Success depends on moving in the right direction. Throughout the year, Packaging Digest watches for emerging trends as well as for shifts in existing fads to help you navigate the ever-changing tides of the packaging industry.

We present to you posts about packaging trends that generated the most page views in 2020:

13. Survey Reveals Consumers’ Attitudes About Food Packaging

Some 1,100 consumers were asked about their packaged food buying habits related to labels, COVID-19, sustainability, and other key issues.

The new Colordyne 2800 Series AP – Retrofit adds full-color digital printing capabilities to existing equipment, using aqueous pigment inkjet technology that enhances water fastness, light fastness, and rub resistance.

12. New Digital Printing Technologies Boost Packaging Benefits

Next-gen digital presses and label printers broaden the scope of packaging applications, boost productivity, and offer sustainability advantages. The new equipment also provides better print quality, color control, and registration consistency — and all at a more affordable cost.

11. Flexible Packaging Delivers in the Ecommerce Era

There are several vital factors that brand owners should consider when packaging products for ecommerce instead of retail.

As consumers shop, the packaging influences their buying decisions, as it relates to many things, including clean labels and sustainability. Photo credit: JackF - adobe.stock.com

10. 7 Consumer Trends Driving Packaging Decisions

To have a successful product, brands must keep up with or stay ahead of the latest consumer trends. From a growth in ecommerce to an increased concern with sustainability, here are patterns in consumer behavior that influence today’s top packaging designs and developments.

9. Who’s Hiring Packaging Designers Today?

Putting people back to work will help the US economy rebound after the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Here are 26 packaging design-related jobs that are possibly perfect for you.

With self-medication continuing to advance, patients and caregivers appreciate packages like autoinjectors that simplify the administration process. Photo credit: Sherry Young – stock.adobe.com

8. 5 Pharma Trends and Their Impact on Packaging

The pharmaceutical industry is changing at an unprecedented pace. New biological treatments for cancer, and a dramatic rise of widespread diseases such as diabetes, call for new processing and packaging solutions to fulfill the different needs all over the world. Keep your eye on these five main packaging trends for 2020 for the global pharmaceutical market.

Packaging engineers who are looking for a job have plenty of opportunities.

7. What Companies are Hiring Packaging Engineers Today?

Despite the 11% US unemployment rate today — and with unemployment claims related to the coronavirus outbreak exceeding 20 million in May 2020 — companies are still hiring for a variety of packaging-related jobs.

Intense competition among antimicrobial packaging suppliers includes hefty investments in R&D to discover advanced food-grade materials.

6. Top 5 Trends Shaping the Antimicrobial Packaging Market

Companies are developing exciting new active packaging materials to enhance safety in food, healthcare and personal-care markets.

Photo credit: byrdyak — stock.adobe.com

5. How Packaging Trends Will Shape 2020

Sustainability, branding and “smart” packaging technologies continue to resonate with global packaging professionals, based on the leading stories from early 2020 on PackagingDigest.com.

Photo credit: Drobot Dean – stock.adobe.com

4. 12 Snack Packages Echo Consumer Trends

Looking for a little healthy indulgence when hunger strikes? You’re not the only one. Americans snack before, after, and during mealtimes. After all, today’s packages make it easy to do so. Here are a dozen examples of brands using packs and graphics to tempt and gratify.

For its organic dairy products, Maple Hill opted to use packaging that addresses sustainability. The recyclable container for its new line of single-serve shelf-stable (aseptic) milks is made mostly with paperboard from responsibly managed pulp trees.

3. 5 Branding and Packaging Trends for 2020

Successful brands in 2020 will be those that find creative ways to express their over-arching brand attributes — delivering clear, unified brand assets telling stories that have the power to change consumer behavior and, in some cases, start a revolution on store shelves.

Brands incorporate recycled content into their new packaging to create viable end markets for the collected material and meet their sustainability goals. Photo credit: Copal on Unsplash

2. 5 Sustainable Packaging Trends to Look Out for in 2020

For sustainable packaging, 2020 was set to be a year of action and reaction, building on the fast-growing trends from the last two years. Here were a handful of critical sustainable packaging trends expected in 2020.

1. 6 Food and Beverage Packaging Trends That Will Dominate 2020

Cut-throat competition has prompted food and beverage brands to experiment with many innovative approaches to packaging design, both aesthetically and functionally.