Online vendors can save money and impress customers by reducing packaging and using sustainable logistics partners, writes Éibhín Eviston, Business Development Lead at An Post Commerce

The past two years have turned the way we shop for goods on its head entirely. Covid-19 changed the retail environment and online ordering remains popular.

Pairing this with the eco-conscious consumer leads to a need for businesses to undergo a transformation to meet changing consumer needs and reduce environmental impact. An Post Commerce is here to support businesses in addressing these new needs, so that your customers can continue to have an easy, online shopping experience.

Conduct an environmental audit of your supply chain

Your supply chain will have one of the largest environmental impacts, so it is important to pay close attention to it. Map out the journey of your materials from order to arrival. Consider whether your carbon footprint can be reduced by identifying suppliers in closer proximity to your business. When building a relationship with a supplier, it is important to specify a requirement for transparency on their sustainability practices and establish with them a goal of continuous improvement.

If this task seems overwhelming, start with a small list and expand as you go. At An Post Commerce, the team completed an audit of our Top 20 suppliers to ensure our materials, services and utilities are purchased from reliable sources, and we intend to continue this with all suppliers.

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Right-size your packaging

eCommerce fulfilment requires packaging, and there are thousands of recycled packaging options to choose from for order fulfilment. Using corrugated and biodegradable bubble wrap is a small change for businesses to make, and this will reduce environmental impact and also meet the needs of the green consumer.

Wasteful packaging is bad for business

Now that customers are ordering more and more online, they are having to combat an overflowing recycling bin, and are left frustrated when they receive small items that are packaged in unnecessarily large boxes. A 2021 survey by Repak found that three out of four customers believe their recycling bin has been filling up more quickly in the last two years.

When we explored the packaging issue with An Post Commerce customers recently, 71% think their online orders arrive in too much packaging, and 73% told us that receiving an order with conscientious packaging would make them more likely to buy again from that retailer. By making efforts to reduce the size of your parcels where possible, you can reduce your delivery costs and increase customer satisfaction.

Deliver a sustainable last mile

The last mile delivery to customers has an environmental impact too. Addressing this by choosing to work with a sustainable delivery partner reduces your carbon footprint and  improves your reputation. An Post Commerce is working hard to continuously deliver our last mile solutions sustainably for our customers.

We have committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions from our own operations by 2030, and we currently have 1,012 electric vehicles and 155 electric trikes in our fleet.

We also encourage the use of our Click & Collect solution, which is available to contract customers. This gives your customers the option to select an An Post location (parcel lockers, post office or PostPoint outlet) at the point of purchase and we will in turn deliver the item to that point for collection. This means fewer journeys and saves energy.

Our team would be delighted to chat to anyone with questions on delivering a sustainable last mile to Irish customers, so please email commerce@anpost.ie if you have any queries.