Walk down any aisle, and you will see brands fighting for attention on bottles, boxes, and labels. What you don’t see is the packaging layer that got those items onto the shelves in the first place. Secondary packaging is the invisible middleman of retail—rarely noticed by consumers but central to how products move through warehouses and stores. It is the layer between the product a consumer holds and the pallet a warehouse moves. Secondary packaging usually takes the form of corrugated cartons, trays, or shrink-wrapped bundles.
Forms of Secondary Packaging
Not all secondary packaging looks the same, and for good reason. How a case is built determines how quickly it moves through a distribution center, how easily it’s stocked on shelves, and whether it meets the retailer’s compliance checks.
These variations fall into a few recognizable formats that suppliers will encounter across retailers. Understanding the different forms, whether it’s inner packs designed for handling, master cartons designed for transport, or retail ready trays designed for direct display, is key to avoiding deductions and smoothing the flow of goods from truck to shelf.
Pack Types
When shipping products to retailers, suppliers will encounter a variety of pack configurations, each affecting how products may move through the supply chain. Some different pack types include:
Inner Packs: Smaller groups of primary packages bundled together inside a larger case. These help retailers handle items that sell in smaller units without breaking down the entire master case.
Master Packs: This is the larger carton that holds either inner packs or individual units. This is the case that travels through distribution centers and is often governed by retailer limits on weight, dimensions, and corrugate strength.
Club Packs: Oversized packs are designed to be sold directly to consumers in bulk and are especially common at wholesale clubs like Costco and Sam’s Club. These require stronger corrugate and careful palletization because they serve as both shipping and shelf display.
Retail Ready Packaging (RRP)
Retail ready packaging, sometimes called shelf ready packaging, is secondary packaging designed to go directly from truck to shelf. Examples include soda trays, perforated snack cartons, or display ready boxes.
Retailer goals:
Reduce labor by making stocking as simple as dropping a tray on a shelf.
Improve on-shelf availability by keeping products neat and shoppable.
Maintain brand visibility even within functional, compliance driven packaging.
Supplier challenges:
Perforations must tear cleanly without tools, or associates will reject the case.
Cartons must be durable enough to survive transport yet attractive enough for store display.
Branding has to align with retailer guidelines while still catching shopper attention.
The 5 Easies of Packaging
Many retailers, led by Walmart, use the 5 Easies as a framework for Shelf Ready Packaging (SRP):
Easy to Identify: Product details and barcodes must be visible from multiple angles, reducing time spent hunting for SKUs in the DC.
Easy to Open: Perforations should tear without knives or box cutters, improving safety and saving time.
Easy to Stock: Products should move from case to shelf quickly, without complex unpacking.
Easy to Shop: Shoppers should see and access items without digging, which increases conversion.
Easy to Dispose of: Packaging should be recyclable or easy to break down, reducing waste-handling costs.
Pressures Unique to Secondary Packaging
Case Pack Complexity
Retailers rarely agree on what the “right” case pack looks like. Walmart wants cases that are lightweight and easy to scan from multiple angles. Costco expects sturdier club packs that double as display cases. Target may request smaller inner packs to fit modular resets, while Amazon tests cases against ISTA parcel-shipping standards.
For larger suppliers, this creates a constant balancing act of trying to standardize across multiple retailers while maintaining cost and efficiency with the risk of errors in production or labeling.
Cost
Secondary packaging is often the first area suppliers feel pressure to “take costs out.” Corrugate thickness, glue strength, or even the number of colors on a case are easy targets when budgets tighten. But packaging cost is rarely trivial—studies show that packaging materials typically account for 2–15% of a product’s total cost. In some categories, packaging represents as much as 10% of the final retail price, which means cutting corners can have some real financial consequences.
Rising costs are increasing pressure to find alternative materials. In its recent U.S. Brand Owner Packaging Study, L.E.K. Consulting found that 83% of brand managers expect packaging costs to rise in 2025, while 93% have already changed materials in the past four years—often to meet sustainability demands. At the same time, 99% agreed that packaging is critical to brand success, underscoring the challenge: suppliers must balance compliance, cost control, and consumer expectations simultaneously.
Retailer Specific Standards
Every retailer, distributor, or channel seems to have its own take on “good” packaging. Some focus on savings, others on efficiency, and still others on sustainability. Rarely do these align perfectly, which may leave suppliers having to deal with multiple packaging specs for the same SKU. The result is a fragmented landscape where “good enough” for one retailer might be rejected by another.
Retailers push sustainability, consumers expect convenience, and distribution networks test durability. Suppliers often end up either over engineering cartons to cover every base (raising costs) or customizing for each retailer (straining operations). Either way, different standards are a pressure point that makes secondary packaging a difficult one to get consistently right.
Walmart Secondary Packaging
When it comes to secondary packaging, Walmart sets the tone for much of the retail industry. With thousands of stores and one of the largest distribution networks in the world, small inefficiencies in packaging ripple into millions of dollars, directly impacting:
Labor Efficiency
Associates in DCs and stores handle tens of thousands of cases every day, and poorly designed secondary packaging multiplies inefficiencies across the network. Walmart’s standards are designed to shave those seconds away.
Barcodes and Labels: If barcodes are placed correctly on multiple sides, cases can be scanned in motion without stopping the line. A misaligned or missing label forces associates to rotate cartons, costing time and slowing replenishment.
Case Dimensions: Walmart requires cartons and trays to fit specific fixture dimensions (for example, two deep on shelving). If a tray doesn’t fit, associates must cut cases open or rearrange shelves, which delays resets and frustrates managers.
Ease of Opening: Clean perforations mean associates can open trays without box cutters. If perforations tear unevenly, the whole case may need to be repacked or discarded, wasting labor and product.
Stacking and Handling: Cartons built to Walmart’s weight and corrugate standards are safer and easier to move. Overweight or weak cartons collapse in DCs, which not only causes damage but also forces associates to manually re-stack pallets.
SQEP: Supplier Quality Excellence Program
Secondary packaging is directly tied to Walmart’s Supplier Quality Excellence Program (SQEP), which measures how well suppliers comply with Walmart’s operational standards. Common packaging ‘defects’ and standards typically fall under case inspections and include:
Charges for these defects often look something like a $200 administrative fee per defect per item, plus an additional $1 per impacted case. The financial impact of these defects adds up quickly.
Related Reading: SQEP and Its Defects
Sustainability Leadership
Walmart’s updated standards tie packaging directly to corporate sustainability targets, meaning suppliers are now part of Walmart’s environmental commitments.
Sustainability Requirements (2025 Update)
The most significant change to Walmart’s secondary packaging standards is the addition of a sustainability playbook. Walmart’s goal is to push suppliers beyond the current 30% consumer recycling rate through three steps:
Optimize: Ensure every element of an already recyclable package is fully recyclable (labels, closures, inks, etc.).
Change: Replace non-recyclable materials — like EPS foam, PVC, or mixed resins — with recyclable alternatives.
Advance: Where no recyclable option exists, move toward better alternatives and develop roadmaps toward other solutions.
Related Reading: What are Walmart's Secondary Packaging Standards?
Lowes Secondary Packaging
Lowe’s applies packaging standards that lean heavily toward protection and compliance in the home improvement category. Because many Lowe’s products are bulky or fragile—think lighting fixtures, paint supplies, or small appliances—their guidelines emphasize damage prevention during transit.
Carton Containment
Inner packs and master cartons must be securely sealed with glue or tape. Banding (plastic straps used to hold cartons together) is discouraged, and metal banding is prohibited entirely for safety reasons. In categories like electronics, textiles, and wood products, Lowe’s requires desiccant packs (small moisture absorbing pouches) inside cartons to prevent moisture damage during storage.
Labeling and Barcodes
Master cartons must be clearly marked for quick identification by DC associates. Lowe’s requires item numbers and quantities to be printed in large, legible font on all visible sides of the carton. If a case contains multiple units, it must carry a valid ITF-14 barcode representing the total unit count. For single-unit cartons, a UPC and vendor model number are mandatory.
Palletization
Secondary packaging also governs how cases interact at the pallet level. Lowe’s requires cartons of the same SKU to be grouped together in pallet tiers for efficient unloading and stocking. Pallets must be built to prevent overhang or shifting, as these lead directly to damages and chargebacks. For conveyable items, cartons must be designed to move smoothly across conveyor belts without bulging, collapsing, or snagging.
Related Reading: Packaging and Shipping Guidelines at Lowe's
