#423 2018 · VanMoof · Consumer goods / e-commerce logisticsreframe
VanMoof couldn't stop couriers from wrecking its bikes no matter what warning labels it printed on the box, so it printed a flat-screen TV on the box instead.
the problem
a shipped product keeps arriving damaged because the people handling it in transit don't treat it carefully
background
As Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof began shipping bikes directly to customers rather than through bike shops, roughly a quarter of them arrived visibly damaged — bent forks, scratched frames, dented fenders — from rough handling somewhere in the courier network. The company tried the standard fixes: thicker cardboard, more foam bracing, bright 'FRAGILE' and 'HANDLE WITH CARE' stickers plastered across every box. None of it moved the damage rate; couriers who handle thousands of boxes a day treat printed warnings as background noise they've learned to ignore.
Co-founder Ties Carlier noticed the bike boxes were roughly the same dimensions as a large flat-screen television carton — a category couriers already handle carefully out of habit, without needing to be told, because everyone already associates a TV-sized box with something breakable and valuable. Rather than try to invent a louder warning, VanMoof decided to borrow an existing one couriers already obeyed.
the move
VanMoof redesigned its shipping cartons to print a large, realistic image of a flat-screen television across the box, with no bike-related markings suggesting the actual contents — betting that handlers would extend a TV box's usual careful treatment to a package that merely looked like one.
the payoff
Reported damage rates on shipments dropped by roughly 70 to 80 percent after the redesign, reversing a problem that had left VanMoof's US retail location full of discounted, refurbished bikes it could only sell at a loss. VanMoof kept the TV-box design in permanent use afterward, printing it on tens of thousands of boxes shipped directly to customers worldwide as the company's online sales grew to the large majority of its business.
what came after
The TV-box bike carton is now widely cited in packaging design and DTC e-commerce circles as proof that shipping damage is often a perception problem, not a materials problem — the fix travels: several other bulky, fragile-item shippers have since adopted the same idea of disguising a box as a category handlers are already conditioned to respect.
references
- [1]TV, or not TV: the story of our bike boxVanMoof, 2019vanmoof.com
- [2]Clever Package Design Trickery: Bike Company Prints Flatscreen TVs on Shipping Cartons, Reduces Damage by 70%-80%Core77, 2018core77.com