The Ultimate Guide to Sustainable eCommerce

Sustainable eCommerce: Strategies for Environmentally-Friendly Online Retail

Sustainability has become the name of the game, with 78% of consumers stating that they consider it important in 2024 and 84% stating bad environmental practices could alienate them from a brand. With that in mind, sustainable eCommerce is something that all online retailers should consider in this day and age.

From utilizing eco-friendly retail packaging to making products from biodegradable materials, there are plenty of different ways that eCommerce or wider retail brands can embrace sustainability. With these practices both good for business and the planet, awareness and understanding of various strategies have become nothing short of essential. We’ve put together this blog to expand on the need for sustainable eCommerce practices, along with highlighting some core strategies that every business owner can and should consider when navigating the business landscape.

The Importance of Sustainable eCommerce

There are two sides to sustainable eCommerce when considering just how important the concept has become. Firstly, we have a growing need for sustainability in the fight for environmental security. Secondly, there’s the increasing consumer demand for sustainable options. What’s most important about understanding both of these angles is the recognition that they inform each other, with neither taking precedence over the other.

The Environmental Impact of eCommerce

The need for eco-friendly online shopping has been birthed from eCommerce having a huge environmental impact. Between the issues of shipping and packaging, both compounded by the ever-increasing demand for online goods, the impact of eCommerce on the environment has become profound.

Over-Packaging: The packaging side of eCommerce affects the environment in multiple ways. For one, the production of plastic packaging (86 million tons a year) causes significant CO2 emissions, generating masses of landfills, with only around 14% of plastic packaging recycled today. Similarly, over 3 billion trees are pulped a year to produce shipping cartons, with deforestation increasing the negative impact of emissions as less photosynthesis can take place.

Shipping Emissions: Shipping is the other primary environmental concern of eCommerce. In 2020, the shipping and return of products accounted for around 37% of all greenhouse gas emissions, with the numbers only expected to rise. The consistent rise in shipping emissions is largely down to the now everpresent demand for same and next-day delivery, along with free returns, meaning trucks are often sent out filled at half their capacity, creating more traffic and emissions.

There are significant environmental impacts related to the eCommerce supply chain, each contributing to the need for more sustainable consumption and production. While brands like Amazon and Alibaba can offer high-level convenience and sustainable practices, it’s also up to small businesses to make positive changes for the sake of the wider industry landscape.

The Increase of Sustainable Consumer Behavior

From a more business-minded perspective, taking on a more sustainable eCommerce approach is an important step towards building a more steady baseline of customers. As we touched on before, sustainable consumption is becoming increasingly prevalent, especially in online shopping contexts over in-store settings.

Some core sustainable eCommerce statistics include:

75% of product categories performed better with sustainable products in regards to market share when sold online than in-store.

Products specifically marked as sustainable now take up around 17% of the entire retail market.

55% of consumers are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products from sustainable consumer brands.

The number of Google searches across the globe related to sustainable products and surrounding subjects increased by around 130% between 2017 and 2022.

With these statistics and many more out there showing just how much momentum the sustainable eCommerce sector is building, it’s clear that online sellers risk falling behind if they don’t get on board with the direction things are moving in.

Actionable Strategies for Sustainable eCommerce

Now that it’s clear how vital sustainable retail practices have become in the online sector, it’s also important to keep some easily actionable strategies in mind. While it’s not necessary to incorporate all of these methods into your business plan, taking some of them on board is a great way to build a loyal base of eco-minded consumers.

Eco-Friendly Packaging Solutions: These days, countless different packaging and labeling options are available for a more sustainable strategy. This can include the use of biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable materials, with brands like Gucci, Puma, and ASOS all leading the charge in these sustainable packaging practices.

Carbon-Neutral Shipping: Many eCommerce companies are embracing the pursuit of carbon-neutral shipping, with alternative transportation methods becoming more commonplace in supply chain and logistics operations. Electric vehicles and renewable energy-powered logistics can each be used to reduce carbon emissions in eCommerce operations.

Product Life Cycle Assessments: Conducting regular life cycle assessments (LCAs) can be a useful way to evaluate the environmental impact of products from the collection of their raw materials all the way to disposal. By completing these LCAs, companies can pick out the areas for improvement in terms of production, shipping, and waste-focused efficiency.

Sustainable Sourcing and Supply Chain Management: Things like organic farming, responsible sourcing, and fair labor practices can all be considered in terms of supply partnerships to increase general sustainability. Being transparent in the supply chain helps to keep businesses accountable and honest, ensuring they don’t stray from more sustainable practices.

Circular Economy Initiatives: Certain businesses, such as those operating within the field of consumer electronics, can benefit by implementing the principles of the circular economy. This includes completing product refurbishments, remanufacturing, and recycling, extending product lifespans, and reducing overall operational waste.

Energy Efficiency: Using energy-efficient technologies and infrastructure can move beyond the shipping side of operations, with warehouses, data processing sites, and fulfillment centers all prime candidates for being more energy-efficient. Technology like solar and wind power are more available than ever, allowing eCommerce brands to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

Minimalistic Design: Minimalism is a useful approach that can increase sustainability in terms of both the products themselves and the packaging they come in. Choosing to use fewer materials from more renewable sources like cotton, recycled plastics, and bamboo can massively reduce the levels of waste produced by an eCommerce operation.

Carbon Offsetting Schemes: Along with embracing more carbon-neutral practices on the operational side of an eCommerce business, brands can also invest in carbon offsetting schemes to help fight their production of emissions. Whether included in the price of products or given as an option to customers at checkout, projects like tree planting and eco cleanup can be highly beneficial.

Community Engagement & Education: Beyond working within the products and packaging themselves, brands can engage with local communities and stakeholders to raise awareness about sustainable practices. Workshops, events, and educational campaigns can showcase brand commitment, while also empowering customers and employees to embrace sustainability.

Collaborative Initiatives: When businesses work together, whether between consumer brands or by branching out to non-profit organizations, they can share their best practices to work towards sustainability goals. It’s also worth considering industry-wide initiatives and standards developments that push towards widespread sustainability, such as ZEMBA.

Business owners can use various techniques to accommodate sustainable consumption requirements, ensuring that their business operations aren’t as negatively impactful on ecosystems.

Aligning Business Values with Environmental Responsibility

To ensure a long-lasting sustainable eCommerce approach, businesses should work to align business values with the pursuit of environmental responsibility. By actively incorporating sustainable beliefs into a business model, it makes it easier for different operational aspects to maintain a high standard of environmental responsibility, also helping to craft a reliable brand identity for consumers to lock into.

Steering Clear of Greenwashing

With consumers savvier than ever, brands could do well to avoid “Greenwashing” – a recent term coined to describe companies that mislead consumers into believing that they do more for the environment than is accurate.

The kinds of methods associated with Greenwashing include:

Vague claims about carbon neutrality with no progress made

Lack of specificity about the use of “sustainable materials”

Treating a push towards a minimum regulation as a significant change

Using terms like “green” or “eco-friendly” that don’t have standard definitions

Referring practices or standards irrelevant to the product

Advertising sustainable materials despite highly polluting practices

By participating in Greenwashing, companies essentially set themselves up to be caught out by consumers, which can seriously damage a reputation. Beyond the corporate damage it can do, it also means that the business isn’t doing any good for the planet, which defeats what should be the ultimate point of taking on these ideals.

Sustainable Practices to Engage Customers

If you’re working towards sustainability, you need to make a connection with your audience on the conceptual level of working toward a better-protected environment. This involves both empowering your audience to make sustainable decisions along with incorporating relevant messaging into a brands outward communications.

Transparency and Information Sharing: Transparency is essential, with things like carbon footprint, manufacturing materials, and water usage all making a difference in open communication. Using labels, website content, and outward communications are all effective ways to do so.

Sustainability Resources: Brands can develop guides, articles, and other resources that offer active education to customers about sustainable practices. These resources solidify a brand’s status as passionate about the environment, also empowering consumers to make more informed decisions.

Digital Tools & Calculators: Using interactive features on a business website is great for encouraging more sustainable practices in customers. These can be carbon footprint calculators, water usage meters, or interactive waste reduction guides.

Incentives for Sustainable Behavior: Businesses can offer their customers incentives and reward programs to encourage customers to make the more sustainable options within their offerings. Loyalty points for sustainable products or initiatives can go a long way.

Use of Storytelling: Building stories is vital for any brand trying to create a narrative that customers can emotionally connect with, meaning sustainability narratives are no different. Provide stories about successful initiatives, positive impacts, and sustainability commitments.

Creating a Visual Profile: There are eco-friendly icons, symbols, and imagery that resonate with the sense of sustainability in customers. By using this imagery throughout packaging and branding, the message can become clearer sooner.

Labeling & Eco-Certifications: Earning recognition from certifications like organic organizations, Fair Trade, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), or Energy Star, then including their branding in labeling is a great way to signal credibility to customers.

It’s not just about creating the illusion of sustainable eCommerce for customers, it’s about truly incorporating these values into your practices, and then communicating that clearly to the people who need to know about it. Don’t try to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes – put your money where your mouth is and work it into everything from marketing to customer engagement initiatives.

Conclusion

Right now, sustainable eCommerce has never been more important and it’s only going to become more so as time goes on. By embracing truly sustainable practices into an online retail strategy, businesses not only do good for the world, but they meet the consumer demands of today where they are, empowering customers to make the choices they’re truly concerned with making.

From using sustainable eCommerce packaging to building community outreach programs, brands need to take steps to work towards building truly environmentally-conscious identities. There’s a lot more to eCommerce than simply working toward one goal, which is why we put together our expo eCom Business Live every year. At this event, you can connect with all the newest eCommerce tools and high-level entrepreneurs, helping to take your operations to the next level.