In the e-commerce sector, the excess use of plastic packaging materials has always been an area of concern. Ecovia was established to address this problem statement and provide sustainable packaging options to the brands catering to millions of users every day.
Dhwani Mehta, Co-founder and CEO, Ecovia in conversation with Madanmohan Rao of YourStory at YourStory’s premier edition of the Brands Of New India Mega Summit, discussed the importance of using sustainable packaging materials and why all D2C brands must rethink their strategy. Here are some key takeaways.
Marketplaces focused on sustainability
“In the larger D2C ecosystem, while there has been an evolution in every space including logistics and payments, the packaging space has not witnessed any significant change. With D2C space booming in India, it only became clearer to us that such a space needs to exist and prosper for the modern consumer today,” said Dhwani. “Consumers today are aware of subjects like climate change and more brands are coming up to cater to that need of theirs. As more and more consumers want brands to be sustainable, new-age brands are advocating sustainability in one form or another. In essence, sustainability is taking centre stage in the mainstream e-commerce segment,” she added.
Returnable packaging is the future
“Brands to some extent have taken measures to eliminate plastic from the supply chain or using compostable packaging. However, that is not enough. A lot more needs to be done. The closest to a perfect solution to use of excess plastic packaging problem is reusing at commercial and scalable level,” shared Dhwani.
Each package at Ecovia is designed to be reused up to 100 times and the company offers exciting rewards for acting responsibly.
Incentive-driven model
“We at Ecovia ensure that we maximise utility so that our packaging is used to serve multiple different orders to multiple different customers. We offer competitive pricing solutions to brands and help them reach out to consumers. And for consumers, if they shop with our brand partners and return the packaging to us, they would be rewarded for the same,” explained Dhwani.
Ecovia’s business model is one-of-a-kind in the market where a consumer is rewarded for acting responsibly and returning the packaging for reusing purposes.
“We feel it is only about time that more and more brands will start adopting sustainable packaging solutions and make this mainstream,” she noted.
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