You’ve likely heard someone talking about sustainability, read about it in an article, or even seen it on the news. Sustainability, as an over-arching concept, has been a hot topic lately for people of all ages and walks of life – ESPECIALLY consumers and brands. Keep reading to learn how sustainability is an important aspect of the retail experience for brand longevity and consumer support.
Increased Sustainable Purchases
Since 2015, consumer purchases shifted to prioritize sustainable products over non-sustainable products. Products marked as sustainable grew 2.7 times faster than non-sustainable products, and now hold a 17% share of the overall market value. This statistic shows that sustainably made products are growing in popularity and sales, revealing that sustainability is more than just a trend among consumers – it’s a real, growing desire in our society to look after our planet and protect our environment.
Change in Consumer Attitudes
As sustainability’s popularity grows, consumers attitudes and behaviors are changing to match and, in turn, businesses face new pressures to reform their business practices or get left behind in the effort to increase sustainable business practices. More than 80% of consumers report that a company’s poor environmental track record, unstainable packaging, or irresponsible sourcing of materials is a direct turn-off that contributes to their search for a sustainable company in its place.
Intensified Consumer Commitment
In addition to a general change in attitudes and behaviors, sustainability is becoming a core value a large share of consumers wish to see from companies. 78% of consumers say sustainability is very important or somewhat important to them when choosing to buy a product or shop at a retail location, and 40% of consumers are willing to pay extra for sustainable products or to support sustainable brands.
Final Thoughts
Once a passing trend, sustainability evolved and transformed into a crucial and necessary practice for companies to incorporate into their business models. This evolution primarily came from a change in consumer attitudes and behaviors which resulted in an extremely large share of consumers deeply valuing sustainability. Consequently, this caused the market share of sustainably made products to increase significantly compared to non-sustainably made products. Sustainability is an important value for companies to invest in for continued success.
retailconnection 