Online sales, sustainability bring changes to consumer packaging

Tampa, Fla. — Today's packaging just won't cut it in the future, an official at a well-known spice and food company believes.

As vice president of global sustainability and packaging innovation at McCormick & Co., Michael Okoroafor gets to think about what the future will look like.

And he sees the growing electronic commerce trend continuing to impact how future packaging is designed and constructed.

But he also looks even beyond that trend to a time when he seeks companies selling directly to customers, and that will impact packaging design as well.

“I can tell you that packaging today is not designed for the e-commerce of the future,” Okoroafor said at the Packaging Conference in Tampa.

Both consumer packaged goods companies and packaging firms understand the need for development of new package designs and more robust closures to better take advantage of shipping opportunities rather than retail sales.

“As brand owners, we really have to think about how we innovate in the future,” he said.

And that includes both an eye on design and sustainability, Okoroafor said.

“I'm talking about packaging that is truly sustainable that encourages a circular economy. Instead of make, use, dispose,” Okoroafor said, the approach needs to be “make, use, renew. You have to make sure you go into something else at the end of your [package] life as opposed to dumping it into the environment.

“It's a holistic approach. You start from when you are thinking about a new product and a new package comes into place on sustainability. Before, it used to be an afterthought. One thing I can tell you, the era of having sustainability as an afterthought is over. You are going to be a loser if you do that. So you have to rethink how you go right from the onset and incorporate all of the different aspects of sustainability,” Okoroafor said.

Packaging of the future also will allow companies to personalize brands and products, he said. In the case McCormick, that might include creating unique spice formulations for individual customers, for example.