The global corrugated packaging market size was estimated at US$276 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach over US$410.5 billion by 2032, poised to grow at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2023 to 2032, according to Precedence Research. Of that, notably, the global e-commerce packaging market is anticipated to develop at a CAGR of 15.87% percent, reaching a total market value of US$98.856 billion by 2027, from US$35.244 billion in 2020. E-commerce is growing fast and needs to better focused on customers’ packaging needs.

Corrugated packaging is essential for protecting the transport of consumer goods from the manufacturer to the consumer, with over a hundred years of experience servicing the brick-and-mortar supply chain. E-commerce corrugated packaging growth is rapidly accelerating, while that supply chain experience is really only within the last 20 years, the bulk of that is only in the last 10 years. The movement and transport of product is very different for e-commerce than it is for brick-and-mortar applications. As a result, there is probably a need to have its own channel-specific solutions. 

One company that decided to take this challenge head on is DS Smith, a leading provider of sustainable fiber-based packaging in Europe and the United States, with recycling and papermaking operations. The company manufactures packaging that is 100% recyclable, and has sites in 37 countries. Founded by two cousins, David Gabriel Smith and David Solomon Smith in 1940 to manufacture cartons, it was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in the late 1950s. Since then, DS Smith has continued to grow its business organically and through acquisitions, and became a listed on the FTSE 100 Index in December 2017. It had revenues of £7,241 million in 2022 and has approximately 29,584 employees.