Shipping products to customers plays a huge role in the majority of e-commerce businesses. More customers than ever before now seem to be judging businesses not just on their customer service and quality of their products, but also on their commitment to the environment and sustainability.
With 65% of shoppers wanting retailers to invest more in sustainability, being seen as a more environmentally conscious business could actually lead to an increase in sales and reputation. For many e-commerce businesses, one of the first things that can make a difference is switching to more sustainable packaging when shipping orders.
It’s easier than you might think to make some mistakes when thinking about sustainable packaging. If you keep certain things in mind though, you have an increased chance of being successful.
Think About Recycled Packaging
Recycled packaging is probably one of the easiest ways of becoming more committed to sustainability in your business. You actually have a couple of options when it comes to using recycled packaging. The first is that you can simply buy packaging that has been made from recycled materials. You’ll just have to make sure that the company you purchase from is reliable and completely honest in its sustainability claims.
You could also look to use packaging already in your business for shipping orders. If you have deliveries from suppliers that come in bulk, you may have boxes and packaging that you could use again to ship orders to customers. There are a couple of potential problems to look out for if you go for this option though. The first is that you will need to make sure the packaging is still in usable condition after traveling through the shipping network once already. The second potential problem is that your customers probably won’t see that you’re using recycled packaging as, to them at least, it appears that you’re shipping orders in standard packaging.
Recycled packaging can be the best option for some businesses. Particularly those that don’t have a huge budget to spend on packaging and process changes.
Consider Edible or Plantable Packaging
If you want to go one step further than using recycled packaging then edible or plantable packaging might be a good option for your business. Edible packaging is particularly useful if you are selling food products although, you’ll have to make sure the packaging (and its contents) will still be in edible condition after being shipped to your customers. Plantable packaging is packaging that you can grow plants from if you plant it in a pot or directly in the ground and is useful for shipping small products.
Both edible and plantable packaging does a great job at keeping waste to pretty much zero as customers can either eat or plant the packaging their order arrives in. The key thing about this type of packaging though is making sure you do your best to let customers know what they can do with it. This type of packaging tends to look a bit odd compared to the packaging they might be used to. Unless you tell your customers what they can do with the packaging, it could very well end up in the garbage anyway.
Smaller Packaging = More Sustainability
How many times have you received an order from a retailer in packaging that seems far bigger than it needed to be? Sometimes, to keep costs down, one size of box is ordered and all orders, no matter the size, are shipped in it. This not only can increase the cost of shipping but it’s also not very sustainable.
Think about how much material, time, money, and emissions go into making each piece of packaging you use. Now think about how much of that gets wasted if you’re sending orders in packaging with a lot of empty space inside. Keeping packaging to a minimum can actually be a very sustainable move for your business.
Minimize Non-Sustainable Padding Materials
Sometimes you need to add some kind of padding material to make sure the products you’re shipping arrive with your customer in one piece. This tends to be things like styrofoam or air-filled plastic bags. While these do a good job of protecting items being shipped, they don’t do a very good job of protecting the environment.
Finding alternative padding materials that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly can make a big difference to your business’s carbon footprint. Maybe you can find a recycled padding material or maybe you could find another way of shipping your orders that doesn’t require padding to be used.
It’s always challenging to find ways of doing things that are good for your business, good for your customers, and good for the planet too. It’s something that will probably require adaptation, complete re-designs, and quite a bit of your time to get exactly right. Getting it right though, can put your business in a very strong position now and in the future.
Ship in Bulk
There seems to be a misconception that shipping lots of smaller packages is cheaper and more sustainable than shipping large packages. While this can be somewhat true in some situations, when it comes to the impact on the environment, shipping one large box will be more sustainable than shipping lots of little ones.
If you think about it logically, one large package will be packed and shipped with your chosen courier. Lots of small packages may require several trips from your courier to collect and ship. That’s why, if possible, you should try and ship multiple products in one package.
Obviously, this isn’t feasible when you have multiple orders going to different customers. However, if you have customers who have ordered multiple items, it can be sensible to try and ship them together in one box. Reducing one order from two boxes to one box might not sound like much but, over time, the impact it has can build up and end up being quite a significant reduction in your carbon emissions.
