Sustainability is becoming one of the rising key deciding factors for customers’ purchasing choice and, more importantly, retaining returning customers. Now more than ever, customers want to see companies doing good or giving back, and the results for those e-commerce websites that do are improved sales.
“But how can we achieve this? We don’t have the capacity to make massive changes”, we hear you ask…
Our answer would be: that’s fine! Make small changes and pledge to be better wherever possible. Sustainability pages are fast becoming a sought-after page for customers to seek out so that they can make informed purchases.
If we look at Brewdog, a Magento Commerce website, they have recently become the world’s first Carbon Negative brewery, and have seen their sales sky rocket as a result. Now, we’re not saying you need to be carbon negative next week… but taking these small steps to become more environmentally friendly and sustainable, well it can only do good!
Here’s our top tips on ways to improve your conversions by making some positive changes to help save our planet.
1. Plastic free or recycled plastic packaging
According to the YouGov Consumer Insights UK Report for Magento Commerce, 47% of consumers would see reducing retail packaging as an important factor for purchasing.
Top tip – make sure if you do go plastic free, you state it on your packaging in some way so customers know the effort you’ve gone to. This could be done with a clever (and environmentally friendly) email explaining your choices, or if you can afford to go the extra mile with your packaging take a leaf out of Who Gives A Crap’s book and really shout about it on your packaging, your socials and your website.
2. The products you sell
Ask yourself – can I make / sell my products as vegan friendly / eco friendly / sustainable / cruelty free? If the answer is yes then do it, and tell your customers that too!
In a study conducted by Deloitte in 2017, Millennials were asked ‘Before purchasing from a luxury brand do you make sure it is a sustainable and ethical brand?’ The survey found that 67.1% of those surveyed either sometimes or always check a brand’s sustainability.
3. Carbon off setting or giving back to our planet
If you can afford to, donating a small percentage of your profit to a non profit charity is a great way to improve conversion – and it will give you more sales by doing so. The amount of PR and social marketing that can be done on this little bit of giving back is astounding. Take a look at our client Oceans, who donate a % of profit on every order to help combat plastic pollution in the oceans.
4. Your power supply
One of the easiest of them all – where do you get your power supply? Is it using green energy? Sustainable Energy providers are extremely competitively priced. Make the switch to a green energy provider and tell your customers about this good news on your website, socials and email.
5. Make your About Us about what’s good about you
Customers don’t want to know about you and your cat. They want to know what you believe in, if you’ll do good with their money and if you care. Invest in good strategy and copy in this area of your website, it will be worth it.
6. It’s a chain reaction
Look into your suppliers and make sure you choose them based on their sustainability policies too. 29% of surveyed consumers in the YouGov Consumer Insights report stated they would be more likely to choose a retailer who tries to eliminate supply chain emissions.
Finally, make sure you have a sustainability policy – even if you can only do a few things, acknowledging sustainability still helps! Use your good news on socials and make sure your messaging is clear throughout your website, it should be a key CTA on every page to help enforce those purchases.
For more help and advice on how you can improve your conversions and returning customers drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you.
