Sustainability has become a pressing concern for consumers throughout the developed world. If you’re running a customer-oriented business, therefore, you have a strong commercial incentive to present yourself in an environmentally-friendly light. That’s leaving to one side the ethical advantages of a consistent set of eco-friendly values!
Setting the right tone for the coming year can make a significant difference to your bottom line. Let’s look at a few of the measures the average retailer might take.
Eco-Friendly Packaging & Deliveries
If you’re shipping goods to customers, then much of your environmental footprint will come from postage and packaging. To address the former, you might resort to carbon-neutral shipping, consolidated delivery services, and electric (or, at least, less polluting) vehicles. The latter can often be dealt with by switching to superior packaging materials, like cardboard, and by simply reducing the amount of material you’re using.
For many online retailers, the appeal of same-day delivery might help them to stand apart from the competition, and to draw more customers in while staying on the right side of environmental issues.
Smarter Inventory & Energy Use
Retailers will consume energy by keeping items in storage. This applies especially to temperature-sensitive items, like perishable food products. But it also applies to other items, by virtue of the effort needed to put those items into storage, and then to take them back out again.
Environmental gains can be made in your warehouses by leaning into data-driven inventory, which will make your operation more efficient. Then there are technological investments to consider, like more efficient LED lighting and smart thermostats. The investments that make the biggest difference here will tend to depend on what you’re actually upgrading from. Review your premises, and determine where the biggest gains are to be made.
Supporting Circular Economy Practices
The so-called ‘circular’ economy prioritises reusing and recycling older products. If you have a physical store, then you might look to incentivise customers to recycle by offering the right bins, and offering discounts on items that have been returned. As well as preventing waste, this approach can help to secure customer loyalty. When people think that they’re going to get something back, they might find it easier to step through the door in the first place.
For example, the beauty chain Boots noted that many people in the UK hold onto nearly-empty toiletries for longer than needed, even when those products aren’t being used. This is often done in order to avoid throwing out the last little bit of a product – even if that last little bit can’t actually be extracted from the container!
The solution in this case was to offer customers reward points for bringing those older items into a store.
