Top sustainability initiatives e-commerce brands are investing in 2022

According to a study carried out in 2021, 46 percent of surveyed e-commerce companies saw the importance of investing in easily recyclable products for customers in the next year, making this the leading sustainability initiative in this time period. Increasing manufacturing efficiency was also popular, with almost 40 percent of respondents saying such improvements would contribute significantly to making their company more sustainable in 2022.

Consumers and companies agree on sustainable packaging

The focus of e-commerce companies on investing in recyclable packaging as a means of becoming more sustainable mirrors the perspective of U.S. and U.K. consumers. As of January 2021, 52 percent of consumers from these countries wanted the brands they buy from to create products with less packaging or with recycled packaging, a higher proportion than for any other sustainability initiative. This perspective of both e-commerce companies and consumers appears to be warranted, given that almost half (45 percent) of greenhouse gas emissions from the e-commerce industry in 2020 were generated from the packaging of goods.

Brand sustainability influences consumer behaviour

There is a clear incentive for e-commerce companies to become more sustainable, as a significant fraction of consumers are influenced heavily by brand sustainability. Globally, 44 percent of consumers in 2021 said they were more likely to buy from brands with a clear commitment to sustainability, with this number being slightly lower in North America (40 percent) and slightly higher in the combined markets of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (45 percent). Furthermore, there is evidence that this proportion of environmentally conscious consumers is on the rise; 44 percent of consumers in 2022 described their shopping behaviour as primarily ‘purpose driven’, an increase from 40 percent in 2020.