For the last certain years, packaging industry experts have been curious about the future of smart packaging. Though barcodes and quick-response (QR) codes, once regarded as the “next big thing” in packaging, have seemed successful, worries stay regarding expenses, feasibility, and customer engagement. With the ability to be a breakthrough in the industry, will brands be able to get the key to unlocking smart packaging?

The industry is already seeing certain progress in the design and production required to cost-effectively incorporate near-field communication (NFC) technology in packaging, particularly now that a big smartphone developer had declared it will have support for reading NFC tags. While ambitious, NFC has the ability to revolutionize the way customers interact with food packaging. By reinventing packaging as a fully interactive customer engagement tool, packaging could be elevated from a simple functional relationship to giving a useful and valued service.

It also opens up a horizon of new possibilities by connecting a new host of everyday objects to the Internet of Things (IoT), the interlinked network of household things that could collect and exchange data.

The vision of high-tech packaging poses the possibility of a symbiotic association between the packaging industry and tech companies looking to establish the Internet of Things as a core thing of the modern household. Just think that food cans alerting the user the product is about to expire, a milk bottle that texts you when one is almost out of milk, or pizza boxes that can suggest new recipes incorporating other ingredients in the kitchen. By yearning for connectivity in our everyday lives, smart packaging has the ability to display the long-term future and practicality of NFC technology and the IoT.

The power where smart technology in food packaging might go has no boundaries, but in the short-term future, here are some important prospects as to where one could see smart technology being embedded as said by Mr Gaurav Jalan, Founder and Director of Packman Packaging Pvt Ltd India’s top manufacturer of corrugated boxes for e-commerce businesses.

Content

By scanning NFC chips embedded in packaging, buyers can gain access to recipes, cooking instructions, and inspiration for certain products, lending a richer experience with much more information than could other ways be included. By assisting brands to engage with consumers in this manner, smart packaging can play a big role in enhancing brand engagement and assisting in spurring additional product purchases.

Replenishment

By alerting buyers when they are running low on a certain product, smart packaging can assist brands to motivate (or even automate) replenishment, stimulating consumer loyalty, and avoiding competition from other brands at the point of sale.

Authentication

The chance for packaging to assist authentication to make certain it is genuine and has not been tampered with would be a real differentiator, particularly in emerging markets where food quality and safety are a top concern for consumers. 

Expiration

Brands could use this technology to see when a product is about to reach the expiration date, thus assisting customers to avert food waste by prompting them to utilize the product. As the technology forms, one could see smart refrigerators that can detect the consumer’s buying patterns or plan a week’s recipes revolving around those products and quantities.