TriMas Packaging’s Rieke develops Amazon-certified liquid range for personal care e-commerce

27 Aug 2021 --- TriMas Packaging brand Rieke is unveiling an Amazon-certified e-commerce packaging range for personal care and home cleaning liquid products. 

With Amazon’s support, Rieke established in-house ISTA-6 labs for testing and optimizing the liquid packaging. The supplier’s packaging solutions are certified in compliance with Amazon’s “Frustration-free packaging” (FFP) guidelines.

ISTA-6 standards are varied and include three main criteria: 

• Eliminating leaks, rather than simply reducing or containing them.
• Providing an experience equivalent to, or better than, the brick & mortar experience, such as a product without inner seals for removal that is ready to use. 
• Allowing consumers to remove the closure to refill the bottle.

Rieke says its certified e-commerce range delivers significant customer benefits, including:

• Producing less waste and eliminating consumer “wrap rage.” 
• Ensuring products arrive as intended without damage.
• Reducing fulfillment processing time through the elimination of unnecessary and costly packaging components.
• Reducing the risk of fines for product fulfillment failures and leaks.
• FFP items are given priority in Amazon search listings.

“It was evident after our first engagement with the Rieke team that delivering innovation in the e-commerce channel was of strategic importance, and they were eager to work alongside us to solve these customer pain points,” says Justine Mahler, Amazon’s customer packaging experience manager.

“Amazon provided Rieke common failure modes of the current dispenser products and the scale of the commercial impact of innovation in liquids packaging. This opened the door for the Rieke team to drive an innovation plan around this mission.”Amazon supported Rieke as it established in-house ISTA-6 labs for testing and optimizing the liquid packaging.

COVID-19 accelerates e-commerce
COVID-19 lockdowns and retail shopping restrictions have accelerated the growth of online sales. The pandemic has not only increased the volume of online deliveries but fundamentally changed online shopping behavior. Before the pandemic, online purchases mostly consisted of clothes and consumer electronics.

However, “stay at home” policies have encouraged many households to extend their desktop shopping routines to everyday goods, such as hair and personal care products and home cleaning products.

According to Innova Market Insights, 35 percent of global consumers have increased their use of supermarket delivery since the virus outbreak. Moreover, the global market researcher found 15 percent of global consumers do not expect to return to regular shopping habits post-pandemic.

The liquid packaging challenge
This altered shopping behavior presents a serious challenge for suppliers of liquid products, as the product category is designed for brick & mortar shops rather than small parcel delivery channels.

Products passing through e-commerce have to withstand more frequent and rigorous handling. Statistically, a package ordered online is handled on average more than 20 times – four times more than in the traditional retail distribution chain, highlights Rieke.Rieke is launching a product range designed to meet the challenging requirements of liquid product e-commerce fulfillment.

Moreover, online deliveries are more likely to be tossed into a van or dropped on a doorstep. As a result, many liquid products either leak or are damaged during the delivery process.

If the packaging is not sufficiently robust, the implications can be significant. According to Rieke, replacing a damaged item can cost up to 17 times as much as the shipping costs. Also, if other goods such as earphones or books are in the same parcel, these could also be damaged by the liquid.

Cutting material waste
On top of measurable costs, the disappointing customer experience results in negative product reviews and may influence brand reputation. To avoid damages, e-commerce providers wrap the goods in secondary packaging with up to five additional packaging components, resulting in unnecessary waste, packaging volumes and extra costs.

However, companies are now saving materials and resources wherever possible in the interest of environmental sustainability. Three “Rs” are now high on the agenda: reduce, reuse and recycle.

Rieke claims to be first-to-market with a product range designed to meet the challenging requirements of liquid product e-commerce fulfillment. These Amazon-certified products have been developed to reduce the risk of leakage during shipping while eliminating unnecessary packaging components and costs.

Rieke’s e-commerce friendly dispensing pumps and foamers include:

• LDS-2e Lotion Dispenser Pump
• FND Foamer E Fixed Nozzle Foamer
• I-Squeeze-E Inverted Squeeze Foamer
• U-Squeeze-E Upright Squeeze Foamer
• RSS-35 Lotion Dispenser Pump
• RSS-40 Lotion Dispenser Pump

Also this month, DS Smith created recyclable e-commerce packaging for German start-up Blaue Helden, which produces power tabs for instantly mixing dishwashing and cleaning products at home.

By Joshua Poole

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