Città di Castello, Italy – CMC, a leader in on-demand packaging solutions for the e-commerce industry, announced today that Best Buy Co. Inc. has adopted its CartonWrap XL technology to increase distribution speed and efficiency while significantly reducing the amount packaging waste.

Best Buy has begun using the CartonWrap XL to automate the boxing process at its Metro E-commerce Center in Southern California and the New York metro area.

Automating the boxing process is expected to reduce the amount of cardboard used to ship those packages by 40 percent while completely eliminating the need for plastic fillers and tape.

These latest enhancements come during a period of significant e-commerce growth at Best Buy. Domestic online sales grew to approximately $6.45 billion in fiscal 2019, with comparable sales climbing 10.5 percent year over year.

“We are excited to support Best Buy in bringing the CartonWrap XL to its e-commerce fulfillment centers,” CMC CEO Francesco Ponti said. “The system has helped Best Buy optimize its supply chain operations, and today’s environmentally conscious consumers get their goods packaged responsibly in boxes that are made to fit each order.”

The CMC CartonWrap XL is the latest generation of the CMC CartonWrap machine, which CMC first brought to the market in 2013. It can deliver up to 1,000 boxes an hour, all custom made to fit the products inside.

As a result, every order is shipped in a perfectly sized box without any air pillows or other plastic fillers inside. There’s no need for tape because the boxes are made from perforated corrugate with tear strips. That makes the boxes easier for customers to open, and there’s less waste.

The CartonWrap XL is the most flexible 3-D packaging technology available in the market, capable of processing boxes up to 31 inches wide. Best Buy uses it for shipping everything from earbud headphones to printers.

The system prints and checks invoices on the fly. It’s able to include packing slips inside the boxes and affix shipping labels on the outside. When necessary, it also applies warning stickers for products that contain lithium ion batteries.

The way the boxes are designed, with dedicated external edges, also helps protect products from being damaged during transportation. And because the boxes are smaller, Best Buy is able to fit more boxes on a truck, thereby reducing the number of trucks needed to ship products.

“I believe the CMC Cartonwrap has held up to its promises, and we look forward to continuing to support Best Buy in its next smart move,” Ponti said.

From left: Francesco Ponti - CMC CEO and Rob Bass – Best Buy Chief Supply Chain Officer.