It is clear that e-commerce uses much more packaging than traditional shopping.

Each product comes with a primary packaging and a secondary packaging for the shipment process. Primary packaging is therefore necessary for both methods of retailing. Brick-and-mortar shops uses secondary packaging like protective shrink wrap that bundles all the goods together for shipment to retail stores. However, for online shopping, products are shipped in individual packages made of various material (eg. cardboard boxes and plastic packaging) for each consumer. Coupled with the enticement of fast shipping, it does not allow for a consolidated packaging. Hence, it generates unnecessary waste which could have been prevented from carefully planned shopping. Moreover, materials like plastic are often more preferred by companies as it is waterproof and more resistant to wear and tear, unlike cardboard boxes.

Online shopping has resulted in the phenomenon of over-packaging. There have been complaints (aka wrap rage), where consumers lamented about how a small item is packed in disproportionately big boxes and the extensive use of plastic wraps that are sometimes unnecessary (eg. plastic in another plastic). Moreover, as companies have to ensure that goods are not damaged in the delivery process, they used lots of bubble wrappings and plastic air paddings to reduce the impact and destruction of their products.

Especially during shopping holidays like Singles’ Day in China, Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the US, more than 300,000 tons of waste packaging can be easily generated from each event. Greenpeace (USA) has criticised this kind of shopping spree as an ‘ecological disaster for the planet’.