5 ms·

Amazon Moving To Frustration-Free Packaging

147 points by tortilla 18y ago

vaksel 18y ago
I'd actually prefer the frustration-full packaging. + If you are gifting in this box, it just screams re-gifting to me.
- kirubakaran 18y ago
  I'd love to receive a gift in this box as any. It is a GIFT! How can you not be happy, unless someone 'gifts' you a yellow-jacket colony?
- petercooper 18y ago
  It might scream re-gifting, but we need to become happy with re-gifting. In the current economic and ecological climate, throwing away unwanted gifts or toys after mild use is ridiculous. If these boxes become popular, it becomes possible to regift without it looking so obvious and that's a good thing.
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  You say that now, until you buy a USB flash drive or a CD and while opening it you nearly destroy the product or you cut yourself to the point that you bleed prodigiously all over it.
  - vaksel 18y ago
    how do you manage to cut yourself when opening a box?
    - pmjordan 18y ago
      You must not have encountered the hard, welded plastic envelopes in which they typically sell small electronic goods. (where the hell do you live?) They're effectively impossible to open without a very sturdy set of scissors, and even then it's easy to scratch your hand when you get impatient and try to fish out your device.
      - vaksel 18y ago
        Ah thats why. I use a box cutter to open my packages. That way nobody gets hurt.
- OpenMIKE 18y ago
  Someone recently regifted a 32GB flash drive to me. I could not care less that it wasn't in the original packaging.
- jmatt 18y ago
  After a few years these packages will be recognizable as new mail-ordered items to one and all. From a frustration standpoint - they look easier to wrap. Now a days I can barely wrap a lot of these squirrelly toy packages.
michael_dorfman 18y ago
I think this is brilliant on Amazon's part. The frustration factor in opening some items (children's toys, for instance) shouldn't be underestimated.
- petercooper 18y ago
  Not just the frustration factor, but the recycling factor is key too - especially in areas (such as mine) where trash is heavily limited (3 sacks for 2 weeks max) but recycling paper/cardboard is easy. I think Amazon might have taken some influence from Sennheiser who have been trying out the whole "eco" packaging thing lately: http://is.gd/6dHl http://is.gd/6dHl : It's worked out well - I believe the eco packaged headphones outsold the regular packaged ones on Amazon.co.uk for quite a while, so it might have helped them go with the idea.
  - lallysingh 18y ago
    Where is that?
    - blackguardx 18y ago
      Pretty much anywhere in northern California. It's like that where I live in Sonoma County.
    - petercooper 18y ago
      United Kingdom. Our council is quite progressive on the recycling front. Despite the inconvenience at first, I'm in support of it. I think we recycle about 60% of our household waste now. Large families and those with babies get special allowance to have more trash, so it's reasonably fair. The only downside, and one many are complaining about, is that they alternative trash pickup with recycling pickup, so you have to leave some trash sitting around for 2 weeks.. not pleasant to drag through the house on pickup day.
      - ionfish 18y ago
        The more stuff one composts or puts in a food bin (provided by the council in some places, such as Richmond), the less smelly stuff one has to endure in the bin proper.
Prrometheus 18y ago
This strikes me as one of those great, marginal innovations that you need a giant corporation to implement. How many manufacturers are going to change their packaging line for a startup? Congratulations, Amazon. Way to use your size for good.
- Retric 18y ago
  It's not just Amazon size it's also mail order shopping. They don't need to display the product so a lot of the presentation related stuff can just be skipped. And they are not concerned about shoplifters so they don't need to protect a tiny USB stick that easily fit's inside a pocket inside a large hard to open box.
- gcheong 18y ago
  Walmart has a similar initiative to reduce packaging from its vendors. This has a couple effects - increases shelf space and reduces waste. Size does have its advantages.
  - potatolicious 18y ago
    Not only that... Amazon no longer has to expend ANY packing material or effort (material + labor savings) when shipping these items. Slap a label on it and ship 'er out.
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  I also appreciated Patri Friedman's take on this: http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2008/11/03/concentrating-diffuse-consumer-interests http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2008/11/03/concentra...
sdfx 18y ago
A lot of these packages are designed to attract customers in stores - something that is not required online. I hope this one catches on.
alecco 18y ago
Great idea. It says the manufacturers do the package "out of the assembly line!" That's very clever, I'm sure Amazon is saving on packaging things for shipping.
mynameishere 18y ago
I guess I'm confused. The video doesn't help: http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=1234279011 http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=1234279011 Why are they trying to pretend that traditional boxes are difficult to open? They aren't. Also, how exactly are they going to protect the product from shipping damage? It seems like packing foam or similar materials can't be used with the new boxes. Do they not realize that...especially with toys, but lots of things...the packaging is part of the charm? To me, an item in a cardboard box is a factory reject or OEM. A child would likely reject a toy that didn't have the packaging of a store item.
- petercooper 18y ago
  To me, an item in a cardboard box is a factory reject or OEM. A child would likely reject a toy that didn't have the packaging of a store item. And that's an attitude worth changing in order to cut down on the ridiculous amount of packaging many products use (including non-recyclable plastics, etc). If it takes someone as big as Amazon to do it, bravo. The whole glitzy packaging thing is a reasonably new invention anyway. When I was a kid things tended to come in cardboard boxes (though printed on). Playing with boxes was as fun as the toy often times!
  - mynameishere 18y ago
    There's exactly zero chance that store shelves will contain boxes similar to ones that Amazon is using here. Therefore, there will always be two kinds: 1) The displayable kind, and 2) The shipping kind. Listen: I'm the last person in the whole world who cares what packaging looks like. But the fact is, lots of people do, and these boxes' success will be correspondingly limited. This whole thread is insane though. They're really doing nothing more than 10,000,000 ebay sellers have been all along. Getting manufacturers to do it is just a way of shifting costs, as Walmart is doing with RFID tags (though the total costs probably go down some, which is good).
    - DougBTX 18y ago
      Getting manufacturers to do it is just a way of shifting costs Probably costs less for them too.
watmough 18y ago
This is totally excellent. If nothing else, it'll make kids happier since they will be able to open their own presents. Lots of kids toys have thick binding, thick clear plastic etc., that is very difficult even for adults to open, and often requires sharp scissors. Great move, and congratulations to Amazon.
- jmatt 18y ago
  it'll make kids happier since they will be able to open their own presents That makes me smile. Excellent point and better holidays for all.
markessien 18y ago
Amazon is one of the companies that took a very unsexy thing (book selling), and is just revolutionizing business processes. Amazon is quite an impressive company.
mattmaroon 18y ago
First they should just make their boxes suck less. If I could open them without a box cutter, I'd be ecstatic.
- cstejerean 18y ago
  supposedly not needing a box cutter to open these new boxes is part of the plan. From their site "It's designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife..."
  - mattmaroon 18y ago
    Right, but that's only for third party stuff that uses Amazon's boxing system. I just want the normal Amazon packages I've been getting for a decade to not suck, since that's near 100% of them now.
    - axod 18y ago
      just use a key :/ Not really an issue is it?
- lacker 18y ago
  I'm not sure what you mean, I get stuff from Amazon all the time and never need a box cutter. Usually they have this folded-but-not-taped-much box thing going on.
yarek 18y ago
The "frustration-free packaging" is incidental. The whole point is that Amazon will be saving a lot of money by not shipping empty air around. If you can send the same thing in a smaller package, this means you can fit more packages in a singe shipment to the warehouse, ship more things from a warehose to the distributor, and also send more things in a delivery truck at the end of the delivery process. Everyone saves along the way, meanwhile the customer gets a "furstration free" package, which truthfully, is probably easier to open, incidentally.
- jmatt 18y ago
  I'm sure it's cheaper for the manufacturer to package too. More efficient all around and no reason not to do it if it's already mail order. [edit: clarification~]
tdavis 18y ago
They should start by not sending a packet of page markers the size of a credit card in a box large enough to ship a small child in. And i'm pretty sure paper doesn't really need to have fancy air-pillow wrapping filling the box. A shipping envelope would suffice.
jkneib 18y ago
It will probably also lower the total costs for returned items. You cannot re-ship an item when the plastic packaging has been damaged, even if the item itself has not been touched.

147 points by tortilla 18y ago

vaksel 18y ago

I'd actually prefer the frustration-full packaging. + If you are gifting in this box, it just screams re-gifting to me.

kirubakaran 18y ago
I'd love to receive a gift in this box as any. It is a GIFT! How can you not be happy, unless someone 'gifts' you a yellow-jacket colony?
petercooper 18y ago
It might scream re-gifting, but we need to become happy with re-gifting. In the current economic and ecological climate, throwing away unwanted gifts or toys after mild use is ridiculous. If these boxes become popular, it becomes possible to regift without it looking so obvious and that's a good thing.
Prrometheus 18y ago
You say that now, until you buy a USB flash drive or a CD and while opening it you nearly destroy the product or you cut yourself to the point that you bleed prodigiously all over it.
- vaksel 18y ago
  how do you manage to cut yourself when opening a box?
  - pmjordan 18y ago
    You must not have encountered the hard, welded plastic envelopes in which they typically sell small electronic goods. (where the hell do you live?) They're effectively impossible to open without a very sturdy set of scissors, and even then it's easy to scratch your hand when you get impatient and try to fish out your device.
    - vaksel 18y ago
      Ah thats why. I use a box cutter to open my packages. That way nobody gets hurt.
OpenMIKE 18y ago
Someone recently regifted a 32GB flash drive to me. I could not care less that it wasn't in the original packaging.
jmatt 18y ago
After a few years these packages will be recognizable as new mail-ordered items to one and all. From a frustration standpoint - they look easier to wrap. Now a days I can barely wrap a lot of these squirrelly toy packages.

michael_dorfman 18y ago

I think this is brilliant on Amazon's part. The frustration factor in opening some items (children's toys, for instance) shouldn't be underestimated.

petercooper 18y ago
Not just the frustration factor, but the recycling factor is key too - especially in areas (such as mine) where trash is heavily limited (3 sacks for 2 weeks max) but recycling paper/cardboard is easy. I think Amazon might have taken some influence from Sennheiser who have been trying out the whole "eco" packaging thing lately: http://is.gd/6dHl http://is.gd/6dHl : It's worked out well - I believe the eco packaged headphones outsold the regular packaged ones on Amazon.co.uk for quite a while, so it might have helped them go with the idea.
- lallysingh 18y ago
  Where is that?
  - blackguardx 18y ago
    Pretty much anywhere in northern California. It's like that where I live in Sonoma County.
  - petercooper 18y ago
    United Kingdom. Our council is quite progressive on the recycling front. Despite the inconvenience at first, I'm in support of it. I think we recycle about 60% of our household waste now. Large families and those with babies get special allowance to have more trash, so it's reasonably fair. The only downside, and one many are complaining about, is that they alternative trash pickup with recycling pickup, so you have to leave some trash sitting around for 2 weeks.. not pleasant to drag through the house on pickup day.
    - ionfish 18y ago
      The more stuff one composts or puts in a food bin (provided by the council in some places, such as Richmond), the less smelly stuff one has to endure in the bin proper.

Prrometheus 18y ago

This strikes me as one of those great, marginal innovations that you need a giant corporation to implement. How many manufacturers are going to change their packaging line for a startup? Congratulations, Amazon. Way to use your size for good.

Retric 18y ago
It's not just Amazon size it's also mail order shopping. They don't need to display the product so a lot of the presentation related stuff can just be skipped. And they are not concerned about shoplifters so they don't need to protect a tiny USB stick that easily fit's inside a pocket inside a large hard to open box.
gcheong 18y ago
Walmart has a similar initiative to reduce packaging from its vendors. This has a couple effects - increases shelf space and reduces waste. Size does have its advantages.
- potatolicious 18y ago
  Not only that... Amazon no longer has to expend ANY packing material or effort (material + labor savings) when shipping these items. Slap a label on it and ship 'er out.
Prrometheus 18y ago
I also appreciated Patri Friedman's take on this: http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2008/11/03/concentrating-diffuse-consumer-interests http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2008/11/03/concentra...

sdfx 18y ago

A lot of these packages are designed to attract customers in stores - something that is not required online. I hope this one catches on.

alecco 18y ago

Great idea. It says the manufacturers do the package "out of the assembly line!" That's very clever, I'm sure Amazon is saving on packaging things for shipping.

mynameishere 18y ago

I guess I'm confused. The video doesn't help: http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=1234279011 http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=1234279011 Why are they trying to pretend that traditional boxes are difficult to open? They aren't. Also, how exactly are they going to protect the product from shipping damage? It seems like packing foam or similar materials can't be used with the new boxes. Do they not realize that...especially with toys, but lots of things...the packaging is part of the charm? To me, an item in a cardboard box is a factory reject or OEM. A child would likely reject a toy that didn't have the packaging of a store item.

petercooper 18y ago
To me, an item in a cardboard box is a factory reject or OEM. A child would likely reject a toy that didn't have the packaging of a store item. And that's an attitude worth changing in order to cut down on the ridiculous amount of packaging many products use (including non-recyclable plastics, etc). If it takes someone as big as Amazon to do it, bravo. The whole glitzy packaging thing is a reasonably new invention anyway. When I was a kid things tended to come in cardboard boxes (though printed on). Playing with boxes was as fun as the toy often times!
- mynameishere 18y ago
  There's exactly zero chance that store shelves will contain boxes similar to ones that Amazon is using here. Therefore, there will always be two kinds: 1) The displayable kind, and 2) The shipping kind. Listen: I'm the last person in the whole world who cares what packaging looks like. But the fact is, lots of people do, and these boxes' success will be correspondingly limited. This whole thread is insane though. They're really doing nothing more than 10,000,000 ebay sellers have been all along. Getting manufacturers to do it is just a way of shifting costs, as Walmart is doing with RFID tags (though the total costs probably go down some, which is good).
  - DougBTX 18y ago
    Getting manufacturers to do it is just a way of shifting costs Probably costs less for them too.

watmough 18y ago

This is totally excellent. If nothing else, it'll make kids happier since they will be able to open their own presents. Lots of kids toys have thick binding, thick clear plastic etc., that is very difficult even for adults to open, and often requires sharp scissors. Great move, and congratulations to Amazon.

jmatt 18y ago
it'll make kids happier since they will be able to open their own presents That makes me smile. Excellent point and better holidays for all.

markessien 18y ago

Amazon is one of the companies that took a very unsexy thing (book selling), and is just revolutionizing business processes. Amazon is quite an impressive company.

mattmaroon 18y ago

First they should just make their boxes suck less. If I could open them without a box cutter, I'd be ecstatic.

cstejerean 18y ago
supposedly not needing a box cutter to open these new boxes is part of the plan. From their site "It's designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife..."
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  Right, but that's only for third party stuff that uses Amazon's boxing system. I just want the normal Amazon packages I've been getting for a decade to not suck, since that's near 100% of them now.
  - axod 18y ago
    just use a key :/ Not really an issue is it?
lacker 18y ago
I'm not sure what you mean, I get stuff from Amazon all the time and never need a box cutter. Usually they have this folded-but-not-taped-much box thing going on.

yarek 18y ago

The "frustration-free packaging" is incidental. The whole point is that Amazon will be saving a lot of money by not shipping empty air around. If you can send the same thing in a smaller package, this means you can fit more packages in a singe shipment to the warehouse, ship more things from a warehose to the distributor, and also send more things in a delivery truck at the end of the delivery process. Everyone saves along the way, meanwhile the customer gets a "furstration free" package, which truthfully, is probably easier to open, incidentally.

jmatt 18y ago
I'm sure it's cheaper for the manufacturer to package too. More efficient all around and no reason not to do it if it's already mail order. [edit: clarification~]

tdavis 18y ago

They should start by not sending a packet of page markers the size of a credit card in a box large enough to ship a small child in. And i'm pretty sure paper doesn't really need to have fancy air-pillow wrapping filling the box. A shipping envelope would suffice.

jkneib 18y ago

It will probably also lower the total costs for returned items. You cannot re-ship an item when the plastic packaging has been damaged, even if the item itself has not been touched.