Shipping Warm-Up

When Eugene Neiro started Bonsai Boy of New York in 1984, he found that he could reach a number of customers interested in bonsai plants, trees and accessories by participating in street fairs and art shows throughout the New York metropolitan area. This meant lugging several thousand pounds of soil, plants and equipment to each destination, however, and after a decade he decided he needed a sales vehicle that was more efficient and less likely to induce backaches.

Neiro also wanted to expand his market area, to reach customers who lived too far away to cross paths with him at a fair or show.

To further complicate matters, “bonsai trees are not products that you purchase often,” he says. Since Neiro can’t count on repeat sales, he needed to expand his potential target market as wide as possible.

Bonsai Boy, which has a half-dozen employees, has been peddling its elaborately-sculpted, pint-sized wares online since 1993 – before many in corporate America had begun exploiting the worldwide web – and has an online subscriber base of about two million customers.

While the Internet allowed Bonsai Boy to reach a national audience, it presented another challenge. Bonsai plants and trees are fragile and vulnerable to cold temperatures; if the soil in which they’re planted freezes – which can easily happen if the plant is poorly packaged and sits on a chilly loading dock during transit – the plant will be damaged.

Given that some of the plants Bonsai Boy offers carry price tags of several hundred dollars and require decades of cultivation before they’re marketed, ensuring that each bonsai product arrives healthy is critical.

For seven years, Bonsai Boy delayed shipment of orders for plants and trees received during the winter months (it would ship accessories, books and other items not affected by weather, however). That meant foregoing sales during the lucrative holiday season, as well as Valentine’s Day.

Neiro experimented with several techniques to try to protect the plants and soil. He would stretch bubble wrap around the pot and plant, both to protect them from the elements and keep the soil in place should the pot get tipped over. He then placed the wrapped plant into a box filled with Styrofoam peanuts. While this offered some protection, it wasn’t enough to ensure that the plants would arrive without freezing.

Consulting the experts
So Bonsai Boy turned to UPS Professional Services’ Package Design and Test Lab, a testing service in Addison, Ill., where packaging engineers work with UPS clients on a consulting basis developing potential packaging solutions using standards set by the East Lansing, Mich.-based International Safe Transit Association (ISTA).

“We can simulate almost any hazard in a typical distribution environment,” says lab supervisor Patrick McDavid. “We have tables that re-create road vibrations and shock machines that can re-create drops, compression equipment, atmospheric pressure and a temperature and humidity chamber.”

Most of the lab’s engagements are with small- to mid-sized companies that can’t justify hiring full-time packaging experts. McDavid and his crew work with each company to find a packaging solution that is cost-effective, has minimal impact on the environment and fits the corporate image and brand.

For example, the lab worked with a company that wanted to reduce shipping costs for its cheesecakes which, like bonsai trees, are perishable. An evaluation of different packaging materials indicated that switching to a denser, slightly more expensive material would actually reduce costs by shrinking the size of the box. “The reduction in shipping charges outweighed the slight increase in packaging cost,” McDavid says.

The lab’s typical engagement lasts from a couple of weeks to several months. To begin, the company will send a sample of the items it’s shipping to the lab, or a lab employee will visit the client’s operations to research their processes and materials.

As it turned out, the most effective technique for Bonsai Boy was to include a heat pack (similar to the ones used to aid strained muscles) in each shipment. Employees would shake the packages to activate the chemicals within them; once activated, the packs retain heat for about 60 hours, keeping the air and soil inside each package warm, even when the outside temperature plunges.

Neiro and his staff also began placing interlocking Styrofoam pieces, sized so that they cover the plant and keep cold air from reaching it, within each package.

Dramatic results
Finally, the company switched from ground to air transport during the winter months. Although more expensive, air shipment reduces the likelihood that the plants are exposed to harsh temperatures for long periods of time. At the same time, to reduce the chances that a package will remain in transit over the weekend, Bonsai Boy ships plants and trees early in the week.

Each heat pack costs about $1.50, and air transportation rates run about three times the rate of ground transportation, but Neiro prefers to charge the same rate year-round, reasoning that customers are more likely to make purchases throughout the year if they don’t see a big jump in shipping costs during certain months.

The results of the new packaging have been dramatic. Winter shipments of plants now account for about one-third of Bonsai Boy’s revenue, which has grown 35 percent since the company began working with UPS. The retailer is able to offer package-tracking numbers to its customers, and employees can monitor inbound and outbound package movements, track shipment processing, and manage inventory and customer billing using UPS’ Quantum View Manage application.