Intervention of Product Design in E-Commerce: Contribution to a Sustainable Proposal in Supermarket Delivery Services

There has been an exponential growth in supermarket e-commerce services in recent years. Delivery services, due to their peculiarities and requirements, are causing a significant increase in single-use plastics. Given the pollution caused by excessive plastic waste, solutions must be created to minimize the consumption of single-use plastics. The main goal of this case study is to propose a new stage in the supermarket e-commerce services, replacing single-use plastic used for transporting orders with reusable products with high longevity. Mixed methods were applied for this research including analysis of packaging methods in Portuguese supermarkets, analysis of effective delivery solutions from supermarkets worldwide as well as participant observation of the picking process in one of the Continente warehouses. Intrinsic problems were identified that compromise the service effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. A set of components was designed to adapt to the equipment used by Continente and other national and international supermarkets and stores. This set is capable of reconciling, organizing, and protecting the ordered products, eliminating the need for plastic transport bags and other single-use elements used for preservation purposes. The conjunction of designers, engineers, and specialists in the elastomers and thermoplastics industry, as well as the support from experienced operations employees of the e-commerce service, make this proposal evidence of an adequate solution, capable of being mass-produced at low costs, providing significant improvements to the service.