According to a new study released by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and Deloitte, fifty-four percent of shoppers demonstrated that they actively consider environmental sustainability characteristics in their buying decisions. But while shoppers are often thinking green, they actually bought green products on just 22% of their shopping trips.
Most shoppers (95%) said they are open to considering green products; 67% of shoppers looked for green products; only 47% actually found them; and 22% purchased some green products on their shopping trip, highlighting the need for better shopper marketing programs to close the gap. Sometimes concerns about product performance and credibility of the environmental claims are the reasons shoppers opt not to buy green products, but more often communication and product education are the biggest obstacles. The study also found that a significant minority of committed and proactive green shoppers will pay a premium for sustainable products; however, the larger potential population of shoppers that lean toward green want price and performance parity for sustainable products because it is not their dominant purchase driver.
Additional key learnings from the study include:
-
Demographically, green shoppers are diversely spread along all income ranges, age brackets, education levels and various household sizes. On average, green shoppers tend to be older, have higher income and are more educated, but they can be found across the consumer population;
-
Green shoppers represent a high value segment who buy more products on each trip and visit the store more regularly; and,
-
Green shoppers are less price sensitive than the average shopper and they are generally not bargain hunters.