plastic pallets with pallet collars help deliver luxury goods in perfect condition

Plastic Pallets with Pallet Collars Create Flexible Packaging Units for Luxury Brands Distributor

The demand for luxury products is growing, but shipments are never similar in quantity, size and volume. A distributor of the best known brands for luxury apparel and accessories was facing a serious logistic issue: finding the right sized containers for shipping extremely sensitive items to high-end retail stores. Their case study exemplifies the versatility of plastic pallets with pallet collars for creating unique packaging units using standard materials.

The Client’s Challenge: Optimizing the Quantity of Products per Container

The distributor’s problem starts with the wide variety of the products they are shipping:

  • Apparel
  • A range of handbags, totes and purses of very different sizes
  • Perfume bottles
  • Delicate scarves and shawls.

Each of these items has its own packaging and shipping requirements in order to arrive in pristine condition at the retail store. There is no compromise in the luxury goods industry. The smallest blemish on the packaging renders the item unfit for selling.

For this reason, the distributor was continually experimenting with different container models and sizes. In the end, their only solution was sending incompletely filled containers with extra protective packaging to keep the delicate and expensive items safe.

However, this practice came at a cost – the literal cost of shipping. And it puts pressure on the distributor, who is trying to maintain competitive prices in an industry where consumers are increasingly selective when purchasing luxury items.

The Logistic Packaging Team Weighs In the Issue

After analyzing various waybills and observing the order preparation process, our packaging consultants came to an unhappy conclusion: there is no way of predicting and planning for shipment sizes and volumes.

The company never ships similar quantities or similar products. The retail stores place their orders depending on sales and needs to restock – which are never similar. This issue requires a very specific approach in creating packaging materials.

The packaging literally has to fit each individual shipment. Difficult to achieve? Maybe. Impossible to put in practice? Not for the Logistic Packaging team!

Our Recommendation: Plastic Pallets with Pallet Collars

In this very special situation, only a specific type of solution works: building containers on the go for each individual order. How is this possible? The answer is simple: by using plastic pallets with pallet collars.

Here is how easy it is to create packing units in this way:

  • The warehouse workers start with one layer of pallet collars attached to a pallet
  • As they keep adding products, they also add new layers of collars
  • The packing unit is built vertically on the go to fit the volume of items with maximum precision
  • The packing unit is completed with a pallet lid to create a solid, stackable unit.

This option ensures the maximum density of items per packing unit, without compromising their safety in transit.

Also, it helps save storage space and shipping costs for return logistics, because the pallet collars can be folded and placed on top of the pallet. Thus, the packing unit will reduce its volume by more than 70%.

The Client Tests Our Recommendation

The distributing company placed a minimum order to test the plastic pallets with pallet collars as packaging solutions. They requested all employees involved in order picking and preparation to give an honest feedback on the feasibility, ease of use and safety concerns related to the new packaging material.

They also requested retail store employees to complete a survey related to the condition of the products packed in these materials and how easy they could unload them.

All the answers were extremely positive and enthusiastic. Both their own employees and retail stores employees found the plastic pallets with pallet collars easy to load and unload and perfectly adequate for protecting the sensitive and valuable goods.

As a result, the company chose pallets and pallet collars as the unique packaging option for order deliveries, completely phasing out other inefficient packaging materials.

Logistic Packaging does not deliver just products, but unique packaging solutions for each specific need. Send us an email today and let us discuss your packaging application!