Ecommerce Packaging

Ecommerce has been around a lot longer than you think! The world’s first mail order business was set up by Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones in 1861 in Newtown in Wales, UK. He sold woollen and fabric products worldwide using the latest technology of the day – the postal system and the railway!

Online shopping was invented in 1979 by Michael Aldrich in the UK. He hooked up a modified TV to a transaction-processing computer via a (landline!) telephone line. This “teleputer” technology made it possible to transmit payment data securely and became the foundation for modern ecommerce.

Ecommerce packaging has been primarily plastic-based in the past. While the invention of Parkesine in 1862 is regarded as the birth of the plastic industry, polyethylene was invented (by accident!) by Hans von Pechmann in Germany in 1898. It was extremely unstable, so it was not until 1935 that Michael Perrin, working at ICI, Northwich, UK developed it into LDPE (low density polyethylene). The breakthrough in the variety of plastic packaging came in 1953 when Karl Ziegler in Germany developed HDPE (high density polyethylene).

These days, plastic packaging still dominates but there is an increase in more eco-friendly options. Box Depot stocks a wide range of packaging suitable for your ecommerce business. From “traditional” poly mailing bags to more eco-friendly and sustainable cardboard boxes, paper voidfill and air cushioning systems, you are sure to find the perfect packaging solution for your needs!