Global demand for electronic smart packaging devices is at a tipping point and forecast to achieve rapid growth to reach a value of $US1.45 billion ($A1.51 billion) within the next decade, a new report says.
The report, Smart Packaging Comes To Market: Brand Enhancement with Electronics 2014-2024, by IDTechEx, says the electronic packaging (e-packaging) market will be focused primarily on consumer packaged goods (CPG), forecasting that 14.5 billion units of packaged goods will have electronic functionality within the next 10 years.
The main driver of this growth will be the growing maturity of printed electronic formats, the report says, noting that many leading brand owners have recently put together multidisciplinary teams to study the adoption of the new paper thin electronics on their high volume packaging. It says some 3000 organisations, including teams from academia, are currently working on printed and potentially printed electronics.
IDTechEx says e-packaging will address a growing need for brands to reconnect with the customer, or face oblivion from copying, even when it comes to retailers' private label brands.
It says other key factors driving the growth of electronic smart packaging are: ageing populations; customers becoming more demanding; changing lifestyles; tougher legislation; and growing concern about crime and terrorism.
The report says, however, that there are still many challenges to be addressed, including creating sustainable e-packaging products rather than one-off projects, cost of developing and producing such packaging and a lack of integrators and product designers.
The release of the report comes after organisers of the recent World Congress on Active and Intelligent Packaging in Nuremberg, Germany, reported a successful event and announced it would hold its next such congress in November next year in Chicago, alongside the Pack Expo International show.
The director of the Active and Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA), Eef de Ferrante, said more than 180 delegates attended the event, representing every continent.
“This year we proved beyond doubt that these new forms of packaging have great potential and are generating enormous interest among brand owners, retailers and major packaging manufacturers,” de Ferrante said.
He said the key theme to emerge from the congress was that consumers will increasingly interact with products.
“Thanks to active and intelligent packaging there can now be a dialogue-based system which enables consumers to register their preferences and wishes directly to the manufacturers,” he said.
“We talked about when and where and with whom we are going to make it happen.”
Speaker highlights of the congress included a presentation by the head of packaging and technology innovation at Bayer Health Care, Guido Schmitz, who challenged packaging companies to understand the consumer better and the culture in which they exist and incorporate these into developing new ways of packaging.
Printed electronics is creating a whole new dynamic in the way customers interact with consumer packaged goods.
