The Potential in Circular Products
Client
Order Nordic is a distributor primarily focused on consumer electronics, with products across categories such as home & household, telecom, audio & visual, personal care, and accessories. The product range also includes items within sports & leisure, baby & children, and toys. Order Nordic sells its products to businesses in e-commerce and retail, including both large chains and independent retailers. Through an automated robotic warehouse, Order Nordic is able to deliver products to customers’ warehouses, stores, or directly to end consumers via dropshipping. While sales are primarily within Sweden, the company also distributes to other countries in the Nordic region. In addition to its distribution and logistics operations, Order Nordic is a brand owner, developing and distributing its own products under the Champion brand across various categories, including home & household, telecom, audio & visual, personal care, accessories, and sports & leisure. The company is also environmentally certified under ISO 14001.
Task
Order Nordic wants to offer environmentally friendly products that reduce resource consumption. The company has already begun to implement circular practices by providing spare parts for products under its Champion brand. The company's long-term vision is to fully integrate circularity and sustainability into its operations and business model. In the fall of 2023, Order Nordic collaborated with a student group from the Innovation Engineering course to explore circular business models. The students proposed that the company develop a system for product take-back, repair, and reuse. Under this system, customers would return old and worn-out products to the company, which would then repair and replace parts to make the products suitable for resale.
This concept presents a promising opportunity that Order Nordic wishes to explore in greater detail. A key aspect of this investigation is identifying which products would be most suitable for such a "take-back" system. A few fundamental criteria include that the product should be one that most people own and need (for example, cotton candy machines would not qualify) and that it should have a sufficiently high price point to make the buy-back economically viable. In this project, you will investigate which electronic household products would be best suited for a buy-back system. What is the current state of knowledge regarding electronic products and circularity? What factors make repair, reuse, and the recovery of parts more or less feasible? The economic aspect is also important: which products can be resold at a relatively high second-hand value and potentially resold multiple times? The project may include a consumer survey to assess potential customers' attitudes toward circular products.
The final scope of the project will be defined in consultation with the supervisor and the client. Both the student and the client must ensure that relevant academic rigor is applied throughout the work.
Related sustainability goals
