The Personal Care Industry: How Packaging Trends Have Shifted

Have you recently visited your area general merchandiser? What about a hair or tanning salon? If so, you're likely familiar with the condensed personal care industry. Whether you're looking for a new skincare or oral hygiene product or your hairstylist has recommended a new deep conditioner, it's guaranteed you've seen the assortment of vials, bottles, jars, and plastic tubes on shelves today.

But how useful are these packaging materials for the average consumer?

Personal care products continue to be added to shelves every day. While rigid and semi-rigid containers seem to be the go-to for many manufacturers, how can packaging be more convenient for potential customers? The answer is simple – flexible packaging. Read on to learn how packaging trends have shifted for the personal care industry and how your company can benefit from making the transition to flexible packaging.

What Personal Care Markets Benefit?

Flexible packaging is beneficial for a variety of products because of its impressive adaptability. Whether your company is selling creams and lotions or powders, the materials utilized for flexible packaging are ideal for containing and dispensing liquids. In the personal care industry, there are a variety of markets that benefit from flexible packaging, such as:

• Tanning salons
• Hair salons
• Cosmetic manufacturers and distributors
• Wholesale suppliers
• Oral hygiene
• Cosmetic processing plants
• Skincare

The varying films in flexible packaging designs offer reliable durability, uphold product integrity, and protect your products from unwanted exposure to moisture, oxygen, and odors. The shelf life of your product will likely be extended as well. Flexible packaging materials are lightweight and can be transported easier than rigid or semi-rigid containers, meaning transportation costs will decrease and your carbon footprint will be reduced. Additionally, retailers, warehouses, and freight vehicles have limited space, and flexible packaging will ensure your product doesn't take up as much room in these areas.

Attract More Customers

Many personal care items are formatted for single-serving and samples, such as small pouches, sachets, and flex sticks. Because of this, flexible packaging is the ideal format for many personal care manufacturers. Single-serving and sample-sized packaging not only introduces your target audience to your brand but encourages potential buyers to try your product before investing in a larger portion. This alone caters to the convenience that today's consumer market is drawn to. Offering a variety of sizes for each of your products also helps extend your brand and product outreach. Aside from single-serving and sample-sized packaging, flexible packaging is also excellent for travel-sized personal care items. Travel-sized items that are designed with flexible packaging are easier to pack and transport each day. Today's consumer market is drawn to flexible packaging for personal care products for a variety of reasons:

• Easy to open
• Resealable features
• Lightweight
• Unbreakable
• Minimal space restrictions
• Quick throwaway

Product Integrity

As a personal care product manufacturer, you're likely familiar with the importance of product integrity. When a potential customer sees your product on retail shelves, they expect the packaging to have an airtight seal and show no signs of contamination. If your packaging can't protect your product, it's time to consider a reliable alternative like flexible packaging. Flexible packaging promotes product integrity because of its convenient design that supports preservation. Whether you choose to incorporate tear seals, closeable spouts, or resealable zippers, potential customers will know that your product's integrity has been preserved if these resealable features don't show signs of tampering or damage. By choosing flexible packaging, you'll have access to a range of sizes and shapes like stand-up and lay-flat pouches so that you can attract shoppers of every age and walk of life.

Design Versatility

It's a given that you'll have more design opportunities with flexible packaging as pouches can be made in varying sizes, have added features, and you'll have more room for branding opportunities. Rigid and semi-rigid containers are limiting as there's not as large of a printable area. Manufacturers that utilize flexible packaging for their products can fill more space with essential product details, like:

• Branding
• Logos
• Product descriptions
• Usage instructions
• Relevant graphics
• Ingredients

Rather than being limited to a specified area, digital printing allows you to use virtually all the flexible packaging materials in your packaging design. Even better, your high-definition graphics will be applied directly to the pouch, meaning you'll eliminate the need for additional labels or shrink sleeves. If you're already using a rigid or semi-rigid packaging material, it may be beneficial for certain types of products. However, incorporating flexible packaging into your product line will communicate your desire to offer versatility, which will help you expand your audience reach by catering to today's varying lifestyles.

Improve Your Product Packaging Today

Whether you're a manufacturer of personal care products, perishable food items, sports and nutrition supplements, or another industry, flexible packaging can bring your company a variety of impressive benefits. Flexible packaging will help you attract more customers as you'll be able to offer varying product sizes to better cater to busy lifestyles. As with any product available to consumers today, product integrity is vital and flexible packaging will help you show your target audiences that you're invested in providing them with a product they can rely on. Finally, you'll have access to remarkable design versatility, so you can create the flexible packaging design you've always imagined with little to no limitations. Improve your product packaging by making the transition to flexible packaging today – you won't regret it.