Industries

E-Commerce & Order Fulfilment

The way we shop is evolving constantly with more and more consumers choosing to shop online. In 2019, e-commerce sales totalled £693 billion, and 37% of retail sales in November 2020 and this is only increasing. This means the way our goods are packaged need to adapt too and adhesives, both waterbased and hotmelt, are key part of the packing process.

E-commerce adhesives play a pivotal role in the formation of packaging for order fulfilment, from paper wrapping to case sealing. With many available e-commerce packing solutions available, finding the right adhesive is essential and Interlock adhesives can help. Below are some key examples of packaging types available on the market:

CMC’s – CartonWrap Series, Paper Pro
B+ Equipment (Sealed Air) – I-Pack, e-Cube & Ultipack
Sitma – Fast Pack
Ranpak
Savoye -Jivaro and E-Jivaro
Quadient
Packsize – X Series
Sparck Technologies
Varo

What to Look for in Adhesives:

Both Henkel’s Technomelt Supra and pressure-sensitive adhesive ranges have many options to cover all individual e-commerce and order fulfilment needs. To reach your productions full potential, it is useful to cover all of the below topics when selecting an adhesive:

Open time – It’s essential as not all packaging is sealed straight away and may need an adhesive that remains ‘active’ for longer.
Flexibility – Is the package likely to move? Traditional hotmelt does not cope with movement and will crack and break. A specialist pressure-sensitive adhesive may be needed.
Quality – All Henkel adhesives are manufactured to the highest quality with no changes in formulations. This gives you peace of mind knowing the adhesive will be consistent with your needs.
Machinability – Time pressures for delivery means that machine downtime can cause major problems. Technomelt Supra adhesives are engineered to give the best performance and eliminate adhesive related downtime such as ‘stringing’.
Difficult Substrates – Are you using the right adhesive for your board? Recycled board can make it difficult to form a strong bond. Will your adhesive cope with this?
Sustainability – what is the impact of the adhesive. We strive to provide the best, most sustainable adhesive options, with technology such as super low application temperatures and mileage reduction.

Adhesive vs Tape:

The other main way of sealing packages is tape. Tape is seen as an inexpensive way to seal packages, be that with a hand gun or tape station. As your business scales up tape becomes a bigger cost and due to its closer ties with the crude oil market the price changes more frequently. E-commerce adhesives offer a more sustainable alternative, although the initial outlay on adhesive equipment is high, the adhesive itself is typically 30-40% cheaper to purchase, which means the initial outlay is recovered quickly while enjoying the other benefits of using adhesive.

Advantages of using e-commerce adhesives over tape: