Today’s blog is the second installment in a 3-part blog series on the economics of POP displays. In our last blog, we discussed the economics of time to market. We called this “The Economics of Delay.” If you missed that blog, we would strongly encourage you to check it out here. So, let’s get right to Lesson # 2.
Lesson # 2: When it comes to your box, size matters.
Most customers are very conscious of the cost of shipping. It’s often a significant cost component of a POP display program so it tends to get a fair amount of attention. Customers frequently inquire about the weight of a display or the weight of a box. However, during the POP display design process, virtually none of our customers bothers to ask about the size of the box in which their display will ship. They might have general requirements or concerns that involve wanting to make sure the box is “not too big,” but they almost never get down to specifics until it is time to ship. Then they want to know what are the weights and dimensions of the box so they can figure out freight costs.
Wouldn’t it be better to ask that question earlier? Yes, it would, and here’s why. Let’s say your POP design firm knows what they are doing, and they design a display that fits in a box that measures 13”W x 24”D x 6”H. You are on the hook for the freight, and the retailer requires you to ship across the country to their distribution center. Given the box size, you can fit 84 boxes on a standard 40” x 48” pallet. As an example, if it costs $400 per pallet to ship, your shipping cost per unit is $4.76.
Let’s say you weren’t really paying attention to the box size early on, and the same unit got packaged in a box that measures 14”W x 26”D x 7”H. The width and height of this box are only an inch bigger than the other box, and the depth is only 2” bigger. No big deal, right? Wrong. It is a big deal. The reason is that only 48 boxes can fit on a pallet compared to 84 for the other box size. Assuming the same $400 in shipping cost per pallet, your shipping cost is now $8.33/unit instead of $4.76- a whopping 75% difference in cost.
The lesson to be learned here is to think about box size and pallet loading as early in the design process as possible.
Jim Hollen is the owner and President of RICH LTD. (www.richltd.com), a 35+ year-old California-based point-of-purchase display, retail store fixture, and merchandising solutions firm which has been named among the Top 50 U.S. POP display companies for 9 consecutive years. A former management consultant with McKinsey & Co. and graduate of Stanford Business School, Jim Hollen has served more than 3000 brands and retailers over more than 20 years and has authored nearly 500 blogs and e-Books on a wide range of topics related to POP displays, store fixtures, and retail merchandising.
Jim has been to China more than 50 times and has worked directly with more than 30 factories in Asia across a broad range of material categories, including metal, wood, acrylic, injection molded and vacuum formed plastic, corrugated, glass, LED lighting, digital media player, and more. Jim Hollen also oversees RICH LTD.’s domestic manufacturing operation and has experience manufacturing, sourcing, and importing from numerous Asian countries as well as Vietnam and Mexico.
His experience working with brands and retailers spans more than 25 industries such as food and beverage, apparel, consumer electronics, cosmetics/beauty, sporting goods, automotive, pet, gifts and souvenirs, toys, wine and spirits, home improvement, jewelry, eyewear, footwear, consumer products, mass market retail, specialty retail, convenience stores, and numerous other product/retailer categories.