*4.5. Retailers*

The impact of COVID-19 has been evaluated as negative by retailers. Remote work and lockdowns in various countries have caused considerably bigger demand for e-commerce and online shopping, which in turn has caused higher demand for additional packaging that is required for shipping purposes to secure products from damage in transit. Thus, the negative impact is due to the increasing costs that retailers are required to cover for extra materials on packaging in comparison to the traditional in-store shopping requiring less packaging.

Since supply chains in the coming years will have the task of arranging the flow of information to substantiate the use of any raw material by a declaration, it is likely that it will be increasingly important for the retailers to justify the origin of the packaging materials, as this will be determined by strict regulations in the future.

Circular economy strategies are advancing faster than ever before because it is likely to become mandatory for retailers and other value chain members in the upcoming 10 years. For instance, for the furniture retail sector, the sustainability elements and requirements to be met are already included in part of the product profiles. In addition to the introduction of sustainability aspects in furniture production, companies are already actively abandoning disposable plastics for retail space, and only recyclable plastics are available in stores.
