Beauty Bay is a leading UK based online beauty retailer, known globally for its extensive range of skincare, cosmetics, haircare and wellness products. Founded in 1999, the business has grown from a fragrance specialist into a digital first beauty destination, stocking thousands of products from both established and emerging brands, alongside its own highly successful in-house ranges.
As a pure ecommerce retailer, Beauty Bay ships high volumes of orders every day. In this environment, sustainable ecommerce packaging plays a crucial role, not only in reducing environmental impact, but also in driving fulfilment efficiency, customer satisfaction and brand perception. Packaging is one of the few physical touchpoints between Beauty Bay and its customers, making it a key strategic asset.
Table of contents
Understanding the Challenge
As Beauty Bay continued to scale, their existing packaging solution began to restrict progress across sustainability, fulfilment speed and customer experience.
At the time, Beauty Bay relied on:
- Plastic tape to seal every parcel
- Large quantities of void fill to protect products
- Plain, unbranded outer boxes
This approach created several challenges:
- High plastic usage, conflicting with Beauty Bay’s sustainability goals
- Excess material consumption, including void fill and tape
- Inefficient packing processes, increasing labour time per order
- Standard levels of returns caused by damage in transit
- A missed opportunity to use packaging as part of their brand and marketing strategy
Beauty Bay approached Lil Packaging looking for a sustainable ecommerce packaging solution that could improve performance across all these areas, without compromising on protection or speed.
Why Lil Packaging
Beauty Bay chose Lil Packaging because of our S.U.R.F principles - Sustainable, Unboxing, Reduced returns & shipping, and Faster fulfilment. These principles align directly with the requirements of high volume ecommerce operations.
Rather than treating sustainability, branding and efficiency as separate goals, Lil Packaging designs integrated sustainable ecommerce packaging systems that remove unnecessary materials, reduce handling time and improve the end customer experience.
For Beauty Bay, the objective was clear: one packaging solution that could replace multiple materials, reduce waste, speed up packing and elevate the brand.
The Solution
Lil Packaging worked closely with Beauty Bay’s fulfilment and marketing teams to develop a bespoke Breezebox® solution with integral Breezepaper®, engineered specifically for ecommerce fulfilment.
The solution included:
- Peel-and-seal closure, eliminating the need for plastic tape
- Integrated internal retention using Breezepaper®, removing the need for void fill
- A custom branded exterior, turning the box into a brand asset
- A simple, intuitive design optimised for fast, repeatable packing
This approach transformed Beauty Bay’s packaging into a fully sustainable ecommerce packaging system, combining protection, branding and operational efficiency in a single format.
Sustainable Ecommerce Packaging in Action
Before switching to Lil Packaging, Beauty Bay’s fulfilment operation used:
- ½ tonne of plastic tape per year
- 45 tonnes of void fill annually
By adopting Lil’s sustainable ecommerce packaging solution:
- Plastic tape was completely eliminated
- Breezepaper® provided built in product retention, removing the need for void fill entirely
- Overall packaging waste was significantly reduced
This shift delivered immediate environmental benefits while simplifying the packing process, demonstrating how sustainable ecommerce packaging can reduce waste and improve efficiency at scale.
Unboxing Experience & Brand Engagement
Prior to Lil Packaging, Beauty Bay’s packaging exterior offered limited brand impact, resulting in poor social media engagement and a missed opportunity to connect with customers beyond the website.
With the introduction of Lil’s sustainable ecommerce packaging:
- A bespoke printed Breezebox® aligned with Beauty Bay’s brand and marketing campaigns
- Packaging became part of campaign storytelling, extending brand visibility beyond digital channels
- Customers actively shared their unboxing experiences, generating thousands of engagements across social media
- Positive customer feedback highlighted the premium feel and thoughtful design
The new sustainable ecommerce packaging solution transformed the unboxing moment into a marketing tool, increasing brand exposure and customer loyalty organically.
Reduced Returns & Improved Customer Satisfaction
Before introducing Lil’s packaging, Beauty Bay experienced standard industry levels of returns caused by damage during transit, an ongoing cost for ecommerce businesses.
With the Breezebox®:
- Products were securely held in place using integrated internal retention
- Movement inside the box was virtually eliminated
- Beauty Bay reported “almost none” in terms of returns caused by transit damage
This dramatic reduction in damaged orders improved customer satisfaction, reduced replacement costs and strengthened trust in the brand, highlighting the commercial value of well designed sustainable ecommerce packaging.
Faster Fulfilment & Operational Efficiency
Fulfilment speed was a key priority for Beauty Bay’s high volume operation.
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Before Lil Packaging:
Average pack time of 86 seconds per parcel -
With Lil Packaging:
Average pack time reduced to 55 seconds per parcel
This represented a 36% labour gain across fulfilment operations.
By removing tape, void fill and unnecessary handling steps, Lil’s sustainable ecommerce packaging enabled faster throughput at the packing bench. Combined with reduced material usage, this led to a significant reduction in overall fulfilment spend.
Conclusion
The partnership between Beauty Bay and Lil Packaging demonstrated the real world impact of intelligent sustainable ecommerce packaging.
By switching to the Breezebox® system, Beauty Bay:
- Eliminated plastic tape and void fill
- Reduced packaging waste at scale
- Elevated the unboxing experience and social engagement
- Virtually removed damage related returns
- Achieved a 36% improvement in packing efficiency
Through Lil Packaging’s S.U.R.F principles, sustainable ecommerce packaging became a strategic advantage, supporting Beauty Bay’s growth while improving operational performance, customer satisfaction and environmental impact.
Deborah Lill
Deb Lill is the Creative Manager at Lil Packaging, where she blends over 20 years of experience in branding, content creation, and people-focused communication. With a background in Psychology and HR, she brings deep insight into motivation and storytelling, helping shape Lil’s authentic, sustainability-driven voice across platforms. Having been part of Lil’s journey for two decades, Deb has helped grow a thriving online community and continues to champion creativity, eco-friendly innovation, and family values - both in her work and in her life.
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