Achieving Sustainability and Productivity Goals in E-commerce with Automated Mailer Systems

Packaging plays a vital role in today’s fast-paced business landscape, ensuring product protection, preservation, and presentation. As the packaging industry continues to grow and adapt to changing market demands, it’s crucial for companies to stay ahead and offer exceptional packaging solutions. To provide insights into this dynamic landscape, we have developed Packaging Talks – a series of conversational panels with Crawford’s packaging experts. Whether you’re a business owner, a packaging professional, or simply curious, our panels aim to offer valuable information and inspiration.  

In this installment of our Packaging Talks, we chat with Tim Strecker, Crawford’s Industrial Automation Manager, about achieving sustainability and productivity goals in e-commerce with automated mailer systems.

First of all, what are automated mailer systems?

Great question. Automated mailer systems are advanced packaging machines that streamline e-commerce order fulfillment by automating the packaging of products for shipment with minimal manual intervention, significantly improving productivity and reducing costs. With e-commerce sales on a steady growth trajectory, the demand for efficient, reliable packaging machinery has never been stronger. While filling 10-20 mailers a day is manageable, think about a large fulfillment center that needs to ship thousands of packages daily – this type of machinery makes that possible. Although many systems are available on the market, it’s important to remember that not all equipment is the same. Differences in capabilities and reliability can be substantial, which is why it’s important to conduct a thorough needs analysis.

Could you elaborate on some of these differences, especially as they pertain to productivity?

Yes, of course. First of all, best-in-class automated mailer systems can package e-commerce products at very high speeds, with some systems achieving well over 1,000 cycles per hour. Best-in-class mailer systems are flexible enough to handle diverse package sizes and shapes, which is essential for running an efficient e-commerce operation, especially during high-demand periods. Take clothing as an example – depending on the size and quantity, the packaging material requirements will vary. These systems are equipped with advanced technology, which allows them to adapt to product dimensions, creating a mailer that fits precisely, with no material waste. If you’re a sports apparel company, for instance, you’re likely selling shoes as well, which come in hard packs. Best-in-class systems can package both soft packs and hard packs without any changeovers. They also efficiently combine delivery notes and invoices into the bag, label it with the correct customer address, and make it ready for handover to the logistics partner. This adaptability to different product ranges, known as advanced right sizing, is a crucial feature, along with the high performance features and the productivity gains they bring.