1. The grocery segment to cross USD700 billion by 2022
Walmart-owned e-commerce firm Flipkart launched its online grocery store, Flipkart Supermart.

The Prince and Princess of Packaging are happy.

There are so many in the USD400 billion and USD600 billion market now.

Amazon.

Bigbasket.

Grofers.

Swiggy.

Dunzo.

As of today, the Indian retail market, grocery comprises 60 per cent.

The Prince and Princess of Packaging are happy.

Why?

Two hours of delivery time for grocery and FMCG deliveries

Five-hour delivery for fashion and electronics

24 hours delivery for electronics items.

More deliveries, more boxes required.

2. The Prince and Princess of packaging are agog about RIL's offline plan with its new e-commerce venture. The Mukesh Ambani RIL company's e-commerce recipe is kirana stores and GST services.
Prince: 10,000 stores.

Princess: 2.5 million kirana stores.

Prince: More than 2,000 stores to be opened under brands, including Reliance Fresh, Digital, Trends and Footprint, among others.

Princess: Reliance shall add another 50,000 Kirana stores.

Prince: 5-km radius for an order to be placed.

Princess: Similar to Alibaba's model in China.

3. How to automate in India

In his column, in Campaign India, Hareesh Tibrewala, the joint CEO at Mirum India has some good tips for how brands must look at marketing automation

Hareesh Tibrewala of Mirum India (Image Credits: Campaign India)

He says takes the example of an Indian timeshare brand that has numerous resorts.

Tibrewala says, "The brand has multiple databases – one with customer history, another of financial data (which tier/last EMI paid) and yet another that has resort reservation data. Using the marketing cloud, different pieces of data from the databases can be brought into a central data lake, enabling the creation of relevant messaging for customers (a spa voucher for everyone checking into a particular resort this weekend; a value of the voucher would be based on customer tier or EMI payment)."

The Prince and Princess of Packaging are impressed. Why so?

Because this ensures that instead of sending out the same message to everyone (high cost/low response rate), every customer gets a message tailored to his or her needs, resulting in better conversion.  

4. Innovations awards

The Prince and Princess of Packaging are excited about the three winners at the Flexographic Technical Association's 2019 Technical Innovation Award at its Awards Banquet, held in New Orleans during Forum & Infoflex 2019. 

Prince says his favourite is: A Paper Converting Machine Co (PCMC) for SteadyPrint, a combination of hardware and software that reduces bounce, improves press speeds by 200 to 400% and reduces waste by 35%. 

The Princess says, that's all?

The Prince adds: The SteadyPrint eliminates over-impression and can print bounce jobs with a light kiss between rolls through a wide range of press speeds. It has less press vibration and noise, mandrel bearings that operate at a cooler temperature and continuous printing through different speed ranges without adjusting impression while delivering real-time feedback on print quality by implementing a disturbance-cancelling algorithm on the software side.

The Princess says her favourite is: Esko for its Print Control Wizard (PCW), a wizard-driven software used in prepress that automates the role of the colour expert. It generates perfect screens and curves for any application, allowing for plates to be exactly the same. The company worked closely with plate manufacturers from around the world for nearly two years to build an accurate database of specifications for PCW, outputting screen algorithms called Esko Crystal Screens.

The Prince asks, so what?

The Princess says: What would typically take more than an hour to do, can now be done in 10 to 15 minutes on average.

Prince has one more favourite.

What, asks the princess?

In the pre-press - Pressroom category, a 2019 Technical Innovation Award was given to Koenig & Bauer Flexotecnica for Augmented Reality-DataGlass Remote Support says the Prince.

What does it do?

The Prince says, it provides remote support personnel with the ability to experience what a printer’s technical team sees and hears in real time, improving the time in which technicians can fix issues and instantly provide support. The project took approximately 18 months to create, modify and rework parts of the hardware and software so it can work with different devices and machines. The device has a noise-cancelling microphone, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and battery built into a band that wraps around the sides and back of a press technician’s head with a camera mounted over the right eye to allow for hands-free operation.

And the innovation is?

The Prince says, This innovation has reduced the number of on-site service calls and provides remote support with a clear understanding of what parts to bring along if an on-site visit is still necessary. Plus, calls are recorded and accessible for the technician to watch and rewatch, if needed.

5. What to do when plastic is being berated
The Prince asked the Princess of Packaging: Mainland China, imports of plastic waste have dropped from 600 000 tonnes per month in 2016 to about 30,000 a month in 2018.

The Princess asked the Prince of Packaging: Where will the plastic waste go? Malaysia, Vietnam, India?

The Prince asked the Princess of Packaging: With an estimated 9% of plastics ever produced being recycled, the only long-term solution to the plastic waste crisis is for all companies to make less and for all consumers to use less.

The Princess asked the Prince of Packaging: Will they agree?

(Pause)

The Prince asked the Princess of Packaging:  It is the time the industry as a whole work on reducing single-use plastics, such as tape, shrinkwrap and bubblewrap

The Princess asked the Prince of Packaging: It is the time the industry as a whole educates clients, partners, and end users’ suppliers, basically everyone in the chain how best to use plastic.

The Prince asked the Princess of Packaging: It is time the industry as a whole to put out clear guidelines of what choices customers have got when using plastic. How you go about using it and highlighting the choices and benefits of using it. So, you get the right material for your application.

(Pause)

Sometimes things are simple.

We needlessly complicate life.