Confirm your role and scope
Start with the packaging activities your business performs. Ecommerce businesses may supply packaging under their own brand, import packaged goods, add shipment packaging or operate an online marketplace. Each activity can change what the organisation reports.
Confirm the producer tier and reporting schedule for the current year. Keep the written assessment with your compliance records.
Build a product-level packaging record
Record each packaging component against the product or shipment type. Store material, weight, packaging activity and the classifications required by the reporting file. Keep supplier evidence with the record.
Connect sales and fulfilment data
Your reporting total depends on the number of packaged units supplied in the reporting period. Connect SKU records to order data and account for returns, exports, bundles and packaging added in the warehouse.
Product packaging
Primary packs, labels, closures and grouped packaging linked to each SKU.
Shipment packaging
Boxes, mailers, tape and void fill added during fulfilment.
Assign review responsibility
Name owners for product data, order extraction, classification and final approval. Set a cut-off date for changes. Reconcile packaging mass against sales volume and investigate large changes before submission.
Online marketplaces
An online marketplace that allows non-UK businesses to sell goods into the UK has specific reporting duties. It must also document its packaging-data methodology. The methodology should explain seller data, sampling, estimates, quality checks and RAM assessments.
Treat returns, bundles and exports correctly
Order totals rarely match the quantities needed for packaging reporting without adjustment. Keep cancelled orders out of the supplied total. Record whether returned goods went back into stock, were repacked or left the UK. For bundles, calculate the product packaging and the outer packaging added to the combined order.
| Order event | Packaging question | Record to retain |
|---|---|---|
| Customer return | Was replacement packaging added? | Return reason and warehouse event |
| Bundle | Which product and shipment components were supplied? | Bundle definition and packing rule |
| Export | Did the packaging leave the UK? | Destination and dispatch evidence |
| Marketplace sale | Which organisation has the reporting activity? | Seller location and contract |
Close supplier-data gaps
Ask suppliers for component weights, material composition and effective dates in a standard template. Reject combined pack weights when components need different classifications. If a supplier cannot provide a value, weigh a documented sample and state which SKUs use the result.
Set an expiry date for estimates. Procurement should replace them when specifications change or measured data becomes available. This prevents temporary assumptions becoming permanent catalogue values.
Run a monthly exception review
Check new SKUs without packaging records, orders that failed to match a product, unusual weights and large changes in material totals. Assign every exception to a named owner and keep the resolution.
| Check | Trigger | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| SKU coverage | Sale without an approved pack record | Product team |
| Order join | Transaction cannot match a product version | Data team |
| Mass variance | Material total outside the agreed tolerance | Compliance |
| Estimate age | Review date has passed | Procurement |
Use software where manual joins create risk
Remedy EPR links catalogue, packaging and order data, then retains the calculation and report version. Your team still owns the classifications and submission approval.
Prepare accurate EPR reports without rebuilding spreadsheets
Remedy EPR automates data imports and calculations, detects compliance errors and keeps evidence ready for review.
Check the current GOV.UK reporting-file specification before preparing an upload.