Mondi facilitates e-commerce packaging testing with expanded ISTA-approved services

03 Aug 2023 --- Mondi is improving e-commerce packaging testing with Amazon-approved service, enabling businesses to ensure their e-commerce packaging is protective and environmentally sustainable. The packaging giant is expanding its International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) and Amazon Packaging Support and Supplier Network-certified Performance Lab services to meet growing demand for e-commerce customers.

Nedim Nisic, Mondi Group’s e-commerce director, tells Packaging Insights that ordering online has become an essential part of shopping for many consumers. 

Mondi’s Performance Lab can now also test converted solutions such as MailerBags and corrugated boxes. Located in České Budějovice, Czech Republic, the lab complements the company’s e-commerce service offering for high-performance e-commerce packaging, from base material to converted solutions. 

“Our testing environment simulates common circumstances on packed goods in each step of its journey, providing a data-based evaluation to identify potential packaging deficits or weak points in the design. Our internal experts can also provide improvement recommendations – an offer as customized as our e-commerce packaging solutions.”

Mondi's Performance Lab (Image credits: Mondi).Mondi’s Performance Lab
In addition to delivering a pleasant unwrapping moment, packaging in e-commerce must protect the delivered goods, be easy to handle for reuse and align with the consumer’s expectations toward sustainability in its material choice and design, explains Mondi’s e-commerce director.

Consumers expect packaging to protect their goods and align with sustainability. According to the annual Mondi e-commerce trend report, 94% value goods protection, followed by easy returns (88%) and environmental-friendliness (84%). “We are committed to meeting these demands and creating unwrapping experiences while being sustainable by design,” says Nisic.

By choosing Mondi's Performance Lab services, customers benefit from expertise in developing packaging.Mondi’s ISTA laboratory is the partner of choice for testing Amazon’s Tier one-three compliant packaging; Frustration Free Packaging, Ships in Own Container and Amazon Prep-Free Packaging. The lab services include clamp, vibration, drop and compression tests, certifications and test reports for various ISTA standards.

The company says that by choosing its Performance Lab services, customers benefit from expertise in developing packaging that complies with relevant regulations, certification schemes and sustainability requirements.

“Packaging plays a crucial role in delivering a superior customer experience while ensuring product safety during transit in the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape,” says Javier Prieto, the Czech Mondi ISTA Lab leader. 

Balancing sustainability and functionality
Nisic says that the company’s network includes over 100 in-house packaging designers who work to upgrade its portfolio and offer custom solutions tailored to address specific challenges faced by customers.

“One of the primary challenges in creating customized e-commerce packaging lies in balancing sustainability with functionality. We prioritize sustainability by incorporating paper wherever possible, and finding the right balance between eco-friendly materials and effective product protection is a constant consideration in our design process.”

“Our intelligent designs aim to deliver a delightful unwrapping experience for the end consumer, further enhancing the brand’s connection with its audience,” asserts Nisic.

Last month, Mondi teamed up with Easy2cool to replace plastic insulation packaging with a paper-based solution for e-commerce. Easy2cool will utilize Mondi’s Functional Barrier Paper wraps with paper-based insulation material to ship frozen and chilled food products. 

E-commerce customers can replace Easy2cool’s plastic and polystyrene layer with paper, providing a recyclable solution. The cold chain solutions provider has invented a paperfloc Eco-Liner bag that contains shredded recycled paper to insulate cold products, keeping contents frozen or chilled for up to 48 hours.

By Natalie Schwertheim