“The Sweet Spot”: A journey inside DS Smith’s e-commerce design methodology

22 Jun 2020 --- The e-commerce lifecycle entails greater complexities and more touchpoints than Bricks & Mortar but with the right tools, knowledge and expertise, the innovation “Sweet Spot” can be discovered. The “Sweet Spot” methodology developed by Gavin Mounce, E-commerce Design Manager at DS Smith Packaging has been utilized widely in DS Smith innovation workshops and customer collaborations to achieve the required balance of environmental sustainability, protection, brand alignment, customer experience and inclusive design in e-commerce packaging designs. PackagingInsights speaks to Mounce and colleague Alan Potts, Design & Innovations Director at DS Smith, about the “Sweet Spot” methodology, Amazon’s Frustration Free Packaging (FFP), “wow factor” unboxing experiences and the rise of connective packaging technologies.

“In the early days of e-commerce, packaging designs could be described as adapted Bricks & Mortar solutions, whereas now there is much more focus on e-commerce specific designs and materials. Although the designs have started to change in line with customer demand, the end-users’ expectations have grown as quickly, if not faster,” Mounce says.

“Originally providing protection and delivering on time would have resulted in a satisfied customer; next was the introduction of inside print, followed by the unboxing experience; now the latest focus points of connectivity, [environmental] sustainability and inclusive designs. So, with all these changes and rapid growth, how can you create packaging solutions that really work for e-commerce?”

DS Smith's “Sweet Spot” design methodology.Queue the “Sweet Spot,” a methodology developed and implemented by DS Smith to ensure a brand’s packaging priorities are achieved while maintaining the necessary balance. Mounce gives the example of environmental sustainability – a key consideration for many brands. If this focus point is exaggerated, it can have negative impacts on other innovation areas like product protection. On the flip side, if protection is over-prioritized, complexities around the use of excessive materials may arise, making the pack less eco-friendly. The “Sweet Spot” methodology is designed to avoid such issues and strike the best possible balance between design priorities.

For Potts, the best practice example was the Nestlé Nespresso e-commerce pack because it involved all the different e-commerce stakeholders. “That collaboration with all the areas of a customer supply chain is key. A lot of customer’s e-commerce capabilities are still evolving and often it’s still a separate part of the business but as e-commerce growth is maturing we can collaborate more.”

DISCS bulletproof testing
A key component of DS Smith’s e-commerce capabilities is its testing facilities in the UK and the Netherlands, known as DISCS (Drop, Impact, Shock, Crush and Shake). An industry first, DISCS tests whether a package can survive the average e-commerce supply chain, which can constitute up to 50 touchpoints. The financial incentives are enormous – in 2018, DS Smith estimated that approximately US$831 million worth of damaged goods would be delivered on Black Friday due to inadequate packaging.

“I developed DISCS over five years ago now – it was inspired by time spent at a UK courier, experiencing how packaging moves through the supply cycle,” Mounce continues. When we were originally developing e-commerce packaging, we sent parcels out through the courier and through different routes you would sometimes get very different damage levels and handling touchpoints – it was very inconsistent in that you could get a heavy box damaged and a similar one in pristine condition.”

For this reason, DS Smith developed five different pieces of equipment for Drop, Impact, Shock, Crush and Shake testing. It helps the supplier rapidly develop innovations and verify product performance, Mounce says. For example, the design team learned about shock transfer – where packaging can be made too strong and lack the absorbent impact to protect against product damage.DISCS tests whether a package can survive the average e-commerce supply chain, which can constitute up to 50 touchpoints.

“We are now at a point [with DISCS] where we have a lot of automation and software built into it. It’s about getting performance testing that mirrors what a box experiences in e-commerce courier delivery,” Potts reiterates.

Mounce draws attention to the “significantly hard” Laithwaite's Wine project. Laithwaite’s wanted to improve the protection performance of its packaging while eradicating plastic from its portfolio. Using this insight, DS Smith designed enhanced cardboard packaging that would offer protection from the jolts and impacts of the courier delivery network. To trial the effectiveness of the solution before sending it into the supply chain, Laithwaite’s put its packaging to the test using DS Smith’s innovative DISCS technology.

Working across its Packaging, Recycling and Paper divisions, DS Smith also achieved a “Box to Box in 14 days” closed-loop recycling system for Laithwaite’s e-commerce pack. The cardboard collected from customers can be processed for recycling, made into new paper and converted into corrugated cardboard packaging within 14 days.

Getting on board with Amazon’s FFP
Amazon’s FFP program aims to reduce packaging waste, protect products and improve overall supply chain efficiency. The FFP program was first enacted as a voluntary scheme but is now enforced with financial incentives across major nations including the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

Some large companies are taking a proactive approach to FFP and began planning over two years ago for the financial incentivization of the program, Mounce points out. “Some people took advantage of it as an opportunity to improve their e-commerce packaging solutions. Others have reacted to it as the news came out. We have seen a lot of people taking e-commerce more seriously, looking at environmental sustainability and packaging performance in much more detail. Environmental sustainability and customer experience are the biggest changes that are coming from FFP.”DS Smith invented industry-first e-commerce facilities for Drop, Impact, Shock, Crush and Shake testing.

“Sustainability” by definition throws up challenges because it is multifaceted and needs to be broken down into its constituent parts, Potts explains. “The issue with the word ‘sustainable’ or ‘sustainability’ is that it’s such a broad topic. In practice, it involves finding the material that is circular or mono-material, minimizing void fill, keeping the product safe from damage or pilferage and efficiency in the supply cycle. Also, it’s important how the consumer handles that pack, making it easier to recycle in domestic waste bins.”

“DS Smith laboratories focus on the performance of the board and design and, by having the right insights and understanding, you can create packs that outperform other packaging that uses the same material and packs the same product by about 50 percent, for example, by minimizing void fill,” Mounce adds.

“Wowing” with the unboxing experience
As e-commerce demand has grown, so too has the significance of the unboxing experience as a means of brand differentiation and appeal. Mounce attributes the tailored aesthetic appeal of DS Smith’s e-commerce portfolio, such as the Starpack Gold Award-winning Morocco Gold design, to close collaboration with customers. Consisting of 100 percent recyclable and easy-to-flatten cartonboard, the Morroco Gold extra virgin oil bottle packaging conveys the premium value of the product once opened through a high-quality litho printing inside, while being neutral from the outside to avoid shrinkage.

“Our innovation centers welcome customers for two-day workshops. The first day focuses on the tools, services and [‘Sweet Spot’] methodology, showing them that we understand their pain points. On the second day, we host an innovation workshop where we help facilitate the realization of their ideas,” Mounce says.

DS Smith designed a “Box to Box in 14 days” closed-loop recycling system for Laithwaite’s packaging.“Our Brands and Experience team based in Belgium are specialists in bringing together the ‘wow factor.’ We’ll have a visual workshop to tease out ideas before pursuing the best ideas in detail. Different products and brands have different needs and there isn’t a magic solution – it’s more about enabling the customer to release their ideas and insights for their customers,” he explains.

Potts adds that there is a wealth of discussion around the “unboxing experience,” particularly with customers in high fashion and premium that seek value-added effects like inside printing and Augmented Reality (AR). 

“Brand alignment with packaging is key – my partner recently ordered an expensive handbag from a fashion retailer that uses glossy carrier bags [in store], but the product arrived in a dirty white box that had been crushed, had no void fill and was 70 percent empty. It was a completely different experience [to the store] and no brand alignment,” Mounce recalls.

“We use the ‘Sweet Spot” template to try and understand what is important for a brand. For example, if a customer orders the high-value Lego Star Wars set, they wouldn't expect any creasing or marking on the packaging because it would be a collector’s item, whereas with a standard Lego City set, the customer would have lower expectations of what packaging they will receive,” he illustrates.

Connective packaging catalysts
Environmental sustainability, product protection, the unboxing experience – but what about connective packaging technologies? Potts sees himself as “an evangelist” of AR, Near Field Communication (NFC) and other such technologies and fully expects them to go mainstream.DS Smith's Morroco Gold packaging design conveys the premium value of the product through a high-quality inside litho printing.

“We’ve been talking to customers about connective technologies for over two and a half years now and for sure the technology platform is there, whether that is an AR experience or track-and-trace,” Potts says.

“There have been some retailers who have used connective technologies as part of a campaign but we still think there is a long way to go – why haven't we got customers and brands using that technology a lot more? I think an understanding of the technology [is holding it back] because it touches on different parts of a company, like marketing teams and logistics, warehousing and fulfillment teams. We always get interest when we demo AR but our customers are finding it difficult organizationally to present a priority business case. But we are getting more genuine interest,” he shares.

Mounce reflects on his experiences of hosting workshops with large global food brands, acknowledging “real interest in connectivity,” for instance, to add recipes to food products digitally. The challenge, he says, is how companies connect the technology internally to receive and utilize the data collected from customers.

The technology platforms are already available and evolving quickly, Potts reminds us. “Smartphones can now read these triggers without the need to download an app and technology in general is moving forward – packaging will get caught up in that,” he concludes.

By Joshua Poole