It’s about time. Major players in the food and beverage market have woken up to the enormous competitive and financial advantages of flexible packaging for food and beverages, which are now outpacing rigid packaging across the board. One glance at the research on flexible packaging paints a clear picture.

Spout pouch packaging is making major inroads in American retail, and for good reason. The rigid containers of yesteryear — bottles, canisters, jugs, and the like — are too boring and inefficient to compete with the innovative design of modern pouches with spouts. Here are a few reasons that liquid spout bags, stand up pouches with spigots, squeeze pouches, and other styles of pouches with spouts could make ditching the jug worth it:

The United States is finally waking up to the convenience, shelf appeal, and cost savings that can be achieved with flexible packaging options — particularly for liquids. There’s a stand up pouch with spout suited to virtually any liquid product you can sell on a retail shelf. Brands are switching to spouted pouches from a rigid container for products as diverse as:

There’s a huge misunderstanding in environmentally-friendly packaging. Many buyers assume that in order for packaging to be eco-friendly, it’s got to be made from paper, or bamboo, or biodegradable plant fibers. These options are great — don’t get the wrong idea. However, the material that your package is made from only tells one part of the story.

In a vacuum, most brands would claim that they want to use “unique packaging ideas” that will pop off of the shelf.  But do they, really?  Do yourself a favor and research the competition. Let’s see whether they’ve actually succeeded.

It’s easy for a seemingly simple discussion about packaging suppliers to snowball into a broader debate on price point vs. quality (Margins are everything! You get what you pay for!). For this reason, any packaging brokers who are preparing to compare packaging suppliers should start with some clear goalposts.

Many packaging brokers specialize in just a few packaging materials or styles. This is all well and good—we ourselves specialize in the flexible pouch format—but there are also a few essential materials and styles that buyers will want access to as a part of their relationship.  That’s why we also offer a wider range of unique and innovative packaging styles. These formats are in demand with consumers, are known to reduce costs, and will make your product stand out on the shelf. 

There’s no one definitive rule about the time to update your retail packaging, but there are plenty of red flags. Some of them will be about you. Some are about everyone else. All of them have the potential to sink sales and damage your brand if they’re ignored.  Packaging has a serious impact on consumer behavior in the aisle—and you want it to be the positive kind.

You need strong sales margins to compete and thrive. In a perfect world, supply and demand would take care of the equation, but in practice, food and beverage companies are trying everything from pushing suppliers for cost reductions to flashy and expensive marketing campaigns in hopes of driving enough sales to keep the lights on.

Most new products —up to 95% of new products each year, in fact—will ultimately fail. This is not new news, as you can see in this 2010 Forbes article. And neither is it surprising. Consumers with a lot to do (and little time to do it) will always resort to buying products with their eyes.