CIRKLA

Every day, approximately one million e-commerce packages are ordered and shipped to Swedish consumers. The CIRKLA project is taking on the challenge of resolving crucial questions about how a circular system for e-commerce packaging can be created.

Today, e-commerce accounts for about 16 percent of all retail in Sweden. By 2030, that figure is projected to increase to 40 percent, meaning the number of packages shipped daily will amount to three million. This generates an enormous amount of packaging waste.

CIRKLA brings together retailers, carriers, industry organizations, packaging companies, and research actors to investigate how a logistics system for circular e-commerce packaging can be designed in practice.

The project is conducting two pilots with a total of 5,000 consumers.

This is CIRKLA

CIRKLA seeks to address key challenges in creating a circular system for e-commerce packaging through pilot projects and in-depth analyses. The initiative focuses on three core areas:

Logistics: Optimizing the organization of package flows and pickup systems.

Consumer Behavior: Encouraging user participation by identifying ways to motivate consumers to adopt circular solutions.

System Support: Developing the physical and digital tools necessary to facilitate effective communication and collaboration among stakeholders and actors?

The project consists of one smaller and one larger pilot phase. In each pilot phase, several different types of solutions are tested, which yields a large amount of information about how consumers react to different messages, incentives, return channels, and how effective the various solutions are.

Examples of what the pilots test:

• Different return channels: Consumers will be able to return their empty packaging through agents/pick-up points, mailboxes, outside their door, in a grocery store, or in a package box.
• Messaging: How consumers are affected by different messages and layouts in the check-out process.
• Incentives: The impact of reminder SMS messages and gifts on the consumer's propensity to return packaging.
• Deposit/Pant: How a deposit on the packaging affects the consumer's propensity to choose a circular packaging option and to return it.
• Packaging-free: What consumers think about having their goods delivered entirely without packaging.

The project will also investigate which support systems and business models are needed to grow long-term and efficiently.

What Happens Now?

CIRKLA has completed a first pilot to evaluate how reusable packaging functions in the e-commerce system and the logistics chain. The purpose was to get answers to how logistics work in practice and how the customer can be motivated to use circular packaging. In the pilot, some consumers made an active choice to select a circular package during check-out, while others received it without choosing. Different return methods for the empty packaging were also tested.

Key insights were that many customers showed interest in the solution, but it was difficult to know what customers actually thought about the packaging and why they returned it.

In the spring of 2026, we will conduct a larger pilot with even more customers. The focus will then be on better understanding what makes the customer choose and want to return a circular packaging option.

Goals and Future Visions

The goal of CIRKLA is to develop commercially scalable solutions that inspire others, both in Sweden and Europe, to implement circular flows and business models. By engaging the entire value chain from consumers to transport companies and retailers, the project can pave the way for sustainable e-commerce.