I recently ordered an ink cartridge that is about the size of an iPhone 4 from Amazon. And what came to my door front was a 36 by 24 by 10 inches cardboard box that could fit an entire brand new printer instead of just an ink refill. As an environmentally-conscious person, I was physically and mentally pained by the amount of waste that goes into packaging. This then led me into thinking – is there a way to choose a returnable, recyclable package for transporting online purchases?
With RePack, the answer is yes.
The concept is simple: Brands that sell their products online can choose to present shoppers with the returnable and reusable RePack packaging option upon checkout, usually with an incentive attached.
Once the consumer has received and unpacked their purchase, they simply drop the package into the nearest post box and it’s returned to RePack — free of charge, from anywhere in the world. It’s that easy.
In the article by Sustainable Brands, research has also shown that brands that offer the RePack option, are perceived by the customers with higher value and enhance brand experience. Customers feel as if they are doing something good for the planet while making online purchases; this affirmation effect has successfully increased the average order value by 30 percent.
I think partnering with RePack is an opportunity for Amazon and other online shopping sites to further their sustainable efforts while elevating their business results. In my opinion, RePack has both high short-term and long-term ROI. Short-term results can be that sustainability is now a determining attribute for purchase decision behaviours, therefore leads directly to increased product sales. Long-term outcomes are increased brand value/reputation, environmental improvement from less packaging etc.
Dina Kasiri
November 12, 2017 — 11:41 pm
Hi, I really enjoyed reading your blog! I remember briefly discussing this in class and thinking what a cool and amazing idea this is. There have been many instances where I’ve ordered a package from Amazon or other online retailers and was merely shocked by the amount of extra packaging and waste that came along with the item. Imagine a world where every single company uses this system? As you mentioned, not only is this a sustainable way of reusing packaging material, but it can also lead to other benefits to the businesses who choose to use RePack by improving their reputation through being a responsible company. Often times people avoid sustainable practices because they generally tend to be more inconvenient, timely, and costly. However, in this case RePack has made the experience almost seemliness which in turn will encourage more people to use it.
AlejandraGuerreroGonzalez
November 13, 2017 — 5:07 pm
Hello!
I can totally relate with the pain you feel when you get a package that big for something little you bought. Recently I ordered a container of protein powder from Amazon and it arrived in a cardboard box way bigger than the container itself.
I am glad to learn that there’s now a company like RePack that allows you to return the packing so it can be used again, and the worst of all is that it’s open for all around the world! Hopefully many businesses start partnering with this company and it becomes the norm in the future.
beihong yang
December 4, 2017 — 6:53 pm
Hi! This blog is really impressive to me and I am also really worried about the piles of packages we ruthlessly threw away after they protected our goods all the way to our home.
In China, this kind of problem is even more severe as there are millions of retailers online and about a billion customers and most of the customers would buy things from not only one retailers and they would mostly receive a package for one small item. I always see piles of paper boxes by the trash bin when I go out of the building.
But also in China, I see somebody do reuse the packages: I went to a mobile fixing point with my friend and I saw one of the stuff were busy using the boxes they received from the customers (as some customers sent their phones to this point) to package the fixed phones and sent them back. This might be a quite simple action but could save about half of the boxes needed if there’s no reuse!
However, come back to the RePack package, I am also really worried if the bag is damaged either caused by customers or during the delivery. So I think the company should also consider about it and set regulation on everyone who is using this service