What stops a customer from getting up to €500 for their old phone? Often, it’s not the price; it’s the packaging. ReTech leaders like Swappie know that a major friction point in the online trade-in process is the customer's anxiety about shipping a high-value device.
Whether the packaging is user-sourced or sent by the buyer, the challenge is the same: how to offer protection for a valuable phone and at the lowest possible cost? Asking a customer to find a random box they have at home—even an old shoebox—and just "send it in" feels risky. Using a random box can cause problems in logistics, can damage the product during transit as well as making handling a slow, messy process.
To solve this conversion-killing problem, Swappie, Europe’s leader in refurbished iPhones, initiated a long-term project to find the best possible solution. After benchmarking all available options, they partnered with RePack, the "Packaging-as-a-Service" platform, to design a secure, tailor-made, and reusable "Sales-pack Kit."
"We always knew a better packaging experience could enable more people to send their devices to Swappie," says Oskar Frankenhaeuser, Product Manager at Swappie. "We had a working solution, but we wanted to find the best one. After testing everything, RePack's custom-designed approach emerged the winner. They engineered a single, clever design that fits all our iPhone models, providing a professional, secure, and effortless experience for our customers from the moment they get our quote."
The new, purpose-built packaging is sent to the customer as soon as they accept a price quote. Its anonymous, unbranded design is a key security feature—it doesn't advertise the presence of "high-value electronics inside." The tamper-evident design and integrated padding remove the trust and convenience barrier, streamlining the entire reverse logistics process.
The move to a reusable solution also unlocked a new way to calculate ROI.
"The reusability of the package is what makes a better design economically viable," says Jonne Hellgren, CEO of RePack. "Because the package isn't a single-use cost, we can justify investing more in a durable, highly protective, and secure design. This premium package increases the likelihood that customers will return their devices, boosting Swappie's collection rate. Reuse amplifies this ROI, as the cost-per-use doesn't skyrocket. It's a system where better design and sustainability directly drive better business results."
The new RePack-designed packaging is now being rolled out to Swappie customers.