Capstone | VOLDE
Team | Fernanda Galmez | Olga Solano | Deidre Washington, | Vika Yen | Larissa Yoshiura
Video created by Larissa Yoshiura
Art Direction by Deidre Washington and Larissa Yoshiura
Music: "Happy" by Pharrell
CHALLENGE
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PROCESS
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Our goal was to propose a viable and scalable solution to improve awareness and leverage actions among online shoppers that directly impacts and supports waste reduction. To achieve this outcome, we asked ourselves:
“How to engage online shoppers and retailers in reducing packaging waste generated from e-commerce?”
In our study, we were seeking to cover all parts of our research question, gathering information directly and indirectly related to our subject, utilizing the 4D model to Discover, Define, Design and Deliver a solution.
Initially, we divided the question into four distinct areas, each presenting gaps where opportunities for a solution could possibly arise:
A. Customer Activation
B. Local e-commerce model
C. A packaging solution
D. Bridge between retailers and packaging waste solution
To guide our discovery we developed a list of primary questions and secondary questions that began to branch out as illustrated below.
By casting a wide net through data collection from supporting literature and descriptive research from qualitative and quantitative research, we were able to gain valuable insight into the issues surrounding sustainable behavior in e-commerce, more specifically with regards to shipping packaging.
● STEEP
● SWOT
● PORTER’S GENERIC STRATEGY
● Case studies
● Positive Scholarship (best practices)
● Interviews with large e-commerce retailers: Amazon and Gilt
Our next steps involved defining who we will target. In order to accomplish this we homed in on the ‘typical online shopper’ and the recycling first-responder, with the intersection of these two resulting in our proposed target. Moving on with our project, we developed a persona and brainstormed various solutions.
SOLUTION
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The proposed solution took the shape of an online marketplace, whose existence fills the gap between customer demand and a lack of sustainability options offered by retailers for packaging waste. The business model takes advantage of the growing consumer lifestyle cohorts, the Passionates and the Sustainable Mainstreams and their desire for more sustainable alternatives. The marketplace also addresses the disposal of shipping packaging by partnering with an existing company, who has created a reusable shipping packaging and has a successful reverse logistics process in place. VOLDE, as the company will be called, will capitalize on Original RePack’s existing shipping product and their experience with the closed loop system they have created and maintained in Finland.
How It Works | B2B
How It Works | B2C
PRESENTATION
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