How do sustainable products influence buying decisions? [5 reading tips]

Quelle: pexels | Max DeRoin — Source: pexels | Max DeRoin

Sustainability has always been a beautiful word with which companies spearhead their corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives. However, there are facts and figures that prove sustainability having a prominent place within the online retailers’ main business strategy and is enhancing its influence on consumer buying decisions.

Consumers speak out!

According to the survey “Buying decisions and sustainability” carried out by WE Communication together with the market research firm YouGov to 2.000 German consumers, 53% of the respondents accept the higher price of sustainable products, although they still give more importance to the quality (93%), efficiency (91%) and price (90%) of a product than the sustainability (58%).

Moreover, 50% of Germans over 45 years consider the ecologic and social problems have a very positive or positive influence on their buying decisions, while only 37% of young Germans believe so.

The products in which sustainability is crucial are: groceries, baby products and clothes. To this respect, Edeka is focusing strongly its communications and ads on vegan and bio line products while highlighting its partnership with WWF, as you can see in this TV-spot:

On the other hand, H&M launched its first ever sustainability campaign to encourage consumers to recycle unwanted clothes in order to pave the way for a more “sustainable fashion future”.

E-Retailers are becoming greener

Because of the enormous pressure governments are under, the greater population awareness of the environmental and sustainability problems and also because of the visibility of the effects of the climate change and other serious industrial abuses global companies and online retailers are stepping their efforts to integrate green strategies at all levels.

According to a survey made by ECC Köln and HDE, almost 4/10 of small and medium online retailers indicated that ecology and sustainability factors are important or very important for them and 8/10 are implementing sustainability measures.

The most popular ecological measures among e-retailers are related with delivery: 53% are using more ecologically friendly packaging materials and 46% are implementing measures to minimize the amount of parcels shipped.

Quelle: ECC und HDE — Source: ECC and HDE

However, we all should not forget that behind an online order there are a lot of resources. That’s why, although it is clear that e-retailers and also global companies are taking sustainability issues more seriously, there is still a long way to go.

The major challenges remain in supply chains as well as manufacturing and logistics processes. These sectors are realising that a better efficiency is possible by reducing energy waste, developing biodegradable and eco-friendly packing materials and by using solar trucks.

Furthermore, some global companies like Unilever and General Motors are showing how sustainability drives profitability.

Is your company planning to implement green marketing or sustainability strategies?