Sustainability in e-commerce: what can you do as an online store?

Companies that actively work on sustainability perform better in the long run than competitors that do nothing with sustainable business practices.

New trends and developments prove that more and more companies realize sustainability pays off. Not just for the planet, but for your results too!

More and more (large) e-commerce players are embracing eco-friendly solutions for packaging and last-mile delivery.

In this article, you'll read what your online store can do about sustainability in the e-commerce sector.

What does sustainability mean in the e-commerce sector?

Sustainability is a broad concept and often has several meanings. You can also work on it in many ways.

What business sustainability comes down to is taking responsibility for the impact of your business activities.

You can determine whether something is sustainable by looking at the following three components:

• Environmentally conscious: are raw materials used sparingly, and are measures taken to cause as little damage as possible?

• Socially responsible: does it have a positive effect on the lives of those involved, or is money made at the expense of others?

• Financially viable: can the changes be sustained? Or do they put financial continuity at risk?

Sustainability is no longer just a trend

Sustainability or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) emerged years ago as a ’trend’, but it is increasingly becoming the standard.

Our trend report, the E-commerce Delivery Compass, shows that 44% of Belgians are concerned about the impact of online shopping on the environment.

Companies are starting to realize that sustainability matters and pays off. Not only in their wallets, but also in customer trust.

Although we increasingly see people consuming in a socially conscious way, it remains difficult to get people to pay more for a sustainable alternative.

Still, consumer awareness keeps growing, there are more and more creative solutions and more and more affordable alternatives are appearing.

How can your online store operate sustainably?

If you, as an online retailer, also want to work a little more sustainably, we're happy to help by listing a few options.

Becoming more sustainable often isn't that difficult, it just takes a small shift. Luckily, it doesn't always have to be more expensive either!

On the contrary: if you approach it the right way, you'll make it not only more sustainable but also cheaper.

The most sustainable delivery scenario

So what is the best way to get a product to the consumer? EY researched the future of delivery.

In the study, they compared four delivery scenarios: conventional shopping, home delivery, pick-up point delivery and drop-off point delivery.

The most harmful transport scenarios are conventional shopping and pick-up point delivery, because most people still take the car.

The most eco-friendly option is therefore drop-off point delivery, where the last stretch is covered by bike.

Home delivery becomes relatively less harmful as more is bought online.

With many orders in a nearby area, a delivery van has to cover a shorter distance and can be loaded efficiently.

However, with home delivery, a parcel often can't be delivered. A second attempt or picking up the parcel by car creates extra emissions.

The most ideal scenario is therefore when all parcels can be delivered to a single point and people pick up their parcel themselves on foot or by bike.

Sustainable shipping options & CO2 offsetting

One of the ways your online store can promote sustainability is by offering more sustainable shipping options.

For example, delivery to a pick-up point or delivery by bike. Electric vehicles are also becoming more common.

You can also offer the option of CO2 offsetting per shipment with every order, for example.

Want to offer multiple delivery options with ease? Then use Sendcloud's online store integration.

Sustainable packaging in e-commerce

Another part of e-commerce that still has a far too large footprint is the packaging of shipments.

Oversized packaging in particular, and the idea that products that are already packaged need to be packed again to get them to the consumer, create a lot of waste.

However, it is important to protect products properly, because having to resend and return damaged products is even more harmful.

Fewer large boxes & less packaging material

One of the easiest ways to ship more sustainably is to use as little packaging material as possible.

Products often already come in packaging, and far too often more material is used than necessary.

What's more, if you use one standard box size, it is too big in many cases, and transporting ‘extra air’ is a waste.

Large packaging isn't just bad for the environment, consumers are also increasingly annoyed by it for that reason.

That's why 58% of Belgian consumers believe too much packaging material is used for shipping orders.

More and more online retailers are choosing a mailer bag, for example, for products where this works easily.

So adapt the size and type of packaging to the products you ship as much as possible, within the requirements of safe shipping, of course.

Sustainable packaging material

The more normal sustainability becomes, the more sustainable alternatives appear that help you make a less negative impact.

More and more packaging wholesalers offer products made from recycled materials or that are biodegradable.

This applies not only to boxes, but also to mailer bags, filler material and ink, for example.

Reusing packaging

Another easy option is reusing packaging. Of course, it is important that the quality is good enough to ship.

As our research shows, 67% of Belgian online shoppers would like the packaging material of parcels to be fully recyclable.

The minimum you can do is make sure the packaging can also be used as return packaging if needed.

But you can go a step further with RePack, for example: have customers send back empty packaging by mail in exchange for a discount code.

Clear product descriptions & product photos

It may sound like a cliché, but we're happy to mention it again. Clear product descriptions and photos are essential.

Not only to inform your customer properly (and hopefully generate more sales), but also to prevent returns.

That's not just good for you, but also for the environment. The fewer shipments, the better!

Be as transparent as possible about your policy

People are consuming more and more consciously: not only sustainability matters here, but also the ethical side of the entire process.

To what extent do you take the environment, animals and people into account in production and shipping? Transparency is becoming more and more important.

In the coming years, consumers will have more ‘respect’ for paying a higher price if the conditions behind it are better.

So see whether you can be more open about where your raw materials come from, who makes your products, what the impact is and how they are transported.

Do you conclude that none of this is very sustainable yet? Then there's work to be done, because consumers increasingly expect it!

But don't give up, every step you take counts. Do what you can and keep improving your policy for a better world.

Conclusion: start making your business more sustainable today

It should be clear that something must change (in the e-commerce sector) to reduce the burden on the planet.

Sustainable business is therefore no longer just a trend, but is increasingly becoming the standard.

So start looking today at how you can easily become more sustainable and get a little greener with every step!

Do you have any (easy) sustainability tips for online retailers? Feel free to leave a comment.

P.S. Also read our article on the 15 most important e-commerce trends for 2020

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