How Does Your Garden Go? Shipping Solutions for a Growing Home and Garden Industry
These days, the perfect garden and backyard setting requires not just a green thumb but a sense of style. With consumers now expecting these products to be delivered to their doorstep, shippers need to incorporate innovative protective packaging solutions.
Market research shows that Americans of every age group, especially those ages 25-44, enjoy entertaining outdoors on patios, covered decks, lanais and cabanas, and forty percent of baby boomers – the group most likely to own their own home – enjoy gardening as a leisure activity.
Though millennials are more likely to live in urban settings and on smaller pieces of property, they enjoy gardening as a hobby, often making the most of their limited space through herb gardens and hanging gardens. Millennials see gardening as a way to protect the environment by increasing their self-sustainability, and many are interested in natural and organic products, suggesting that gardening will continue to grow in popularity for this demographic group.
Gardening’s Growing Popularity
According to the 2019 National Gardening Survey, produced by the National Gardening Association, gardeners in the U.S. reported spending a record $47.8 billion on lawn and garden products in the past year, with a record average household spend of $503 – up almost $100 from the previous year.
The result is a steadily growing home-and-garden industry and a relatively new challenge for online retailers: protecting these products through the parcel delivery process. Before the rapid rise of eCommerce, these products were typically shipped in corrugated cardboard packaging to brick-and-mortar retail stores. No cushioning materials were necessary because products were palletized for delivery by truck, so there was very little risk of damage due to movement and impact.
With consumers now expecting these products to be delivered to their doorstep, shippers need to incorporate innovative protective packaging solutions.
A steadily growing home-and-garden industry brings a relatively new challenge for online retailers: protecting these products through the parcel delivery process.
A Versatile Protective Packaging Solution
The home-and-garden industry includes a wide variety of delicate products such as ceramic planters, pottery, and outdoor and indoor tiles, and decorative items such as gnomes, patio furniture, fire pits and lighting fixtures. Foam-in-place systems are ideal for online retailers that ship a large selection of breakable items and therefore need a versatile protective packaging solution.
The foam envelops the product and cradles it in place, preventing movement within the box and shielding it from impact. It also protects products of every shape, size, weight and material, giving shippers a single packaging solution for their entire product portfolio.
To learn more about Pregis’ foam-in-place protective packaging options, visit www.pregis.com/on-demandfoam-systems.
