How Do You Manage Online Delivery Package Waste?

Abstract

Packaging is a critical element in the online product delivery process. Even the best products will not attract customers if they are delivered to end users with damage. Many companies use mixed protective packaging, often, overpackaging, attempting to ensure logistics effectiveness and increase customer satisfaction. This practice does not fully consider resources consumption in producing packaging or environmental damage from excess packaging disposal. Packaging waste is a growing problem for firms that practice mixed protective packaging. Managers need to act to rationalize the type and amount of packaging materials they adopt. Product delivery is a complex decision that involves diverse managerial perspectives and may cause tensions for cross-functional organizational performance. Major supply chain parties including product sellers, online platforms, logistics carriers, and consumers each share concerns, which are unique to their situation. This article proposes an online product delivery scorecard that performs as measurement tool to evaluate product packaging from an integrated perspective of product sellers, online platforms, logistic carriers, and consumers using dynamic metrics. We challenge the traditional assumption of the positive relationship between packaging and customer satisfaction. Excessive packaging may also hurt customer satisfaction. Managerial considerations are also discussed to provide solutions for managing online delivery package waste.