Liz Gyekye / PackagingNews.UK

Retail giant joins Amazon to promote ‘frustration-free’ packs

Internet retailer Amazon and retail giant Wal-Mart are urging more manufacturers to change their packaging to cut waste and promote ‘frustration-free’ packaging, according to media reports.

According to Bloomberg.com, the US’ largest online store and retailer have been pushing vendors, including Procter & Gamble and Bluetooth headset maker Plantronics, to eliminate excessive and cumbersome packing materials.

For instance, materials such as hard plastic clamshell casings that enclose electronics and wire ties used to secure toys to cardboard backings.

Scissors and clamshells

“We’ve gotten e-mails from customers who’ve purchased scissors in a clamshell, which would require another pair of scissors to open the package,” Amazon vice president of global fulfilment Nadia Shouraboura.

Amazon launched its ‘frustration-free packaging’ initiative in 2008 with 19 items from Mattel and its Fisher-Price brand, Microsoft and memory-card maker Transcend Information.

It has grown to 80,000 products this year, with more than 12 million items expected to ship under the program. Amazon wants to triple that number next year.

To help it reach that goal, the retailer is contacting more manufacturers that get poor customer feedback about their packaging. Amazon is also sending engineers to help companies improve their designs.

By 2013, Wal-Mart plans to reduce packaging by 5% compared with 2008 levels, saving an estimated $3.4bn annually.

The retail giant is relying on a sustainability packaging scorecard to determine which products to stock.

Wal-Mart is also pushing manufacturers to create innovative design solutions.