Why Printing a TV on Bicycle Packaging Was Brilliant for VanMoof

What do you do when your business revolves around online ordering, but your product keeps getting damaged during delivery? You print the image of a very delicate product on the side of the packaging instead … obviously.

GENIUS! MY KIND OF THINKING - To reduce shipping damages, a Dutch bike company printed a television on their boxes https://t.co/fZQWkPxeRN pic.twitter.com/8vJCYvwwNN

— Casey Neistat (@Casey) September 26, 2016

VanMoof, a Dutch bicycle company with locations around the world, decided that it had enough of its bikes being damaged during deliveries, especially in the U.S. So, instead of depicting a bike on the side of the package, the company got a little creative. Now, VanMoof bikes are shipping in boxes featuring an image of a flatscreen TV, in hopes that couriers would take a little more care in handling it.

“We came up [with] the idea because we had lots of damage, especially with shipments in the U.S.A," Taco Carlier, the co-founder of VanMoof, told The Independent. “In the end our whole store in Brooklyn was filled up with refurbished bikes that were damaged on shipments and we had to sell them with a discount. … In the U.S.A. damaged goods were even reduced by 70 to 80%.”

Packaging Perspective: Typically in the package printing industry, the goal is to be as accurate as possible with how products are displayed on packaging. So, it's certainly unique to see a brand intentionally misleading handlers through its packaging. But, from both a product protection and marketing standpoint, it's a brilliant approach. A small tweak in printing significantly reduced damage and judging by the online reaction from consumers, they have appreciated the quirky boxes.

packagePRINTING has reached out to VanMoof for comment.