Smart Packaging: Subtypes, Benefits, and Examples

In recent years, smart packaging has become a hot industry topic. But exactly what is smart packaging, and what can it do for businesses and customers? In this article, we’ll look at what we mean by smart packaging, various types of smart packaging, the key benefits this approach provides and cross-industry smart packaging examples.

What is Smart Packaging?

Smart packaging design refers to packaging that incorporates “smart” elements such as sensors, QR codes, near field communication (NFC) tags and other digital identifiers to trace and monitor products, verify authenticity and engage customers. By transforming traditional packaging solutions into interactive tools, companies can gain valuable insights while providing a more personalized experience for consumers.

Types of Smart Packaging

Smart packaging can take several different forms, designed for various real-world applications. The primary types of smart packaging being used today include intelligent packaging, active packaging, connected packaging and security packaging. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

Intelligent Packaging

Intelligent packaging is designed to provide information about a package’s state or progress through the use of sensors and monitors embedded into the packaging itself. For example, intelligent packaging for a product that needs to be shipped in an air-tight container could monitor its tightness in transit and alert the manufacturer if it’s compromised in order to prevent spoilage. Other factors intelligent packaging can monitor include temperatures and shipment times for food and pharmaceutical products.

Active Packaging

Active packaging is designed to actually interact with the product it’s holding, often with the goal of extending quality, safety and shelf life. Primarily used for food products, active packaging either releases or absorbs substances into/from the food product or packaging environment to keep it fresh. Examples include oxygen absorbers, antimicrobial agents and bio-preservatives.

Connected Packaging

Connected packaging includes interactive elements that connect customers to digital content, often designed to help them learn more about what they’re purchasing. For example, QR codes are increasingly being used on product packaging to connect customers to things like how-to guides, nutritional information or brand stories. This boosts customer engagement, leading to a more personalized experience while also helping brands learn more about their buyers.

Security Packaging

Security packaging is designed to verify product authenticity and protect your brand. By adding a digital identifier to product packaging, products can be scanned at each distribution step to ensure security. In addition, scanning can provide specific information about individual items such as batch number, sourcing information or manufacturing date and location. This can help to boost your brand reputation and deepen customer engagement.

Benefits of Smart Packaging

Adding an interactive element to packaging lets you tap into valuable benefits for your brand while also adding value for your customers. On the business side, smart packaging can improve quality and inventory control, loss prevention and product authentication. For customers, smart packaging delivers real-time product status and interactive information for a more personalized, engaging experience.

Quality Control and Loss Prevention

By monitoring factors such as product temperature, distribution time and interior state, smart packaging design makes it possible to maintain quality. Active packaging can extend the shelf-life of products by actively adding or removing agents to preserve freshness. This is particularly critical for food and pharmaceutical products, extending shelf life and preventing costly losses that can eat into profits.

Inventory Control and Trackability

The ability to trace and track products from the distribution point to the final destination also improves inventory control by providing real-time supply chain and logistics insights. For consumers, being able to scan a code and learn about where a product or its ingredients came from can add value, for example by helping to support sustainable or eco-friendly shopping goals.

Authenticity Verification

Adding a scannable QR code or digital identifier helps to prevent counterfeit, theft and profit loss by keeping your products secure. Ensuring authenticity also provides peace of mind for customers, while protecting your brand reputation. All of this adds to brand value and buyer satisfaction.

Consumer Engagement

Turning basic product packaging into an interactive medium can enhance customer engagement, driving loyalty and retention. Forward-thinking brands are transforming basic shopping and unboxing experiences into engaging interactions that also deliver useful buyer insights. All consumers need is their smartphone camera to scan QR codes or NFC tags.

Real-Time Product Status

Finally, smart packaging helps you stay one step ahead of quality and distribution issues by using smart sensors to collect and send real-time information about products in transit. Real-time data helps to prevent product losses, diagnose logistics challenges and ensure products arrive on time and in the best possible state.

Smart Packaging Examples

Here are a few examples of real-world smart packaging across key industries including food and beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and electronics.

Smart Packaging for Food and Beverages

The dairy industry is starting to use intelligent packaging to monitor things like product temperature, expiration dates and storage conditions. Active product packaging such as moisture-control films and antimicrobial coatings are being used to keep meat and poultry fresh and prevent contamination. Embedded sensors are also being used to monitor other important factors that can extend the shelf life of food and beverage products and prevent product loss.

Smart Packaging for Cosmetics

The cosmetics industry is embracing smart packaging, too. Innovative features including QR codes and NFC tags deliver immersive and interactive experiences such as makeup tutorials and other exclusive content. Augmented reality is another emerging innovation in this industry, with some brands offering scannable codes that let customers try products on virtually.

Smart Packaging for Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical companies are finding smart ways to improve the patient experience with packaging. A great example is the AdhereTech Smart Pill Bottle, which uses built-in sensors to monitor medication adherence. Lights and sounds remind patients when it’s time to take their medication and the bottle sends real-time data back to the healthcare provider. The result is better compliance and better patient outcomes.

Smart Packaging for Healthcare

Healthcare companies are also using smart labels with QR codes and NFC tags to connect patients with digital content such as medication instructions, expiration dates and even product authenticity verification. Time temperature indicators (TTIs) are used to detect when a package has been exposed to temperatures that may affect the contents. And RFID tags are used to track packages throughout the supply chain to ensure quality and safety.

Smart Packaging for Electronics

For electronics brands, smart packaging examples include using RFID tags and tamper-evident seals to track a product’s progress through the supply chain and ensure security. QR codes and NFC tags are also being used to ensure authenticity, as well as to connect customers to unique digital content such as installation instructions and user guides. Some electronics companies are using augmented reality to gamify customer experiences via QR codes on packaging. Fujifilm’s Instax camera packaging, for example, features a QR code that lets customers see photos developed on the instant mini camera.

How Ernest Can Help with Your Smart Packaging Needs

If you’re looking to infuse some intelligence and interactivity into your packaging, Ernest’s team of experts can help. We understand the unique nuances of packaging for today’s digital world, and we pride ourselves on going the extra mile to create customized, innovative solutions to meet those needs precisely. Let’s talk about how we can help your company get smart about packaging with an intelligent packaging design that does more.