Consumers ‘Green’ to Environmental Spending
While the environment and going “green” capture many headlines these days, apparently a good number of retailers don’t feel that consumers have gotten the message. A recent survey from the retail industry research company RSR shows that 62 percent of retailers said that consumers are hardly spending on “green” products. The recent online survey polled 76 merchants. Here are some more findings of the report.
* 76 percent cited cost concerns as the motivation behind their green initiatives, while 67 percent said ethical obligation;
* 44 percent said green practices are a strategic initiative in their companies;
* 60 percent identified rising oil and transportation costs as the top cost-related reason to become more environmentally conscious, followed by packaging/material costs (54 percent), energy consumption costs at the store level (53 percent), energy consumption costs in the supply chain (42 percent) and unrealistic availability/price of alternative energy sources (29 percent);
* 57 percent of the respondents said packaged/shelf-stable foods benefit the most from greener production and packaging, followed by health and beauty products (51 percent), electronics (47 percent), home goods (37 percent), apparel (27 percent), perishable food (27 percent), and toys (24 percent); and
* 86 percent said packaging is the most visible tool they have at their disposal to drive eco-brand awareness, followed by production (54 percent), transportation from point of origin (49 percent), transportation from port to store (40 percent) and design (37 percent).
For more information, go to www.rsrresearch.com .