It’s a problem that a nation in lockdown can readily identify with. Home deliveries are picking up – but what to do about physical distancing from the delivery man?

Surprisingly, consumers are discovering that a range of companies have refashioned packaging on everything from fresh flowers to bottles of wine and boxes of dishwasher tablets so they fit through the letterbox.

Among the most unusual is the world’s first “flat” bottle of wine – the first that can be posted through a letterbox, designed by Garçon Wines, originally to reduce carbon emissions and supply chain costs.

The eco-friendly plastic bottles are a novel alternative to the glass model that has remained largely unchanged since the 19th century, and after being launched initially for novelty one-off-gifts, is being scaled up in collaboration with major suppliers and wine brands.

After a partnership with Naked Wines, wines are currently stocked through Bloom & Wild and Letterbox Gifts, which specialise in flowers and foodie “treats” for birthdays and anniversaries. But a link-up with Accolade Wines will lead to several of its new world wine brands – including Hardys – being sold in the flat bottles later this year.

“We invented a flat wine bottle that would fit through most UK letterboxes and was lightweight, strong and eco-friendly,” said Santiago Navarro, chief executive and co-founder of Garçon Wines. “Today we have a very different situation, where letterbox wine is in higher demand than ever.

“An invention created for convenience and sustainability has turned into a product wanted during this pandemic for continuity and safety.”

Home deliveries have picked up sharply during the pandemic in the UK. Online grocery sales – which usually make up just 7% of the UK’s £200bn grocery market – rose in March, according to figures from market research company Nielsen, with one-fifth of households placing an online order, equal to an additional 1.2m online grocery orders over the four weeks.

Many products of course do not lend themselves to letterbox delivery, but firms are getting creative. Bloom & Wild sends its letterbox flowers via Royal Mail’s Tracked service straight through the front door. The blooms are picked in bud and wrapped to protect the buds. Long-established Flying Flowers also offers letterbox-friendly packaging.

A new kid on the block is UK gourmet brand Stirrd – offering traditional fudge made by hand in small batches in Harrogate – in letterbox-friendly boxes. Shoppers with a sweet tooth can buy by the box or sign up to a subscription service. The company is currently sending boxes to key workers, including those in the NHS, as a goodwill gesture .

Also offering subscription is the laundry brand smol, which has just launched 100% plastic-free, child-safe packaging for its range of eco-friendly laundry capsules and dishwasher tablets.

The online brand offers concentrated capsules (with no animal-derived ingredients and cruelty-free accreditation) delivered straight through the front door in a slim cardboard box. A spokeswoman said “We have seen interest in our products triple since the pandemic and we are planning two further new products in the summer.”

In the pipeline – though still under wraps – is a French beauty brand which is set to launch in the UK in May. The company has designed all its packaging to fit through a postbox, reducing its carbon footprint and – with a £10 price point per item – is aiming to change the way we shop for beauty products.