Shrink sleeves are popular, but many times in order to stand out, you have to be different. Here, we’ll go over the hottest trends that are happening right now in the shrink sleeve market, which are different and more unique than before.
Focusing on the Environment
Plastics are not good for our world, and more and more people are not encouraging the use of this, especially single-use plastic. Shrink sleeves are now changing to fit this, to fit circular environments. Retailers, brand owners and consumers get challenged every single day in order to eliminate and also reduce the plastic that’s there. This is also pushing for more inks, films, and other methods that are aimed at recyclability completely. The efforts ensure as well that shrink sleeves don't hinder the PET recovery in recycling systems.
Competitive Technologies Grow
There are some big technologies that are starting to grow in shrink sleeve packaging. First, you’ve got the direct to container forms of printing, which helps with creating a sustainability advantage through getting rid of labels completely. It also is much more flexible, so if you want to offer more personalized packaging, then there you go.
Second option is stand up pouches. This eliminates that need for labels and containers that are plastic and rigid. These pouches use about half the amount of plastic that’s used in a container, ranging from up to 70% less in some cases. They’re lighter, and more effective for spaces before they get filled.
There are also huge cost savings on warehouses and transportation. While not difficult to understand, there are a couple of drawbacks.There is less plastic, but it usually isn’t super recycled. They are legitimate debates for people, and being fully recyclable offers less plastic, but it may not be recyclable. It ultimately depends on the plastic at hand, and all that’s needed.
Using Ecommerce
E Commerce is a growing trend, growing almost 20% in recent years. So how does switching to this impact the shrink sleeve labels that are there. It’s something that’s a big part of the success of shrink sleeves, aiming to get the attention of the shoppers that walk down the aisles. It’s only fair for those that are in the shrink sleeve world to also focus on virtual shopping too.
While you do have some research indicating the product and how it’s shaped, there are also other packaging factors in ecommerce that’s at minimum, with the point being that shrink sleeves have a huge impact, shifting away from it being the point of purchase, to being something you buy online to fit on your table.
Quality Concerns
Finally, we see some quality issues that are there and it’s become a major problem for some people.
Some people see more shrink sleeves that look great, but there are also those with seaming issues, distortion and prepress issues, different fold lines, and applications of the shrinking problems.
We are seeing these concerns a whole lot more, and while some of these gross flagrant problems are something that you may see fixed right away, others may not be.
While there have been six decades since the intention of the shrink sleeve, this is still ever-growing and evolving, along with challenging many of us, in a manner where it feels practically brand new. Innovation is constantly changing, emerging across all sorts of chains, and the growth of this is something that has yet to peak yet. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of these trends as well over time and with more innovations too.
