Dutch marketplace Bol.com is planning to ship seven million items without cardboard boxes this year, doubling the number shipped this way since last year.
The retailer now ships items which have their own sturdy packaging with a shipping label affixed to this packaging. Items boxed in this way last year included fans, deep fryers, irons, printers, coffee makers and diapers.
The company defines which items can be shipped through a small adjustment to the outer packaging and shares information with suppliers so that they can make the packaging suitable for online shopping. This year items such as slides, air mattresses and buggies are being shipped in the same way.
Bol.com will only be shipped with a box if it is absolutely necessary for the protection of the item.
The company is also extending this approach to those of the company’s 30,000 third-party merchants which use the bol.com fulfilment service and store stock in its warehouses.
Jori Ebskamp, CSR lead at bol.com, said: “For sustainability reasons, we don’t want to send unnecessary packaging.
“In addition, colleagues in the distribution centre are investigating which items with a small adjustment to the original packaging are even more suitable for unpacked shipping.”
