1 in 5 adults injured by tricky Christmas packaging
Our latest research has uncovered the scale of frustration and injury because packaging is falling short on inclusivity.
Hospital is not where you want to spend your Christmas, but our latest research has found around 12 million people have been injured opening difficult packaging during the festive period, with almost a quarter of those ending up in the accident department.
Christmas is a time for joy, not frustration, nobody wants to spend Christmas wrestling with tricky packaging and possibly injuring themselves in the process. Hard to open packaging is affecting millions of people with frustrations and injuries.
Lydia Butler
Regional Customer Experience Manager at DS Smith
With an expected 1.29 billion parcels to be delivered in the UK alone, our findings suggest businesses should be doing more to prioritise inclusive design, making sure packaging is easy to identify, easy to open, and easy to recycle.
Our poll of 2,000 UK adults discovered 74% get frustrated when opening packaging, with almost half (45%) of suffering with hand weakness or pain, with common conditions such as, arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome. And of those, 30% say they regularly need assistance opening packaging as a result.
Pippa Stacey (pictured), an award-winning writer with a chronic illness affecting her movements.
Pippa Stacey is an award winning writer with a chronic illness affecting her movements. “It’s frustrating when I know from my own business that it doesn’t have to be that way. I want to see more companies using the solutions that already exist to make packaging inclusive for everyone.” With the huge increase in packaging this festive season, we believe no-one should have a negative experience trying to open their presents. Find out more about innovative approach to packaging design.
I enjoy Christmas time, but too often when online shopping, parcels arrive that are hard or sometimes even impossible for me to open.
Pippa Stacey
12 Million
people get injured opening difficult packaging during the festive period
With the huge increase in packaging this festive season, we believe no-one should have a negative experience trying to open their presents. For people with more limited hand mobility, packaging that’s difficult to open can be a significant barrier to independence - these struggles are often overlooked but are very real. We think more can be done to take an inclusive approach to designing packaging. Packaging needs to be suitable for everyone – no matter your age, health condition or level of ability.
This online survey of 2000 UK Adults (nationally representative of age, gender and region) was commissioned by DS Smith and conducted by market research company OnePoll, in accordance with the Market Research Society's code of conduct. Data was collected between 28/11/2024 and 04/12/2024. OnePoll are company partners of the MRS and has corporate membership to ESOMAR.
