Retail and e-commerce – May 2026

Fully automated canteen for reusable meal packaging in development
Research project ReLoop plans to develop an automated canteen that integrates the automated dispensing and return of reusable packs for food. This is a fully digital, 24-hour canteen service that will allow users to book food and make contactless payments, whilst also incorporating a pack return system for subsequent cleaning and reuse. The initiative is driven by a Spanish consortium and AIMPLAS is one of the participants.

Breaking free from single-use: consumer journeys in packaging-free shopping
Packaging-free grocery shopping enables consumers to avoid single-use packaging and buy specific quantities tailored to their needs. Despite its benefits, it faces challenges such as limited product variety and availability. A qualitative study led by Linköping University explores the motivations, behaviours, and strategies of individuals who engage in or discontinue packaging-free shopping, including how they combine packed and unpacked products. The study (5.19 MB) is published in the Journal of Food Products Marketing.

Green packaging practices of online retail platforms
The surge in packaging waste presents a critical concern in supply chain management. Motivated by observed green packaging practices of online retail platforms, USTC researchers developed an analytical model to examine the platform’s green packaging strategy. The findings reveal that green packaging, regardless of taxation, boosts consumer demand and enhances platform profitability. The study (2.63 MB) is published in the International Journal of Production Research.

Food packaging design influence on consumer purchase decisions
With the increasing diversification and personalisation of consumer demands for food packaging design, optimising packaging design to enhance consumers’ purchase intention has become an important research direction. A recent study (395 kB) from Beijing Information Science and Technology University investigates the effects of seven key independent variables: dominant colour, packaging material, packaging form, logo position, proportion of dominant colour, length-to-width ratio, and number of colours on consumer purchase decisions.

Packaging design for Gen Z and Millennials in the FMCG sector in Northern Vietnam
New research by the Banking Academy of Vietnam analyses the factors influencing the green packaged product purchase intention of Generation Z and Millennials in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in Northern Vietnam. Building trust and providing supportive policies are essential for transforming these intentions into actual sustainable consumption behaviour. The study (233 kB) is published in the International Journal of Social Science Humanity & Management Research.

Navigating environmental and convenience functions of reusable packaging
Products sold in bulk and the reuse of packs are attracting growing attention. How do consumers logistically organise the shopping activity for products sold in bulk and tackle reusable packaging to reconcile its environmental and convenience functions? This topic is subject of a research paper (1.33 MB) by the Université de Rennes and Cergy Paris Université that is published in the Journal of Business Logistics.

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