Emerging brands such as creators or third-party platform sellers require flexible solutions as they scale

The boom in e-commerce and on-demand delivery resulted in smaller brands requiring to wrap their products with eye-catching custom packaging to win on product differentiation and capitalise on customers’ unboxing experiences

The disintermediation of e-commerce and the emergence of a wide range of private label online sellers is fueling the need for custom packaging solutions to be designed, ordered and delivered on-demand, typically in small quantities to match the underlying order volumes without requiring significant inventories

Several specialised on-demand custom packaging players are emerging such as Packhelp (€40m Series B), noissue ($10m Series A) and Packlane ($4m Series A), which offer customers flexible packaging solutions

In addition to packaging focused providers, the competitive landscape sees other online on-demand custom printing providers also present in the space as a part of larger and more diversified service offering, such as Gelato ($240m raise), Printful ($130m raise), and Printify ($45m Series A)

The need to make personalised packaging accessible for everyone, rather than just medium and big businesses, makes custom packaging a large and underpenetrated global market benefiting from the shift to e-commerce

At the same time, the packaging industry faces sustainability challenges from customers being increasingly sensitive to the environmental topics, requiring providers to adjust their offering to meet end-customer expectations

In a digital-first economy, product unboxing is becoming an experience frequently shared on social media where influencers unbox their favorite products in front of their fans and followers. For emerging brands leveraging this aspect of the shopping process, they need eye-catching and differentiated packaging that consumers can recognise and associate with a brand. Custom packaging then becomes not only a flexible solution for online sellers, but also a powerful marketing tool