Marketing textbook, chapter 9

To ensure delivery quality, a bicycle manufacturer prints a television on its dispatch boxes.

The delivery service is an important aspect of distribution policy to ensure customer satisfaction. It goes without saying that goods that are damaged during transport to the recipient do not meet the delivery quality expected by the consumer. The Dutch bicycle manufacturer VanMoof also exports its exclusive, high-priced bicycles to the USA after they have been ordered via the webshop. Each bike is packed in a large cardboard box and shipped in it. However, American courier drivers are not very squeamish when it comes to bicycles, meaning that one in four bikes arrives at the customer defective. As a result, the defective bikes have to be returned to Europe at great expense and a new bike has to be dispatched. Can nudging (see From Science 3-8) solve the problem?

Obviously yes: the transport boxes for the bikes are very large. They have the same dimensions as the packaging for an incredibly large and expensive television. In the USA, a television is much more important and valuable than any bicycle. Vanmoof therefore had a television set printed on the boxes. Within a very short space of time, complaints in the USA fell by 80 per cent. The reason: American courier services intuitively pay much more attention to a packaged television during transport than to a packaged bicycle. However, this nudging effect is also having a positive impact in other countries.

Image description

The illustration is divided into two parts to illustrate the concept:

• Right view: A graphic shows the shipping carton. In addition to the television motif with the image of a bicycle on the screen, the typical international shipping symbols are shown at the top right: „Top“ (two arrows), „Fragile“ (glass), „Protect from moisture“ (umbrella) and „Handle with care“ (hands around a parcel). When the box is opened to the right, the actual product can be seen „riding out“ - a modern, minimalist e-bike in grey with black handlebars and mudguards.
• Left view: A large, flat shipping box made of brown corrugated cardboard leans against a glass front. A large black flat-screen television is printed on the front. The silhouette of a bicycle and the lettering „VANMOOF ELECTRIFIED S“ as well as the slogan „OUTSMART THE CITY“ can be seen discreetly in the centre of the printed screen.

Sources:

• https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/fahrrad-fernseher-usa-1.4318821 (as at 12 January 2026).
•  https://www.vanmoof.com/blog/en/tv-bike-box (as at 12 January 2026).