73% of consumers worldwide are prepared to change their consumption habits to reduce the impact of their actions on the environment. People are becoming more aware of what they consume and are keen on purchasing products that help the environment.
That’s why sustainability has become a critical business strategy to remain competitive. This approach provides long-term value to the organization and the products and services.
There are several ways to improve the sustainability of your business. Therefore add value to your customers in the process.
1. Source your products from local suppliers
Where you’re sourcing products and materials starts the build-up of your product’s carbon footprint. Transporting materials in long distances already enhances the emissions produced, contributing to the overall emissions caused by parcel and freight shipping.
As an alternative, look for local suppliers as much as possible. Shopping local significantly decreases transportations costs and emissions. It can also help support the local industries in your area, and there’s a higher chance that you can create relationships with local suppliers.
Also, knowing where your materials come from, primarily if they’re sourced locally, is something that your customers want to know.
In the same way, you should also use website personalization tools to highlight the products and materials that are locally made to customers.
Presenting your customers with this information enhances trust and increases the transparency of your business. It also makes the product feel a lot more personal to them.
2. Choose an eco-friendly web hosting
Another strategy that you can do to make your e-commerce more sustainable is to reduce your site’s carbon footprint. Do you know that the internet also produces a lot of pollution? Since fossil fuels power most servers, they consume tons of energy.
But as you know, in the highly digital world that we live in today, your website and app are crucial since they’re essential elements of your digital presence. It is where you sell goods, receive payments, and even interact with your customers.
But as we mentioned, websites use up power, and often these come from non-renewable energy sources. One way to significantly reduce the impact on the environment is to work with a green web host.
It means that the hosting company purchases renewable energy credits such as wind and solar power to help reduce the carbon footprint of your e-commerce site. Customers will also appreciate it if they know that you’re using renewable energy sources to power your site.
3. Improve the design and content of your website
One of the most vital components of your site is a user interface (UI) and user experience (UX.) See to it that you’re using metrics that are objective and qualitative. Let’s say that you’re making surveys about the ease of use and satisfaction scored. You can put set numbers to track user errors and success rates.
Other services measure UX. For instance, heatmaps lets you know where people click on your site and offer clues whether your layout or design is user-friendly.
Apart from that, you can also track where the user clicks come from. The point of all of this is that if users can navigate your site seamlessly, there’s no need to spend a lot of time going from one page to another and waste energy.
Images also take up a lot of page weight. Minimize pictures that don’t provide value to the user. Reducing image sizes helps reduce energy consumption without compromising the user’s experience. Try to limit the use of videos that are data intensive.
If you want to use videos to promote your business or explain something, make sure that you keep the video content short and remove the auto-play.
At Sytian Productions (web design Philippines,) we always tell clients that refining your site design and content is one of the key ways to ensure that your digital business becomes sustainable in the long run.
4. Improve your website speed
A slow website is a site that uses a lot of energy. Apart from that, many users hate slow-loading sites.
Remember that one of the top rankings for Google is page speed, so it’s best not to leave this one out.
5. Switch to sustainable packaging
Product packaging, no doubt, is one of the major contributors to environmental pollution. This depends on the energy and resources needed for production, the supply chain, and whether or not it is reusable.
In the same way, there are several ways to decrease the impact you’re causing with it. For instance, you can reduce the use of plastic to a bare minimum. Use more environmentally-friendly alternatives such as biodegradable bags, cardboard boxes, etc.
6. Create sustainable return practices
One of the enormous pains is e-commerce returns. Since consumers purchase items without seeing them first, they don’t know what the item looks like until they receive it.
Most e-commerce brands have three times higher return rates than more traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
Here are some tips to reduce returns:
- Writing detailed descriptions on product pages to address any questions customers might have to decrease the chance of returns.
- Using high-quality product visualizations gives customers a clear picture of their buying.
- Donating returned products to a local charity.
7. Implement a recycling program
Going paperless and recycling in the workplace has become an industry standard for many businesses. You need to ensure that you recycle as much waste as possible—similarly, print or use paper only when necessary.
It would help if you considered implementing a recycling program.
If your company only has a couple of employees, you might want to recycle recyclable materials like plastics, paper, or aluminum cans.
Over to You
So there you have it. By implementing these green and sustainable practices, you’ll have an advantage over your competitors.
You can also provide customers with the knowledge that the money they’ve spent on your products will help create a better earth for us all. Start making the changes, today!
Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash.
