How can we improve shopping ethically online in 2021?

Releasing the power of the plethora of certifications

Online shopping is prevailing now more than ever. However, sometimes it feels like shopping ethically requires a significant time commitment and a full-on research project, even just to buy a pair of jeans. How then can this be simplified for consumers, and would this lead to an increase in consumer demand to drive brands and businesses to up their game?

From first-hand experience, product reviews are so important for purchase decisions but are also exhausting to trawl through. The barriers for people trying to shop ethically are significant then, especially considering that there is usually quite a price premium to pay for products that don’t cut corners.

There are so many certifications out there that can help give consumers a hand, from FairTrade, B Corp, Living Wage etc, and they do make a difference. However, their diversity and sometimes relatively low consumer awareness means that they are not fully mainstreamed into most people's shopping habits.

I'm inspired by the following but also think that there is so much more that can be done, for instance:

Apps like CoGo (https://cogo.co/) use information from certification organisations to help inform people where to shop based on each individual’s own values. This can take a lot of guesswork from the consumer, however users are asked to link their banks to the app via the FSC regulated open banking protocol in order to access their shopping tool. They offer a great service, there appears to be a huge drop-off in the app’s registration process at the point that bank details are asked for. Reading the reviews and the balance of one and five starts demonstrates this.

Ethical Consumer (https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/) has been in business since 1989. How can their goldmine of information be liberated without a subscription? Is their business model too heavily linked to their print publication?

Recently, The Guardian announced a change in how they rate consumer electronics to include scoring criteria on sustainability (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/29/how-we-are-changing-the-way-we-rate-sustainability-of-consumer-electronics). Can more review sites follow their lead?

Putting aside Amazon's own ethical performance, there is no avoiding the fact that it is the world's biggest marketplace. Did you know that there is the ability to filter shopping results to climate friendly products (https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=22409164031)? This too relies on third-party certification organisations. While the climate friendly search page has its own branding, it has an obscure URL and I couldn't find it in the Amazon menu. Searching for "Amazon ethical shopping channel" returns many articles on how to avoid Amazon, rather than promotion of their tool. If Amazon can't be avoided, can they use their scale to enable consumers to make more conscious purchase decisions?

If you know of any awesome ethical shopping search tools, or certification aggregators, please do let me know. 

Certification is an interesting area that relates to two issues highlighted in our last report. First, a company seeking external certification is making a visible statement of intent and a commitment to that standard. Second, in order to earn and maintain a certification the company needs to prove to the external entity that they are meeting those standards. This is a commitment to measure their impacts. The B Corporation certification is the most in-depth and holistic certification is available that can demonstrate a businesses commitment to their purpose.

There is an argument that a deeply integrated external certification practice can be a proxy for showing a business has intrinsic motivation to “do good”. Related, self-reported impacts that gain ESG ratings could be seen as an extrinsic motivator to “do good in order to benefit from investment”.

This can create an interesting discussion around motivation, purpose-washing, external verification and self-reported data. This is a topic we will talk about more in the future.