Sustainable retail has recently transitioned from an “if” to a “when” and “how.” More and more, consumers expect their favorite brands to take a stand for what they believe is right and sustainability is a priority. Customers and investors alike want to support a brand that puts humanity and the environment first.
This shift didn’t happen overnight; it came about alongside generational shifts. For example, as Gen Z gains more spending power and millennials solidify their position as leaders in the market, sustainability and ethical practices are becoming core to retail strategy.
The newer generations of consumers are very passionate about these topics and are willing to pay more for greener practices.
Consumers, investors, and partners are increasingly making decisions about your company based on a sustainable business model. Here, we examine the rise of sustainability as a business value.
Sustainable retail is more critical for brands that primarily target younger generations. There are three different rationales for these brands:
Brands that focus on sustainability now are setting themselves up for future success. Building in sustainability or elements of the circular economy open up huge opportunities to differentiate their business and become a consumer favorite.
The campaign notes that global clothing consumption has doubled in the last 15 years and urges consumers to buy fewer, higher quality goods. This strategy flies in the face of the normal retail strategy that encourages as many purchases from shoppers as possible.
While Levi’s might be encouraging less purchases over time, they’re likely to bring on loyal customers with higher average order values. This is thanks to higher product quality, which can help boost long-term loyalty and potentially even word-of-mouth advertising.
Consumers are changing the face of the fashion industry via their demands for sustainability. Discover four ways retailers can rule the ethical runway.
In theory, this all sounds great for every brand, but cost is a concern. The concept of the “digital native” brand has been popularized over the last several years, and now there’s the concept of the “sustainable native.” For sustainability to really work for a brand and not disrupt established supply chains or other business practices, sustainability needs to be built into the business model from day one.
Sustainability practices have to align with profit and revenue in order to be more widely adopted in the retail community. Retailers like Amazon that handle massive orders every day offer the ability to batch packages instead of sending multiple packages to complete the order.
After all, being “the everything store” doesn’t mean that all of those products are necessarily in the same warehouse. Batching orders slows down the shipping time a bit, but it also cuts down on emissions and waste from multiple boxes and deliveries.
E-commerce is not very eco. In fact, it’s frequently the opposite. Learn how you can do your part and create green e-commerce in three steps.
Established brands must look for ways to be greener without raising prices higher than their customer base is willing to pay. One option is offering an incentive for batch orders, like a small discount or free gift.
Another way to take action on sustainability is to reward shoppers for recycling products they no longer want. Brands like Apple and Madewell have done this for years, offering discounts on new products when an old one is given back to the retailer.
This way, they can recycle or donate the products, helping the consumer feel good about not contributing to unnecessary waste and extending the product lifecycle. The Madewell recycling program boasts that it’s saved 548 tons of waste from landfills from the 1,096,265 (and counting!) pairs of jeans recycled to date.
E-commerce and sustainability are much more closely linked than it may seem, in fact they can be mutually reinforcing. Brands can up-level their most sustainable practices and still increase revenue by making “going green” part of their key value propositions.
