Reusable boxes against warehouse cardboard mountains

Cardboard boxes are a daily fixture of retail logistics. They protect goods in transit, arrive at receiving, sit in the store's back room or on the sales floor – and end up in the recycling bin.

Stores today increasingly handle returns, online orders, and internal stock movements as well, which puts growing pressure on storage space and processes. This raises the strain on storage areas and internal workflows – especially where high volumes of goods movement meet limited space and short turnaround times.

Reusable transport packaging follows a simple principle: instead of discarding cardboard after a single use, containers stay in circulation and are used again and again. They're deployed for store deliveries, internal transport, order staging, or the return of goods.

US provider Returnity applies exactly this model with its "Last Box" approach. According to the company, one major national retailer now uses more than 100,000 reusable transport boxes across over 4,000 stores to better structure goods movement and cut down on cardboard use in daily operations.

In high-traffic stores, packaging quickly becomes a logistical factor. Deliveries arrive, returns need to be sorted, and click-and-collect orders or short-notice restocking run in parallel.

Store stockrooms originally designed for classic goods storage are increasingly taking on the tasks of small fulfillment centers.

Standardized reusable containers can bring more structure to environments like these. Goods can be stored more systematically, transported more easily, and held more efficiently in the interim. On top of that, these containers are sturdier than standard cardboard, making them better suited to processes where goods are handled multiple times.

According to Returnity, retailers report less damaged merchandise, less packaging effort, and more efficient day-to-day operations.

Reusable containers are also gaining traction in food retail. According to Tosca, Italian retailer Megamark uses reusable crates for transport, distribution, and product presentation of fresh goods at the point of sale. This allows fresh products to be sold straight from the transport packaging in-store, without any repacking.

Use in the fresh goods segment, however, places considerably higher demands on these boxes than plain goods transport. To fit into existing logistics processes, they need to be compatible with standardized logistics systems such as EPAL and integrate smoothly into receiving, storage, and store delivery. At the same time, the cold chain must be maintained without interruption: good thermal insulation minimizes heat loss and maximizes cooling time without using excessive energy or material. Add to that practical robustness requirements like puncture resistance and a design that's easy to clean. To rule out unauthorized access along transport routes, some systems also add access protection along with sensors for monitoring temperature and location. A user interface that lets everyone along the supply chain interact with the box ultimately turns it into more than just a transport container – it becomes a digital tool within the flow of goods.

When it comes to reusables, the sustainability angle usually comes up first. Less single-use material means less packaging waste and lower resource consumption, after all.

In day-to-day retail, though, what matters most is the operational impact: How quickly can goods be moved? How much floor space gets tied up? How much handling effort is involved?

When reusable containers improve workflows, material use drops – and at the same time, processes in the store and along the supply chain can become more efficient.

Regulatory developments add further pressure, such as the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which sets higher requirements for reuse and packaging reduction.

Not every retail model automatically benefits from reusable packaging. For the system to work, return logistics, cleaning, and reuse all need to be reliably organized. Such solutions make the most sense where large volumes of goods regularly move through clearly structured processes. In the end, it comes down to one practical question: how can goods move through the store and supply chain faster, with less space, and more efficiently?