Packaging / Advertising & Office

China's packaging industry will enter a critical period of development, that is, from the golden development period to the problem prone period. Studying the latest global trends and the types of driving factors will have important strategic significance for the future trend of China's packaging industry.

According to the research of Smithers in the future of packaging: long term strategic forecast to 2028, by 2028, the global packaging market will grow at an annual rate of nearly 3%, reaching more than US $1.2 trillion.

From 2011 to 2021, the global packaging market grew by 7.1%, most of which came from China, India and other countries. More and more consumers choose to move to urban areas and adopt modern lifestyles, so this promotes the demand for packaged goods. The e-commerce industry has accelerated this demand worldwide.

Many market drivers are having a significant impact on the global packaging industry. Four main trends to emerge in the next few years:

According to who statistics, by september2021, the number of people infected with the new crown has reached 210million worldwide, and experts predict that the epidemic sweeping the world will continue for 1-3 years. The impact of the epidemic on the global packaging industry is also in all aspects. For example, in China, South Korea and other countries that take the lead in responding to the epidemic, the packaging demand for groceries, health care products and e-commerce transportation will rise sharply. However, at the same time, the demand for industrial, luxury and some B2B transport packaging may decline. Therefore, COVID-19 may become one of the trends to change the packaging industry.

In addition, global consumers may be more and more inclined to change their pre epidemic shopping habits, resulting in a strong rise in the momentum of e-commerce express and other door-to-door delivery services. This translates into increasing consumers' income in consumer goods, as well as access to modern retail channels, and the growing middle class's desire to access global brands and shopping habits. In the United States, where the epidemic continues, the online sales of fresh food have increased significantly compared with that before the epidemic in 2019, with an increase of more than 200% in the first half of 2021 and an increase of more than 400% in the sales of meat and vegetables. Along with this, the pressure on the packaging industry is also increasing. Because of the economic downturn, customers are becoming more sensitive to prices. Packaging manufacturers and processors need to try their best to win enough orders to maintain the operation of their factories.

In fact, since 2017, people have become more and more interested in sustainability, especially in the packaging industry. These situations are reflected in central governments, municipal regulations, consumer attitudes and various consumer brands that want to convey values through packaging all over the world.

The EU is in a leading position in the field of promoting circular economy. Governments and people of European countries pay special attention to plastic waste. Plastic packaging, as a large number of disposable items, is subject to strict review in Europe. Many EU strategies are advancing to solve this problem, including replacing alternative materials, investing in the development of bio based plastics, designing packaging to make it easier to recycle, and improving the recycling and treatment of plastic wastes.

However, it should be noted that in the context of the current epidemic, people's consideration of health and food safety may become a higher priority. On the contrary, the sustainability of other packaging materials may not be so important in people's minds - at least for now. Consumers and the packaging industry have a new understanding and expectation of the health and safety advantages that plastic packaging can provide, which seems to exceed the concerns about recyclability and leakage of plastic waste into the environment.

Driven by the popularity of the Internet and smart phones, the global online retail market continues to grow rapidly. Consumers are more and more used to buying goods online. Smithers pointed out that this situation will continue to increase in the next 10 years, and people and businesses will need packaging solutions that are more environmentally friendly, healthier and safer to transport goods. For example, more and more people will consume food, beverage, medicine and other products on their way to work or travel. Therefore, the demand for convenient and portable packaging solutions is increasing, and the flexible plastic industry is one of the main beneficiaries.

In addition, with the transition to single life, more and more consumers, especially young people, tend to buy groceries more frequently and less. This has driven the growth of convenience store retailing and the demand for more convenient and smaller packaging forms.

As brand companies around the world continue to seek new areas and markets with high returns and high growth, the internationalization of many FMCG brands is also improving. In the next few years, people's more and more modern and scientific lifestyle will accelerate this process.

Similarly, the globalization of e-commerce and international trade has also stimulated the demand of brands for components with "RFID (radio frequency identification technology)" tags and "smart" tags, so as to prevent fake and shoddy products and implement better market monitoring.

Frankly speaking, at present, consumers' loyalty to brands is not as high as it used to be. In order to improve this phenomenon, brand owners try their best to attract customers to participate in various marketing activities, and have added the "packaging experience" to their customers' shopping process, because brand owners want to rely on flexible packaging design to provide personalized products, transmit unique sales proposition (USP) and brand concept, attract consumers and earn customer loyalty in this "profitable" way, Kill two birds with one stone.

Transparency and sustainable marketing also means that brands can promote their brand value through packaging that combines function, performance and environmental awareness. The process of conveying the concepts of "environmentally responsible products" and "recyclable product packaging" will not generate additional costs or reduce profits. Generally speaking, flexible packaging has unique design and attractive colors, which can help the brand to create brand identity, attract consumers' attention, increase sales and gain competitive advantages in a variety of similar products.