Packaging Is All the Rage, and Not in a Good Way

Compared to the traditional versions of the products, frustration-free products have earned on average a 73 percent reduction in negative feedback on the Amazon site.

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
NYT

SEATTLE — Doug Herrington’s office at Amazon.com suggests that he is particularly bad at getting items out of their packages. Along his wall, there is a Philips Norelco shaver still in its plastic clamshell casing, coffee pods in their retail display containers and a bottle of Tide inside a box.

But Mr. Herrington, vice president for consumables at Amazon, is trying to make a point: With a typical online purchase, “you’ve got a ton of packaging and a ton of work ahead of you,” he said.

For nearly two years, Amazon has been trying to get manufacturers to adopt “frustration-free packaging” that gets rid of plastic cases and air-bubble wrap — major irritants for consumers and one of Amazon’s biggest sources of customer complaints.

But the frustration persists. Only about 600 of the millions of products Amazon sells come in frustration-free versions. And other big online retailers, like Walmart.com and Target.com, have not embraced the new packaging, even when manufacturers make it available.

(More here.)