Shoe retailer Omoda is now shipping shoes in reusable ecoboxes instead of cardboard shoe boxes. The new shipping box can be reused more than fifty times.
When placing an online order, consumers can indicate whether they want to use a so-called Ecobox, in exchange for a 4.95 deposit. The consumer returns the box empty or filled - in the case of a return - back to Omoda. The shoe manufacturer refunds the deposit and uses the box again for a subsequent order. The shipping box developed by packaging specialist Paardekooper is easy to fold. Which allows the box to be returned via the letterbox.
Change in distribution centre operations
Omoda tested the new return system extensively in July. Since the summer, the retailer has also been working with a packing machine that packs orders to order. "Packing orders in the Ecobox took some getting used to, of course, if only because you have to figure out how to fold it in and out. That's now well established," says Marlinde Baan-Verton, project leader of Omoda's sustainability working group. "With the arrival of the packing machine, our packing process has become a lot faster and the Ecobox is a funny change. So it is packed manually by the employees who also do the gift wrapping."
5,000 copies
After the test period, Omoda made some minor adjustments to the Ecobox and return instructions. A total of five thousand copies of the shipping box have been ordered, each of which can be used fifty times.
