Most European shoppers want retailers to behave in environmentally friendly ways, ConsumerX research suggests, but the first RetailX Europe Top1000 360° report has found that only a minority of Top1000 retailers reflect shoppers’ interest in the environment.
In a ConsumerX survey, 72% of shoppers agreed, 27% strongly so, that they wanted retailers to be sustainable, while 60% said they would pay more for sustainable products, of whom 22% strongly agreed with the suggestion. The study questioned 8,925 respondents who shopped online at least once a year, from 17 European countries, in 2022.
However, RetailX findings suggest that, as yet, only a minority of Top1000 retailers reflect shoppers’ interest in the environment. Just 6% of retailers selling to Europe have a team focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) or sustainability. These are most often run by those selling to the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands (all 11%), while fewer than 1% of those selling to Romania, Poland, Denmark, Czechia or Switzerland take this approach.
Relatively few set out their sustainability targets on their website when selling to Europe (8%) or expand on a plan to reach that target (7%). Both happen at a slightly higher rate on sites selling to the UK (13%), Sweden (10%) and Denmark (9%). 6% also provide the latest statistics on websites selling to Europe.
Only 5% of those selling to Europe have an accessible sustainability report that was published in the last year. Retailers selling to the UK (11%), Sweden (10%) and the Netherlands (65%) are more likely to provide such a report, while 6% of those selling to the UK, 3% of those selling to Sweden and 2% of those selling to Europe archive these reports.
Some, 4% of retailers selling to Europe have an archive of statistics or information on their sustainability progress. That’s higher among those selling to Sweden (10%), the UK (9%) and Belgium (5%), although these are outliers, since fewer than 1% of those selling to most European markets take such an approach.
Additionally, 18% of Top1000 retailers selling to Europe take part in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) recycling scheme. Participation, which applies to those selling consumer electronics, is higher among those selling to France (28%), Germany (18%) and the UK (17%). Overall, 16% of retailers have a recycling scheme.
Just 2% publish a supplier and manufacturer factory list when selling to Europe, although 4% of retailers do update information about suppliers and manufacturers regularly.
This is an excerpt from our first RetailX Europe Top1000 360°. This report brings together two strands of RetailX research.
The first is the Top1000, now in its ninth year of ranking ecommerce and multichannel retailers by performance. The second is the more recent 360° reports, which explore markets in the round, from the economic context for retail to retailer performance and how shoppers buy, or would like to buy.
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