Pet meds: How pet pharmaceutical shippers can boost throughput, order accuracy and cost savings
With owners spending more on their pets than ever before – and having more online pharmacies to choose from – the pressure is on. Not only must the providers deliver undamaged pet medications quickly and accurately, but they have to create a rewarding unboxing experience that will build brand loyalty of pet owners and give customers confidence that they are doing right by their cherished pets.
Americans’ dedication to their pets is fueling fierce competition in the pet pharmaceutical industry, which had $9 billion in sales in 2018, up 8.5 percent from the prior year. Major players in the growing pet pharma space include 1-800-PetMeds, Chewy, WalmartPetRx, Petco and PetCareRx.
“Today more than ever, pet owners view their pets as irreplaceable members of their families and lives, and it’s thanks to this that we continue to see such incredible growth within the pet-care community,” said Bob Vetere, president and chief executive of the American Pet Products Association. “Millennials continue to be the largest pet-owning demographic, and this shows in the data. We know this generation is willing to pay more for quality products and services to improve the health and well-being of their pets.”
Vetting Pet Pharma Packaging Partners
The right ecommerce fulfillment partner can make boosting throughput, cutting costs and impressing picky pet parents a lot easier. Protective packaging provider Pregis offers automated poly-bagging machines that can bag orders up to five times faster than employees working by hand. The machines automatically print and affix shipping labels to the bags and seal them, increasing order accuracy and reducing the manpower needed for fast order fulfillment.
Poly bags are ideal for shipping pet products that are not delicate, such as plastic bottles of medicated shampoos, pills, and chew toys, which often are encased in plastic and boxed by manufacturers. Bags can be printed with a shipper’s logo, brand colors and marketing messaging or they can be opaque to protect privacy and discourage porch piracy.
Since they are lightweight, poly bags require no additional packaging materials and because they take up less space than boxes, shipping costs are minimized. Poly bags also reflect a shipper’s commitment to sustainability since there are no wasted packaging materials and more orders can fit on each parcel-delivery truck.
The right ecommerce fulfillment partner can make boosting throughput, cutting costs and impressing picky pet parents a lot easier.
For pet pharmaceutical orders with breakable products, protective mailers and corrugated mailer boxes keep parcels tight and eliminate charges for dimensional weight. When larger orders require a traditional box, Pregis’ on-demand paper or inflatable cushioning systems are proven solutions to fill voids within the box, prevent product movement and protect against impact.
Pregis provides these same packaging solutions to high-volume mail-order pharmacies for humans. Across the board, lowering shipping costs, increasing order accuracy and boosting throughput is the perfect medicine for any mail order pharm provider. To pet parents, the health of their furry family members is serious business and demands nothing less than the best.
To learn more about Pregis’ protective packaging solutions, visit ecommerce-fulfillment.
