Can consumers commit to sustainable products?
Applying analytic tools to real-world datasets, in addition to other types of information such as consumer interviews and experiments, can help us explore consumers’ intention-action gap and develop creative selling strategies to better serve consumer preferences.
Existing academic and industry research, which is largely based on survey findings, suggests that a sizable group of consumers want to support social justice and environmental conservation through their shopping decisions. But to what extent does this support translate into sales of sustainable products? The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics carried out research in one particular market—coffee—to find out.
According to our study of coffee purchases, it seems that consumers are not strongly committed to Fair Trade or organic labels given the current offerings at grocery stores. We found that the price premium—the typical reason that consumers don’t buy sustainable products—is not the sole reason consumers turn away from this type of purchase.
However, the news is not all bad for purveyors of sustainable coffee products. Our findings also suggest that certified sustainable coffee can be more competitive if consumers have a wider variety of certified coffees to choose from than what is currently available. In other words, companies need to be more innovative in the way they sell sustainable alternatives to traditional coffee varieties.
Reality gaps
In an effort to attract elusive socially- and environmentally-conscious buyers, some companies have invested in ways to improve and communicate their supply chain sustainability practices. A common approach is to use third-party certification labels to differentiate a company’s products.
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Existing academic and industry research, which is largely based on survey findings, suggests that a sizable group of consumers want to support social justice and environmental conservation through their shopping decisions. But to what extent does this support translate into sales of sustainable products? The MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics carried out research in one particular market—coffee—to find out.
According to our study of coffee purchases, it seems that consumers are not strongly committed to Fair Trade or organic labels given the current offerings at grocery stores. We found that the price premium—the typical reason that consumers don’t buy sustainable products—is not the sole reason consumers turn away from this type of purchase.
However, the news is not all bad for purveyors of sustainable coffee products. Our findings also suggest that certified sustainable coffee can be more competitive if consumers have a wider variety of certified coffees to choose from than what is currently available. In other words, companies need to be more innovative in the way they sell sustainable alternatives to traditional coffee varieties.
Reality gaps
In an effort to attract elusive socially- and environmentally-conscious buyers, some companies have invested in ways to improve and communicate their supply chain sustainability practices. A common approach is to use third-party certification labels to differentiate a company’s products.
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