New Report Finds Nearly All Shoppers Surveyed Would Consider Buying Green
If I asked you to describe the typical person who buys green products, what adjectives would you use? Treehugger? Minimalist? “Granola”?If so, a new study by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and Deloitte might surprise you. According to this latest research, green shoppers are now spread along all income ranges, age brackets, education levels, and household sizes. They are also active consumers who buy more products on each shopping trip, visit stores more regularly, and show more brand and retailer loyalty than the average shopper.
Findings from this study are compiled in a 28-page report, titled “Finding the Green in Today’s Shoppers; Sustainability trends and new shopper insights.” Deloitte examined 6,498 shopper experiences in 11 major U.S. retailers and found that green shoppers have become a large, high-value segment to both retailers and manufacturers. Consider this:
- 95% of the shoppers polled are open to considering green products.
- Breaking it down even further, 67% of shoppers said they looked for green products. However, only 47% found them, and an even smaller number (22%) actually purchased one.
- 54% of shoppers in this study demonstrated that they actively consider eco-friendly characteristics in their buying decisions. What’s more, sustainable considerations emerged as a “tie-breaker” between products, driving a relatively large amount of product switching.
The report concludes that companies need to successfully develop and market green products now, in order to gain competitive advantage. Obviously, it’s important to close the gap between the 95% who would consider a green product and the 22% who actually buy one. But, the data also indicates that it’s also important to do that first, before your competitors, so that you can capitalize on the brand loyalty of shoppers who buy green.
The second half of the report includes valuable in-depth recommendations that can help you refine your approach, including a new “Go-To Market Framework” for analyzing consumer, brand, product, and value chain components.
