The CPG Industry Wants to Streamline Your Home Deliveries

As consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies explore ways to engage more customers and increase revenue streams, a growing trend is finding better ways to deliver products. While many companies have started selling more sustainable products, so far only a few are offering innovative solutions for shipping and delivery.

As Heather Kauffman, cofounder and COO of sustainable home goods company Full Circle, said of shipping soaps and detergents, for example: “If you think about the carbon emissions required to ship bottles largely filled with water from the manufacturer to the retailer and then to the consumer’s home, it really adds up.”

In response to those heavy packages, wasteful carbon emissions and bursted bottles, some companies have begun reengineering products to take the water out. Instead of shipping plastic bottles full of blue liquid or foamy white sprays, manufacturers are optimistic that cleaning product tablets will take off. Tablets are easier to ship and reduce the harmful environmental impacts associated with packaging and transporting their liquid counterparts.

A few companies making waves with cleaning product tablets include Blueland, Dazz, Bottle Bright and Effervescent. Blueland recently caught a lot of attention because not only is the company committed to using nontoxic ingredients, but it has also done an excellent job of marketing how simple these tablets are to use, even if some consumers may be unfamiliar with them. In addition, every piece of packaging Blueland uses—from the Forever Bottles (which aren’t intended to be recycled) to the tablet pack wrapper to the shipping materials—is 100 percent recyclable.

These extra steps to change conventional packaging and shipping methods take what companies like Seventh Generation and other sustainability-focused CPG brands have been forwarding for decades to the next level. Another CPG innovator ready to challenge consumer standards is Loop, a zero-waste platform for consumer products set to launch this year. Loop’s mission to reduce single-use, disposable CPG packaging may also revolutionize how people get products—from cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, toothpaste, ice cream and more.

Loop is partnering with more than two dozen major household brands, including Tide, Crest, Dove, Gillette, Häagen-Dazs and more, to replace single-use packaging with reusable alternatives and make it as convenient as possible with home delivery and empties pick-up. Imagine no brick-and-mortar store checkouts for toothpaste and never having to double check to see if the local recycling program accepts #3 plastics. By making the reusable containers aesthetically appealing and convenient to ship off when done, Loop—along with its partners—is betting that consumers simply won’t want to return to old habits.

These innovative companies are transforming the CPG industry. By changing product design to make shipping more sustainable and creating new delivery options, these resourceful companies are working to change consumer habits—from highly unsustainable, single-use consumerism to healthier, more adept ways. By keeping people, planet and profit in sight, revolutionary product streams are being introduced to the market.

Image credit: Maarten van den Heuvel/Unsplash