On 1 June, DS Smith opened the new Benelux Impact Centre in Ghent. This announcement was made during the exclusive event 'Energise your e-commerce' in Utrecht, which was attended by the major Benelux e-commerce companies, fulfilment centres and the Dutch e-commerce trade organisation.

The Impact Centre provides a practical environment of a physically simulated e-commerce supply chain, not virtual, and enables visitors to experience the impact of packaging on efficiency, growth, costs, damage and customer experience. Insights, trends and knowledge are shared during workshops.

Olivia Van Hauwermeiren, Impact Centre Manager, explains: "We supply most of the major webshops in Europe and we've found that the knowledge in this sector is highly fragmented." The players in the e-commerce world vary greatly due to the complexity of their supply. The aim of an Impact Centre workshop is to map the customer's supply cycle in order to optimise logistics efficiency and enhance the customer experience. "

The Impact Centre fits within DS Smith's wide range of e-commerce activities such as packaging design, an e-commerce test lab to reduce damage, high speed packaging machines to pack customised orders and reduce space, an European design library of e-commerce packaging, a 'hero range' of specialised e-commerce standard packaging solutions, etc.