The morning sun has just sprinkled into the workshop, and the packaging machines on the production line have been busy. Recently, I often hear colleagues in the marketing department say that consumers are becoming more and more "picky" now-some people want travel-size essences, some people prefer a mini combination of single-color eyeshadow, and even the same lipstick is sold by grams. In the past, the production line had to "scratch its head", but now? Our newly upgraded mini packaging production line of cosmetics can be said to be of great use!
The technological revolution behind the “small” packaging
Last week, I followed Mr. Wang from the technical department to debug the new equipment. He pointed to the packaging machine running at high speed and said, “Don’t underestimate this iron guy. It can accurately identify 0.5 ml tiny containers with an error of no more than 0.02 grams.” It turns out that in order to adapt to the characteristics of scattered personalized orders and small batches, the production line has introduced a modular design. One packaging machine can switch to multiple specifications, from 15 ml travel packs to 3 ml experience packs. I heard from Xiao Li in the warehouse that the proportion of mini packaging in the parcels shipped recently has tripled!
Innovation “forced” by personalized consumption
The new intern Xiaomei in the marketing department made an interesting statistic: under the topic of “portable cosmetics” on a social platform, the number of views of user-made packaging tutorial videos exceeded 500,000. What this reflects is the consumer’s pursuit of “just right” products. The person in charge of a new brand in Guangzhou once privately revealed that after they launched a 12-color eyeshadow mini palette, the repurchase rate was 28% higher than the market. "Now brands are competing for young people's cosmetic bags. Whoever can quickly respond to the needs of small batches and multiple batches will have the upper hand." This is true. Among the customers who recently came to us to customize the mini packaging production line for cosmetics, eight out of ten clearly mentioned that they wanted to connect to the C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) model.
Packaging machines have become "Transformers"
The core of this production line is still those "all-round players" - packaging machines. In the past, it took half a day to adjust the packaging specifications. Now, by entering parameters through the touch screen, the mode can be switched in 10 minutes. What's more amazing is that the AI vision system built into the equipment can detect the integrity of the packaging in real time, and even the 0.3 mm sealing deviation is not spared. Last week, 50,000 lipstick samples were delivered to Shanghai customers. The defective rate of the quality inspection report was only 0.03%. The other party's purchasing director booked the second phase upgrade plan on the spot.
The future has come: from "producing products" to "producing experiences"
During the lunch break, I chatted with the R&D department. They are thinking about adding AR interactive modules to the packaging machine. "Consumers can scan the QR code on the package to generate a dedicated tutorial and even simulate the makeup test effect." This idea reminds people of the virtual color test machine made by a big brand last year, but we directly make the package itself an "experience entrance". Zhang from the marketing department said that the personalized packaging market is expected to grow by more than 15% in the next three years, and our mini cosmetics packaging production line may just be in the right place.
As the sun sets, the packaging machines in the workshop are still running in an orderly manner. Looking at the neatly arranged mini packages on the conveyor belt, I suddenly realized: the so-called trend is nothing more than a wave of countless "small demands". What we need to do is to build a smarter "ship" to help brands sail to that blue ocean.
