At least 20 uses...

• A Finnish company provides reusable packaging for online stores
• The innovative circular economy business model has led to several awards
• For customers, advantages include short payback time, increased customer loyalty and significant savings on greenhouse gas emissions and waste compared to single-use packaging

RePack is a Finnish company that provides reusable packaging as a service for online stores. The RePack packaging is made of recycled materials, including polypropylene, polyethylene, cardboard, and old advertising banners, and designed to last at least 20 uses.

After a customer receives their shipment, the packaging can be folded to the size of an envelope and sent free of charge back to RePack. Even broken packaging can be sent – when the packaging comes to the end of its lifecycle, RePack uses some parts of the material for new products, and the rest is recycled. The return is encouraged by a gift card or a voucher to the store their order was from.

According to RePack, their medium-sized packaging, when used 20 times, produces 80 % fewer greenhouse emissions than single-use packaging produced from virgin plastic (LD-PE) or carton board, and either 1.5 kg plastic or 3 kg carton board waste is avoided. Even with just two uses, the total emissions of the reusable packaging are lower.

For a company, the RePack service pays back the investment and can even bring additional income. With a cost of € 2.90 per RePack and a € 300 service fee, the investment cost of a hundred RePacks is € 590. A customer usually pays around € 3.50 for choosing RePack as packaging, so the payback time is just 500 orders. As the customer gets a gift card to the store for returning their RePack, the packaging service can even improve customer loyalty.

Some companies offer the RePack packaging option for free for orders above a certain sum – this can increase average order value. Customers have used RePack to support loyalty programmes and take-back campaigns.

At Varusteleka, a Finnish outdoor equipment and army surplus store, a campaign where free shipment with a RePack was offered to loyalty programme members buying products for more than a certain sum clearly increased total sales and average order value.

Finlayson, a Finnish textile manufacturer, has run three take-back campaigns with RePack, collecting used textiles for upcycling into new products. A customer could order a RePack home, use it to send their used clothes to Finlayson free of charge, and receive a 30 % voucher in return. One campaign brought in 6 500 pairs of jeans, 10 % of which using RePack. Customer feedback for the RePack alternative was very positive.

RePack has won several awards for their ecological, innovative business model, including Circular Economy Awards in 2018, Nordic Council Environment Prize in 2017 and Climate KIC Nordic Venture Cup in 2016.

Key benefits

• A cost-neutral packaging option for the online store
• Single-use packaging waste and 80 % less greenhouse gas emissions