If there is one thing that frustrates ecommerce customers, it is receiving damaged products. Dan Boblit, co‐owner of BigBadToyStore believes that the key to preventing this problem is “all about having the appropriate size box for the product.” BigBadToyStore is a worldwide online toy store that had between 60 to 80 box sizes on hand at any given point to find as good a fit as possible for their broad toy assortment. Despite the expense of managing a large box inventory, BigBadToyStore believed it important to satisfy customer demand. “The happier the customers are, the more orders we’re going to receive,” said Boblit. “But that was a lot of inventory and money sitting in boxes.”
Boblit first learned about Right‐sized Packaging on Demand from Packsize, a system that involves an automated packaging machine and fanfold corrugated cardboard to create onsite the smallest possible box for any given product. This on‐demand process provides for no stock‐outs, eliminates box inventory, and drastically reduces or does away with additional packaging fillers. All of this “sounded too good to pass up” thought Boblit as he went about bringing Packsize’s system to his fulfillment company.
A short time after BigBadToyStore implemented the new on‐demand process, Myra Klegin, who oversees the packing and shipping, said, “We view this as pretty much the perfect solution for expanding our distribution and moving product quickly.”
It may seem like the time required to make packaging on demand would be more than the conventional box‐on‐hand model. But when the time to address stock‐outs, plan the inventory levels, and manage regular visits by vendors, the time savings offered by onsite packaging is significant. So significant for BigBadToyStore that Boblit notes, “Our new on‐demand system helped us send orders out on a timelier basis, which in turn grows the business.”
Packsize is now an indispensable part of BigBadToyStore’s business and integral to the company’s future growth. After a few months of implementing the lean changes offered by Packsize, Boblit added, “By designing a production line around the Packsize EM7 system that we placed in our warehouse, we increased product throughput to result in more orders completed with less labor, reduced product damage, and we cut down on waste significantly. All around it was a very good decision for us.”
The sophisticated yet user‐friendly Packsize technology creates a perfect fit for each product to drastically decrease the chance of product damage during shipment. This addresses the ever present pressure in the ecommerce industry to please the customer, which Boblit recognizes as the best outcome of implementing the Packsize system. “We’ve noticed fewer customer complaints about damaged products since we adopted the Packsize process,” said Boblit.
