Do Consumers Believe Your Sustainability Claims? Are you a retailer trying to figure out what consumers want? To learn what drives purchases by today’s shoppers, Retail Dive reports on the recently released The commerce shortfall report from Productsup, which focuses on consumer expectations for some of today’s “buzziest buzzwords”: sustainable shopping and the metaverse.
Are sustainability initiatives worth the investment for the average retailer? Retail Dive says, “yes—people want to be conscious consumers” and cites data showing consumers are more likely to purchase products if they’re reusable (71%) or recyclable (70%). But consumers struggle with the sustainable shopping “ information gap”—34% say it’s difficult to find a product’s reusability, and 30% have problems finding its recyclability.
This “leads consumers to become skeptical of a retailer’s authenticity.” In addition, consumers are wary of “cause-washing” and rank partnering with global NGOs (26%) and generating positive press (22%) as the least influential. Instead, they say the best way to gain consumer trust in sustainable products is to offer more information about what makes the product organic, free-range, or eco-friendly.
Retail Dive says, “So when it comes to sustainable shopping, it’s all in the details. Retailers should take this trend seriously because, in the end, the items that get added to shopping carts are the ones that consumers can easily identify as ethical purchases.”
There’s more in the report on Retail Dive about the metaverse. It’s well worth the read.
Sustainable shopping stock image by Netrun78/Shutterstock