If secondary and tertiary packaging are about logistics, primary packaging is where products meet the customer. It’s the soda can a shopper pops open, the shirt they pull from a hanger, or the sealed bag of lettuce that signals freshness.
But primary packaging doesn’t just matter on the shelf. It is the most closely examined layer of the supply chain because it balances regulatory compliance, retailer expectations, and consumer trust. A label that works for one category may fail in another. A design that satisfies Walmart might not pass Sysco’s QA checks. And packaging that customers love can still drain profits if it isn’t engineered properly for distribution.
This section explores the complexity of primary packaging, breaking down how requirements shift across categories and how retailers like Amazon and Nordstrom enforce them in practice.
Primary Packaging Requirements for Grocery/ Perishable Suppliers
Few categories are as complicated as packaging food and perishables. As mentioned before, primary packaging not only majorly influences whether the product is safe to eat, but it also has to meet compliance standards while being attractive enough to get sold quickly.
Pressures Unique to Grocery Packaging
Food Safety Compliance: The FDA and USDA require that tamper-evidence seals, allergen statements, and expiration dates be included. These actions may be perceived as merely routine labeling by a supplier; however, to retailers, they are their first line of defense against recalls and lawsuits. If one yogurt cup leaks over goods, or one peanut butter jar fails to declare allergens, it can trigger a recall on a single product. That means huge fines, lost sales, and lost consumer trust.
Freshness & Preservation: Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), vacuum seals, and oxygen barriers, allows products to last for days or weeks longer. Without these methods, high-priced perishables (e.g., bagged salads or soft cheeses) are subject to perishability and spoilage, leading to out of stocks and waste. Retailers track freshness performance closely. If your product spoils earlier than competitors, buyers may cut orders or remove you from planograms.
Cold Chain Durability: Packaging has to survive the real world, not just the production line. A film that seals fine in a factory may crack or fog over in a freezer. When a label clouds or a carton splits in the DC cooler, your brand—not the DC—is blamed.
Traceability (FSMA TLC Codes): Think of a Traceability Lot Code (TLC) as a “license plate” for food. It links a product back to its source. If a TLC is missing, smeared, or wrong, a targeted recall becomes impossible. Retailers then pull every unit off the shelf—even the safe ones. For suppliers, this multiplies losses, damages relationships with buyers, and can invite FSMA fines that exceed the value of the shipment itself.
Related Reading: Food Traceability, FSMA Ruling, and the Impact on Suppliers
Sysco Packaging
Sysco, one of the world’s largest foodservice distributors, provides a compelling example of how deeply compliance can run. Their packaging guidelines require not just branding accuracy, but also adherence to quality assurance standards, regulated facility artwork approval, and advance notice for any alterations in dimensions or labeling.
That means if you’re supplying to Sysco, it’s not enough for a juice label to meet FDA rules—it also must align with Sysco’s system for SUPC codes, artwork files, and QA database entries. Even seemingly minor changes (like tweaking the label font or cap height) must be pre-approved. Suppliers who skip this step face non-compliance penalties, even if shelf-readability and consumer safety are intact.
This underscores a core truth for suppliers across all industries: primary packaging must serve a broader ecosystem of rules and systems—not just customers.
Primary Packaging Requirements for General Merchandise Suppliers
For general merchandise—everything from electronics to kitchenware—the focus shifts to durability, theft prevention, and consumer usability. Here, packaging failures usually don’t cause recalls, but they do cause deductions, penalties, and poor customer reviews.
Pressures Unique to General Merchandise Packaging
Transit Durability: These products often travel farther and endure more handling than perishables. Packaging must survive stacking pressure, vibration, and drops. A box that looks sturdy in a warehouse may collapse after parcel shipping. If goods arrive damaged, retailers issue deductions and customers leave bad reviews—both cutting into margins.
Tamper Resistance: Small electronics and cosmetics are prime theft targets. Blister packs, seals, and RFID-enabled labels make theft harder and inventory easier to track. For example, RFID got its start in Walmart stores when it was implemented for Apparel in 2020 and has been expanding in that category since. Walmart was pleased with the results, seeing improvement in on-hand accuracy, which has, in turn, had a positive impact on forecasting and replenishment accuracy.
Safety and Certification Labels: Many products require UL (U.S.) or CE (EU) certifications. These are companies that provide testing and certification services for product testing, safety, and performance standards. These logos must be visible on packaging, not just in manuals. If missing, Amazon or a retailer can delist your SKU immediately.
Consumer Experience: Retailers like Amazon monitor reviews for packaging complaints. If customers report that packages are impossible to open or arrive in excessive plastic, it impacts your search rankings. Poor packaging can erode sales velocity as quickly as poor product quality.
Amazon Packaging
Amazon has fundamentally changed what primary packaging means because products don’t just move through pallets and DCs—they move through parcel networks. That shift makes durability and customer experience inseparable.
Amazon enforces its Frustration-Free Packaging (FFP) program across thousands of SKUs. FFP requires that packaging be:
Recyclable: Materials must be curbside recyclable, reducing landfill waste.
Easy to Open: No scissors, knives, or excessive tape should be needed. Packaging should open in under two minutes without tools.
Durable: Products must pass ISTA-6 testing, which simulates parcel handling—drops, vibration, compression, and temperature changes.
When suppliers fail to meet these requirements, Amazon applies direct financial consequences:
Per-Unit Penalties: Non-FFP packaging can trigger chargebacks applied to every single item sold.
Higher Fulfillment Fees: Bulky or oversized packaging takes up more cubic space, which means higher fees under Amazon’s FBA model.
Delisting Risk: In some cases, non-compliant SKUs can be pulled from Amazon’s marketplace entirely.
Related Reading: What is a Stock Keeping Unit (SKU)?
The FFP program also has a sales velocity dimension. Amazon tracks packaging complaints in customer reviews. So if customers complain about excess plastic, damaged items, or hard-to-open boxes, ratings drop. Lower ratings mean less visibility in search, which directly cuts into sales. In that way, packaging affects the algorithm just like price and availability.
Primary Packaging Requirements for Apparel Suppliers
Apparel packaging might not seem as high stakes as food safety or electronics durability, but retailers still treat it with the same level of seriousness. A missing tag, a messy fold, or even a polybag without the right warning can bring the supply chain to a pause.
Pressures Unique to Apparel Packaging
Presentation: Apparel must arrive neatly, folded, packaged, and tagged. Noncompliance may result in retailers pushing costs back onto its suppliers. For example, most large retailers, like Nordstrom, have compliance fee structure. If products arrive in a non-compliant state (like missing hang tags, garments unfolded, or labels incorrectly applied), the retailer will then issue a chargeback to the supplier.
Safety and Legal Labeling: Polybags require suffocation warnings, while sewn-in or attached tags must show fiber content, care instructions, and country of origin. These are legal requirements under CPSIA (U.S.) and EU textile laws.
Barcode and RFID Placement: Distribution centers scan thousands of garments per hour. UPCs must be visible on the outer packaging so they can be read instantly. RFID tags, by contrast, must be correctly embedded and encoded so they can be scanned through packaging. If either one fails, associates are forced to handle items manually, slowing replenishment and frustrating buyers.
Sustainability: Retailers are phasing out excess polybags and encouraging recyclable or reusable alternatives. Many now factor packaging sustainability into supplier evaluations, meaning your choices can impact long-term shelf space.
Retailers track supplier performance in compliance scorecards so if poor packaging creates bottlenecks it means the suppliers' metrics are likely to drop. Unfortunately, lower performance scores can mean fewer promotional opportunities, less favorable negotiations, or tighter terms in the future.
Nordstrom Packaging
Nordstrom’s internal packaging and labeling guide shows how detailed apparel requirements can get. Every instruction serves a purpose—protecting the product, keeping operations efficient, or meeting sustainability goals.
Polybags
Nordstrom discourages excess packaging and only allows polybags when a buyer specifically requests them. When used, they must be at least .001 inches thick and include suffocation warnings. This reduces environmental waste and keeps Nordstrom aligned with sustainability goals. For suppliers, ignoring these details can result in deductions or shipment rejections for “excess packaging” or missing safety labeling.
Tags and Labels
Garments must carry sewn-in tags with fiber content, care instructions, and country of origin. This ensures compliance with laws like CPSIA in the U.S. and textile labeling requirements in the EU. If tags are missing or incorrect, the risk isn’t just chargebacks—suppliers can face regulatory fines and even recalls.
Hangers
Ready-to-wear garments must ship with the correct GS1/VICS hanger, positioned so the garment sits flat in the carton. Nordstrom expects clothing to arrive store-ready, minimizing steaming and re-hanging labor in stores. Using the wrong hanger, or shipping garments wrinkled, means extra handling costs for Nordstrom—costs often charged back to the supplier.
Shoes
Shoe boxes must face the same direction, with labels in large, bold font for quick identification. Empty boxes used as fillers must be clearly marked “empty.” These requirements help associates process cartons faster and reduce mis-picks during replenishment. If labeling is inconsistent, it slows down distribution and increases labor costs, which again fall back on the supplier through compliance penalties.
Related Reading: Supplier Compliance at Nordstrom
