Packaging industry is rising to the challenges of the new reality

The impact of e-commerce on the packaging and printing industries

In the retail landscape, e-commerce has occupied an increasingly significant place in recent times, a change that has only accelerated due to COVID-19. This rising profile has created a wide range of knock-on effects in other industries, as brands seek to adapt to the practicalities and complexities of direct-to-consumer retail as well as to enhance customers’ experience.

Packaging and printing are two sectors that have undergone rapid evolution in response to this change in retail habits. Our latest, wide-ranging report on those industries, prepared by our Oaklins’ team of M&A advisors from Atlanta, Boston and New York offices in the USA, delves into the significance of this development.

There are numerous areas of packaging that are rising to the challenges of this new reality, from design to substrates, engineering and graphics. We explore the role of Amazon, the leading player in e-commerce in the USA, in setting standards in shipping with its own packaging solutions, along with the complicated nature of e-commerce logistics and the growing need for flexibility in packaging.

When it comes to digital print, we study how requirements have had to adapt when a customer’s first experience of the product is the “unboxing”, and the ways that labelling is evolving to become ever more sophisticated.

In addition, our report includes an overview of selected publicly traded companies in several packaging and printing sectors, as well as key recent transactions.

Download the report