Thank you for sharing this detailed post @LokeshSambhwani. Sharing some recent thoughts that might be of help with some of the problems you highlight:
- Cost of reverse logistics could be reduced when combined with other forward logistics that customers might be using. How would it help the business of reusables?
Links: discussion on grove post | blog post on ‘return commerce’
-
Common standards of reusables that are stackable as you mentioned could help with collection, logistics and cleaning too.
-
Reusables are collected in bulk (other than event/organisation based) both from individuals (eg. 10 containers from per customer) and community (eg. 10 customers in the neighbourhood) could help reduce costs. Commerce platform that supports return commerce could help with first, but a social platform could help with ‘community orders’.
-
Reusables credit history could help reduce losses.
-
Pooling of old utensils in exchange for credits could help reduce inventory expenses while reducing any cost barriers for potential customers.
-
Distributing reusables just-in-time to B2B customers from distributed cleaning centres can bring costs of logistics down. Infrastructure doesn’t yet exist, but I can see cost of reusables per order between ₹10-15 at scale. If cost of reusable is lower than that of single use packaging (~₹25 currently), customers will be interested and in interest of businesses to make the switch too.
-
Social platform that recognises and optimises for such sustainable efforts could help with brand awareness.
These are long term solutions but curious to know what you think of them.
I hope this helps. 