Fulfillment and Warehousing at Pel Hughes 

Pel Hughes is a one-stop-shop for full-service printing, including fulfillment and warehousing. Our approach to warehousing and fulfillment makes for streamlined processes that ensures our valued clients’ orders are packed accurately and shipped efficiently.  

Committed to running a tight ship, our team at Pel Hughes works diligently to ensure that our clients receive the highest quality service. In an age where many companies outsource their fulfillment and warehousing, our clients can rely on a dedicated team of professionals who oversee every project from conception to delivery. This level of attention to detail and accuracy is possible because we use technology to our advantage, pride ourselves in maintaining organized operations, and deploy stringent quality control measures to ensure that every order meets our clients’ expectations. 

The Pel Hughes Difference 

Since Pel Hughes was founded, delivering excellent client service has been a core value of our operations. Our mission is to help our clients’ businesses thrive with well-executed print advertising campaigns and a variety of other marketing services. One of the biggest factors behind our success is our hard-working staff. We employ dedicated individuals that align with our company’s mission and core values. As a family-owned enterprise, we strive to foster a great working environment that rewards work ethic and attention to detail.  

Another important element to smooth operations is a commitment to organization. When it comes to warehousing and fulfillment, maintaining an organized and uncluttered facility is essential to filling high-volume, accurate orders as quickly as possible. Meticulous facilities help our team perform at their best. 

Lastly, a key component to our warehousing and fulfillment operations is technology. We utilize online ordering portals and on-demand, automated workflow software to ensure that our team works as efficiently as possible. This technology also makes ordering materials easy for our clients. Our online ordering portal, Storefront, makes initiating campaigns, placing orders, and maintaining brand cohesiveness easy and efficient. Storefront also helps reduce costs by making it possible to print only what is needed.  

Benefits of Fulfillment and Warehousing with Pel Hughes 

Following are some benefits you can enjoy when working with our full-service printing company: 

  • Organized inventory management. We store your collateral in our expansive, on-site warehouse 
  • Reduced labor costs for our clients since we handle inventory and shipping  
  • Lightning-fast turnarounds 
  • Impeccable accuracy 
  • More affordable shipping rates 
  • Excellent customer service 

Pel Hughes offers an arsenal of services that can help your business merge traditional print advertising with digital marketing. We offer campaign automation, database services, graphic design, and cross media marketing to help your enterprise maintain a modern brand identity that reaches more customers. Fill out our convenient online form to request a quote or call (504) 486-8646 to speak with a friendly member of our team.  

5 Product packaging mistakes to avoid

Packaging says a lot about your product, and about your company. It’s often the opportunity to make a great first impression on your audience; unfortunately, poor product packaging can lead to instant negativity. Whether we’re talking about online advertisements, large highway billboards, or the packaging surrounding products, in today’s culture marketers only have a few seconds to gain potential customers’ attention.

With the packaging industry expanding, it’s vital that the packaging surrounding your product catches your audience’s attention, and leaves them wanting more. That said, below are five product packaging mistakes to avoid. 

 

  • Overdesigning 

 

Overdesigning is one of the largest and most frequent mistakes that marketing divisions make when designing product packaging. Have you ever heard of the acronym KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid”? This is generally an easy and effective principle to keep in mind. Simple, straightforward, easy to understand marketing is highly effective in the packaging world. 

Packaging that is full of text and logos can be confusing to your audience, and they may not know where to focus their attention. As we mentioned above, marketers only have a few seconds to grab their audience’s attention. But cluttering up your packaging, you leave the reader muddled and overwhelmed. Let them focus on your brand and leave them excited to delve in. 

 

  • Underprotecting 

 

Underprotecting is another large concern that many businesses face when developing product packaging. Chances are your customers aren’t going to pay the exorbitant fees that come along with many shipping methods, and you don’t want to build those costs into your product. This means that you must package your product in a way that will withstand the rough terrane that is the United States shipping methods. (And no, this isn’t limited to USPS.)

Reducing that rate of damage is not just a customer experience imperative either. It’s also important from a sustainability standpoint. Indeed, there is no amount of recyclable, biodegradable or reusable packaging that can counterbalance the carbon footprint of a damaged item. Damaged items are often sent back on a truck, plane or other transport method, and must travel even further, where they are rebuilt, repaired, restocked, or often just relegated to the landfill. Don’t make the mistake of underprotecting your product. 

 

  • Misleading 

 

One of the most annoying and frustrating aspects of product packing that customers face are those that are misleading. Nothing will leave a worse taste in your customers mouth (or eyes?) than expecting a full container, only to realize it’s half full. 

A quick example, have you ever purchased a bag of potato chips the size of a football? Yes! A huge bag of Sour Cream & Onion Lay’s! Not quite. Half of the bag is full of air. What a disappointment. Thanks, Frito Lays brand. 

Customers don’t like to be mislead, and certain packaging can make them feel that way, often without even trying. Tricking (or even lying to) your customers is a great way to lose their trust in your company as a whole. Whether it’s physically making your product look larger than it is, or text that makes a promise that the product can’t deliver, dishonesty is a sure-fire way to lose business. Although it may be tempting, don’t mislead your customer and deliver a product that matches its packaging.  

 

  • Not “Open Friendly”

 

OK, we’ve all experienced this one! A package that requires a shape knife, and even with that, you’re not sure where to start. In many cases, you just end up throwing in the towel and save the laborious process of opening the package for another day. Businesses don’t want this. You should want your customer to be eager to open their new product, and not have to reach for a chainsaw in order to do it. (Not really, but you get the point.)

Even if your marketing team isn’t the best with overdesigning or engaging slogans, it’s pretty much a given that nobody enjoys the rage that comes with unwrapping an overly complex package. Help your customers out. Making it easy for customers to remove the packaging and access your product inside is an important part of creating an overall positive user experience.

 

  • Outdated 

 

Unfortunately, we see this one a lot. Marketing teams are often so concerning with making sure their product is packed right or with designing some overly complex logo that they forget that being up-to-date with the current trends is often just as important as anything else. And this is largely due to the era we live in. 

Packages that are outdated or archaic are often the butt of jokes on social media. In fact, there is even a sub-reddit dedicated to product packaging that tries to keep up with the times, but misses in often brutal ways. Keep your packing on Instagram for the right reasons. Don’t let it become a meme that people post in their office as a joke or gag.

How to Use QR Codes in Your Fulfillment Efforts

There are plenty of examples where marketers have put QR Codes on their materials simply because they could. But there also have been a great number of QR Code applications that truly provide value to a customer or prospect, and in return, to the company as well.

Here are three ways that companies could incorporate QR Codes into their fulfillment process:

QR Codes that Point to How-To Guides and Instructions

Thus, one way that companies could reach the emerging mobile audience is to place QR Codes on packages and boxes of the material that they sell and ship.

These QR Codes could point to mobile websites and/or videos that provide step-by-step instructions and online videos that demonstrate how their items should be properly assembled.

QR Codes that Lead to Mobile Surveys and Forms

Social networks have made it easier than ever for people to tell the world if they are happy or not with a company or product. Companies could seek to acquire that information directly as well by putting a QR Code on their packages that lead to mobile website surveys.

These surveys could seek to ask the most important questions that a customer may want to answer — “Are they satisfied? Do they need help? What could be done better?”

This feedback could be provided while the company and its products are absolutely fresh in the customer’s mind… right through their mobile phone.

QR Codes that Make it Easy to Order Additional Materials

When someone needs to order a replacement part or to reorder an entire unit, companies would certainly want to make that an easy process.

This could be done by including a QR Code on packaging that leads to a mobile website. The website could either contain a Form that allows a user to request the item or a response from a sales rep; or it could even include an option for placing an order directly from the phone.

Think of QR Codes as not just an interactive marketing tool, but a mobile customer service representative. These 2D codes can offer extra assistance, gather feedback, and help give your customers more of what they want!