We started Positive Drinks Co to learn lessons and have a sandbox to solve problems our Woo clients have every day.
Looking back, the most valuable lesson we’ve learnt is how using our brand effectively has helped us combat our largest courier issue.
We’ve always been careful with packaging, using great solutions like Flexi-Hex for bottles, recyclable padding/void fill, double-walled outer boxes, etc. Yet we still had damage claims and missing-in-transit issues (a nasty cost on both reputation and wallet). To be precise, in a 6 month period:
❌ 3 incidents – A single bottle breaking in a larger box by the time it got to the customer
❌ 2 incidents – Something breaking so badly that the courier had to dispose of the whole parcel before getting to the customer, causing delays and extra cost
❌ 2 incidents – Completely lost packages within the shipping network
So we tried Fragile tape, didn’t work. Different external/internal padding didn’t work. Until eventually we tried to solve the problem of packages just getting lost completely, we attempted to make our packaging more memorable.
Every box that now leaves us has Positive Drinks Co branded tape and 2-4 compostable stickers applied.
The result in the same 6 month period?
✅ ZERO incidents – A single bottle breaking
✅ ZERO incidents – Whole shipment being wasted
✅ ZERO incidents – Lost packages
We’ve saved hundreds of £s from what would’ve been damage claims, replacements, re-shipping, and customer dissatisfaction. Also, our packaging is more recognisable (both to couriers and to end customers), meaning more care is naturally taken with it
This isn’t about expensive materials or different tech, just a clever, consistent visual signal that changes behaviour.
VanMoof famously pioneered a similar idea. When they shipped bikes, they realised handlers treated flat-screen TVs with more care, so they printed TV graphics on their bike boxes. Overnight, the damage rate fell by 70–80. Read more here.
We obviously aren’t at that scale, but the principle holds: a small branding gesture can influence the logistics chain in a BIG way.
If you ship physical goods (especially fragile or high-value ones) and you haven’t already done this, try it. A simple set of stickers or a recognisable visual cue should pay for itself many times over.