work on high-speed wrappers, and its high stretch allows for increased load stability. Switching to Armour Wrap will reduce your storage and costs, as each roll lasts longer. Our Armour Wrap works on all Stretch Wrap machines, such as Robopac.
If you'd like to learn more about Armour Wrap or arrange a free trial, please click here.
Returnable Postal Packaging
Returns are heightened over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period.
Switching to returnable postal packaging like our Postal Plus Returnable Postage Boxes or Returnable Postal Bags can be beneficial. This is because returnable postal packaging ensures that your customer has everything they need to return the items to you, reducing returns damages. It also increases the convenience for the customer, which will give them a positive experience with your company.
The most important aspect of returnable postal packaging is that it is designed to be reused, meaning no extra packaging will be required to return the items.
Automation
Integrating automated packaging processes will streamline your packaging process. Machinery such as a Lantech Case Erector, or Robopac Pallet Wrapper, or Emba-Protec Buzz n Pack.
Including automation processes will improve uniformity within your packing process This will lead to perfectly packed products that can be transported efficiently with greater load stability.
To learn more about how including packaging automation can improve your packaging process, why not read our helpful blog?
Automation also streamlines the amount of packaging required to pack your products, which results in both cost and material savings.
How To Stay Sustainable This Black Friday?
Switching to sustainable packaging is a great way to keep your Black Friday distribution eco-friendly.
Consolidating deliveries your deliveries, optimising load stability and optimising packaging usage are the best ways for your company to stay sustainable this Black Friday.
We hope this guide has been useful to you - if you'd like to learn more about sustainable packaging for Black Friday, or book your operational packaging audit, please click here.