Conscious consumerism: How to make your business more eco-friendly with the shop local movement
Customers are entering the sustainability movement in troves, and they have their eyes—and wallets on businesses that are following suit. In a survey by U.S. shipping service Sendle, 57% of responders said climate change had caused them to reassess their purchasing habits, and nearly 71% said they set goals to purchase more sustainable products.
Faced with our mounting climate crisis, we've been having a lot of passionate conversations about how to make ecommerce more environmentally friendly here at ZenLocator. We realize that sometimes small steps can make the most significant changes, and if every business made one small change, there would be millions of large-scale environmental transformations.
In this series, you can find help building customer loyalty for your CPG products and lower your carbon footprint with four practises your business can adopt (plus how you can get recognized for your efforts):
The "Shop Local Movement"
Sustainable packaging
Local supply chains
Getting your product green-certified
In part one of this series, we're exploring the Shop Local Movement and how you can encourage your customers to shop your products locally.
Conscious consumerism
The pandemic brought critical trends in retail that shaped the future of commerce in 2021 and beyond. One of those trends is the Shopping Local Movement. Now that vaccination rates are rising, more and more shoppers find it important to nurture locally owned businesses. If you're a small-to-medium-size business, odds are you've already implemented strategies to help your customers shop local like:
Offering curbside pickup and local delivery.
Implementing and updating your COVID safety measures online and in-store: social distancing, capacity limits, mandatory and complimentary masks, sanitizing stations, cleaning schedules.
Keeping store hours and product info up to date with a store and product locator app.
Contactless payment.
Personalizing the face-time you get with your customers.
Free parking.
Still, a portion of the population is reluctant to shop in stores or might not be aware of your brand or products and where to find them. One of the biggest factors hindering your customers from local purchases is cost and residual fears from the pandemic. To ease that tension, it's up to you and your team to bring awareness and a great customer experience to potential customers and highlight how shopping your products locally can help save the economy and the environment.
Why shop local?
The Shop Local Movement is making consumerism more sustainable and giving a voice to independent businesses and retail brands. Pressure is building in the business community to offer more environmentally sustainable options, so use your platform to educate customers about the benefits of shopping at local and encourage them to find your brands at local stores. Here are some of the ways shopping local benefits the environment:
Local businesses reduce environmental impact by using 26% fewer transportation miles.
Buying local food protects local land and wildlife.
Local products usually have less packaging and use less plastic.
Local businesses offer more quality and environmentally sustainable products.
Local businesses are less dependent on imports and more self-sufficient.
Money spent directly affects the proprietor and their family/employees instead of going into a billionaire's pocket.
Money gets recirculated back into the community.
Local businesses contribute 250% more to local charities.
Digital tools and strategies to help you adapt to conscious consumerism
Every customer matters to regional retail brands and independent businesses. Since layers of management aren't in the way, you can make your own rules and strategies when adapting to a changing economic landscape. You can take many approaches to help get your business and products found to aid your customers in shopping locally and bump Amazon down a notch or two.
LOCAL SEO TOOLS
If you're a Shopify merchant, you can use the Shop app and get access to a shopping channel that lets your customers experience an accelerated checkout and gives them another way to discover your business.
Delivery apps like Uber Eats or Drizly
If your business qualifies, partnering with delivery companies like this will ease the friction with those customers who are still wary about shopping in stores.
Locator apps like ZenLocator, Storepoint, or Storemapper.
Using locators will boost your SEO online and provide many ways for your customers to find your products locally. Many locator tools only offer store location data, so using one like ZenLocator will help your customers find both your products and your store's locations. You can also display pertinent information about your products and locations like COVID-19 safety measures.
🗣️ Need a reliable locator to help customers shop your products locally? Schedule a demo with ZenLocator.
Creating a business profile on Google gives your customers another way to find you when searching on Google and using Google Maps.
List your products in marketplaces and local directories like Shop Local Canada.
COLLABORATE
Partner with local social media influencers.
Partner and donate products to a local charity event.
Collab with other local businesses and retail brands to create special offers or new collections.
Join your local chamber of commerce.
ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE
Participate in local farmer's markets, and local online events like the year-round Shop The Neighbourhood event, or the annual Small business Saturday.
Highlight and engage your community over social media. Use hashtags to make your posts relevant like #shoplocal #supportsmallbusiness #shoplocalcalifornia
Talk about your unique selling points and what problems they solve for your customers.
Offer special offers and discounts for in-store purchases with your branded products. Make in-store collections and items that you promote online.
Prioritizing the planet
The "Shop Local Movement" is becoming increasingly important to customers, and it's your job as a regional retail brand, CPG company, or independent business to educate on the importance of shopping local and create a genuine, efficient, and eco-friendly shopping experience both online and offline. There is so much room to make a difference with shop local!