This Christmas, as you unwrap presents under the tree, Amazon hopes you don’t experience “wrap rage” – the frustration of trying to open nearly impenetrable packaging to get to the product inside.
The nation’s largest online retail store launched its Frustration-Free Packaging initiative in 2008, which not only aims to make it easier for customers to open packaging, but also seeks to reduce packaging waste and cut down on shipping costs.
Starting with just 19 Frustration-Free Packaging certified products from such companies as Mattel and Microsoft, Amazon’s packaging program grew to 80,000 products this year, with more than 12 million of these items expected to ship, BusinessWeek reported.
The retailer plans to triple the number of Frustration-Free products shipped next year, by contacting companies that receive negative customer feedback about their packaging and offering engineers to help them improve their design.
For a product to qualify for the Frustration-Free Packaging program, its packaging must be easy to open, without using a knife or box cutter, and recyclable, with no excess materials like hard plastic clamshell casings, plastic bindings and wire ties. Products under the packaging program can be shipped in their own boxes, instead of using an additional shipping box.
Amazon verifies and tests all product packaging before it is certified as Frustration-Free.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told BusinessWeek that he came up with the idea for the packaging initiative after struggling to open Christmas presents for his children several years ago.
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