Only 14% of the world’s leading retailers share details of their sustainability goals and commitments with consumers online, according to the latest RetailX data.
Brands, retailers and marketplaces are including some form of sustainability information on their consumer-facing ecommerce sites, with the information shared ranging from full transparency to a link in the header or footer to the relevant section of a corporate site.
Among the RetailX Global Top1000 brands, retailers and marketplaces, it is companies selling groceries that are the most likely to share their sustainability plans with customers. Almost a third (32%) of the leading grocers share details of their sustainability goals and commitments on their consumer-facing ecommerce site. This correlates closely with the high level of consumers that say they buy sustainably produced groceries and the importance of food supply chains and grocers’ requirement to cut food waste.
Companies selling cosmetics direct-to-consumers online and those selling fashion are also more likely than others in the retail industry to be transparent about sustainability with consumers. A quarter of the 42 retailers within the RetailX Global Top1000 that sell cosmetics outline their sustainability goals on their ecommerce site, and 24% of the 213 fashion brands do so as well.
Sustainability is a large part of brand messaging for some of the companies ranked in the RetailX Global Top1000 but, for all of the Top1000, careful consideration will be given to how that sustainability journey is shared with consumers, and where.
Some companies include sustainability messaging on the homepage of their ecommerce site, others include information on product pages to give details of individual products rather than, or as well as, corporate goals. For others, a link is given in the top navigation or the page footer. The latter is more common as 12% of the Top1000 have a Corporate Social Responsibility or Sustainability link in their website’s footer. Just 2% include CSR or sustainability in the top navigation menu.
How much information do retailers share?
It is one thing telling customers about sustainability targets and another to share information about how those goals will be met. 12% of the RetailX Global Top1000 provide a plan of action showing how they will meet these goals and commitments.
Again, grocers, fashion and cosmetics companies are the most likely to go into the details of their sustainability plans. All of the grocers that share corporate sustainability targets provide information about a plan of action to meet these goals and commitments, while the majority of the fashion brands that share goals go into further detail. 19% of the cosmetics companies in the Global Top1000 give further details (as opposed to the 26% that share any sustainability information).
It is even less common for retailers to provide customers with regular updates on their sustainability journey or to share a full sustainability report from the latest year or past activities. 10% of the Global Top1000 provide up-to-date statistics or information on their sustainability progress, and 7% have a publicly accessible sustainability report from the last year.
It is far more commonplace for retailers to share sustainability reports with investors via a corporate site than it is for up-to-date information to be shared with potential customers. Of course, this information is open and available for customers if they want to look at the company’s investor relations site, and it is something that some customers investigate when researching companies before making purchases.
Grocery retailers, fashion and cosmetics companies are joined by stationers as the sectors most likely to share up-to-date statistics or information on their sustainability progress. 30% of grocers in the Global Top1000, 17% of cosmetics companies, 15% of fashion, and 18% of stationers keep customers updated. Data reveals that jewellers, florists and automotive companies are the least likely to do so.
One sector that has been moving quickly on sustainability, offering refurbished goods, taking items back for recycling, and reducing the carbon footprint of products, is consumer electronics.
However, only 7% of the 170 consumer electronics companies ranking in the Global Top1000 have a sustainability report from the last year publicly accessible on its ecommerce site. 4% have an archive of publicly accessible sustainability reports.
This is an excerpt from the recently published RetailX Global Sustainability 2024 report.
The report brings together the information from RetailX’s ecommerce market reports and performance-based ranking reports with consumer sentiment and behaviour data from ConsumerX. The report gives a rounded view of the current state of sustainability communications and services in retail and ecommerce globally.
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