Category: Articles

Why Eco-Conscious Shoppers are Loving Virtual Stores

Sustainability has never been more top of mind for brands, merchants and consumers. But how brands communicate their environmental initiatives to shoppers will be critical in a post-pandemic world. 2021 is a fresh start for the retail industry and brands all over the world are strategizing on how to bounce back from a challenging, transformative year. However, the climate emergency continues to accelerate, and to maintain high brand loyalty and shopper engagement, sustainability efforts need to remain a core focus in brands’ strategies.

The Circular Economy model: Best practices for ecommerce

Circular economy has become an extremely popular term in recent years. It is seen as the solution to the ongoing global environmental crisis, which is more severe than the pandemic and sometimes plays second fiddle to other global matters. As its name suggests, this type of economy requires a continuous system of production and reuse of resources and waste that can be used in many fields, from the fashionable food industry and the automotive to the energy one. Initiatives in this regard already exist, albeit on a small or medium scale.

The e-commerce trends you need to know for 2022

Consumers care more about the environment and are taking an increasing interest in the footprint that their favourite brands create. Conversations about ethical shopping are on the rise, especially among younger consumers, and there is a general migration towards brands who build environmentalism into their ethos. According to a recent survey, 69% say it is important or very important that retailers have good environmental credentials – and 49% will even pay more if a brand is environmentally friendly.

Ethical issues in E-commerce – consumer privacy

Ecommerce business transactions involve data being stored and transmitted electrically. Accessing a website, providing personal information, ordering products, arranging payment via credit or debit cards, etc all occur without customers’ control. Privacy in ecommerce transactions therefore is a leading concern for consumers. Cookies are the most common privacy concern to customers. Cookies enable web servers to store information such as shopping cart items on the user’s device or to track the user's browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging, or recording which pages were visited in the past).

Managing ethical dilemmas (in Ecommerce)

Ethical, social and political issues are closely connected and usually display themselves as dilemmas. An ethical dilemma is a term used to describes the situation where there is a requirement to choose among conflicting options where each option has its own ethical consequences. There are usually ethical, social and political dimensions to an ethical dilemma. The relationships among ethical, social and political dimensions concerning e-commerce are illustrated below.

Ethics in Ecommerce – Basic concepts

It is assumed that ethics is the core element of both social and political considerations of doing business through Internet, or e-commerce. In fact, there are four principles that guide the moral actions of an individual as well as an organization or company in e-commerce which are responsibility, accountability, liability and due process. Responsibility holds the idea of accepting duties, obligations and also potential costs of which decisions are made. Accountability features an instrument of determining who has to take account on the consequences of the actions, individual or the whole organization.

Climate, Innovation, Diversification and Green Business Models

Businesses have a clear commercial interest in diversifying their activities by innovating strategically, according to Boston Consulting Group.

The need to address climate change has become a corporate priority that sits at the heart of boardroom concerns, not just for environmental reasons but also because it's what consumers want and what investors want. It has become increasingly clear that this is where the best growth opportunities lie in coming decades, and that failing to tackle the wave of disruption that the net zero transition brings is a threat to any business. Innovating into resilience is the key for future growth.

Companies have started to commit to change, but we need to go much further - ‘sustainability as usual' is not enough any longer. Companies need science-based targets and full transparency about what they're doing - and they need to look outside their core business to reap the climate and business benefits.

The elusive green consumer: Who are they and how can you win them over?

On the surface, there has seemingly never been a better time to launch a sustainable offering. Consumers — particularly millennials — increasingly say they want brands that embrace purpose and sustainability. Indeed, one recent report revealed that certain categories of products with sustainability claims showed twice the growth of their traditional counterparts. Yet a frustrating paradox remains at the heart of green business: few consumers who report positive attitudes toward eco-friendly products and services follow through with their wallets. In one recent survey 65% said they want to buy purpose-driven brands that advocate sustainability, yet only about 26% actually do so.

How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Climate change can be overwhelming. The science is complex, and when it comes to future impacts, there are still a lot of unknowns. While real solutions will require action on a global scale, there are choices you can make in your day-to-day life to lessen your personal impact on the environment. This guide will walk you through some of them. A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the production, use and end-of-life of a product or service. It includes carbon dioxide — the gas most commonly emitted by humans — and others, including methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere, causing global warming. Usually, the bulk of an individual’s carbon footprint will come from transportation, housing and food.

Green growth and eco-innovation

Innovation in technologies and how they are applied are key to enabling industry to create new business values while also benefiting people and the planet. In recent years, manufacturing companies have been upgrading their efforts towards sustainable manufacturing from pollution prevention to integrated approaches that take into account product lifecycles and wider impacts. Eco-innovation helps to enable this evolution through a combination of technological and non-technological changes that can yield substantial environmental improvements. The current economic crisis and climate change negotiations should be taken as a great opportunity to move towards a green economy by accelerating eco-innovation

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