ORLANDO - SuperCorrExpo® 2016, kicked off its second day with Keynoter speaker, Ron Sasine, principal of Hudson Windsor LLC and former senior director of packaging procurement at Walmart, who gave his insights on the state of the industry and the value of SuperCorrExpo®.

“Changes in Retail and their Impact on Packaging” was the focus of today’s Keynote address. Sasine highlighted three key points that are needed in order to win in today’s evolving retail marketplace- packaging must convey, communicate, and convince.

There is a massive emerging opportunity in e-commerce for corrugated packaging. Today, the dominate way to transport through e-commerce distribution, is the Corrugated box. So packaging companies are tasked with trying to understand how to develop, continuously innovate and manufacture in ways that are more conducive to the needs of the retailers and the consumer.

“In our modern society, most of what we consume comes from a much larger travel radius than ever before. So it’s critical that packaging can convey a product from farm, field and factory through a distribution network to a point of sale and eventually to a consumer’s home. So that “convey” is critical says Sasine.

Throughout that process, a package needs to “communicate,” to the channel partners about what it is, where it belongs, how it needs to be shipped or treated and its eventual destination. Those channel partners can be trucking companies, distribution centers,or shipping partners. So that’s the communicate part.

Then eventually, the packaging must “convince” the consumer to buy the product and then it has to also convince the consumer, in the home, to consume the product and eventually go back for a repurchase,” Sasin stated.

Sasin discussed the importance of Millennials and their role in driving changing the way packaging is perceived, viewed and consumed. “These folks are coming into their peak buying years, and they’ve grown up with packaging innovation being the normal way things are done. This is the first generation that went to soccer practice with Capri Sun pouches. And as a result, what seems modern and unique and individualized is absolutely the normal way things are done. They’ve essentially grown up with the expectation that every purchase is uniquely for them, right then, in that moment, and not part of building a pantry that they take ingredients from to then cook. That’s a big difference in the way they organize their consumption,” said Sasine.

He also discussed how hyper- individualization and the desire for uniqueness and authenticity in many ways drives packaging decisions. Understanding these consumer behaviors is key to drives sales and are critical to success in our industry.

SuperCorrExpo offers insights on filling automation and what people are doing around creating unique processes for filling and sealing cases that then become retail-ready, shelf-ready options for retailers. “That’s an area ripe for innovation,” Sasine states, “and I’m looking forward to finding the solutions at the show.”