Across regions, consumers say they are willing to spend more for food and beverage, cleaning products and more, but high prices and perceptions of greenwashing remain key barriers
Blue Yonder, the world leader in digital supply chain transformation, released the results of its fourth annual Consumer Sustainability Survey, highlighting consumer spending habits, concerns and overall sentiment around brands’ sustainability initiatives. The survey, which has expanded to poll consumers across Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), France, Germany, U.K., and U.S., found that most respondents say it is important to align their purchasing decisions with sustainability. In practice, however, this alignment applies more to some product categories than others. Findings suggest that while consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable, routinely purchased products such as food, beverage, beauty, and cleaning products, they are not as willing to do so for higher-cost occasional purchases such as electronics and automobiles. Findings suggest this discrepancy is tied to the high costs associated with sustainable product options and consumer wariness of brand sustainability claims and messaging.
“Sustainability can increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, meet regulatory requirements, and improve brand perception,” said Saskia van Gendt, chief sustainability officer, Blue Yonder.
“It’s promising to see consumers are ready to align their habits with sustainability as its importance grows, and we hope this enthusiasm will translate to lived behaviors,” said Saskia van Gendt, chief sustainability officer, Blue Yonder. “Consumers are already prioritizing sustainability when it comes to some retail categories. But we can’t rely on consumers alone. We also need brands to demonstrate and communicate clear and quantifiable sustainability benefits.”
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Consumers Want to Make Sustainable Purchasing Decisions
Results found that 78% of consumers say that sustainability considerations are somewhat or very important when choosing to buy a product or shop at a retailer. These considerations are especially important in younger generations like Gen Z (88%) and Millennials (86%) compared to Gen X (77%) and Baby Boomers (66%). From a regional standpoint, this sentiment is most popular in France (86%) followed by Germany (79%), the U.K. (78%), ANZ (75%) and the U.S. (74%). The latter represents a small decrease compared to the 78% observed in this region last year.
Despite consumers’ best intentions, they may be unwilling or unable to live these values in practice.
Consumers Are Willing to Spend More on Everyday Retail Purchases, But Cost Presents a Barrier for Other Categories
Consumers face several barriers in aligning their purchasing behaviors with sustainability, chief of which is the higher cost of sustainable products (54%). Consumers seem willing to face the cost of sustainable shopping for some purchases, but not others. When asked which product categories they’ve focused their sustainability efforts in, consumers cited food and beverage (48%), cleaning products (37%), personal care and beauty (30%) and clothing and footwear (26%) the most. More expensive categories like appliances (20%), consumer electronics (19%) and automotive (19%) proved less popular.
“Our respondents are sending a message that ethical sourcing and clean ingredients matter when it comes to food, cleaning products, beauty, and clothing,” said Lesley Simmonds, vice president, Industry Strategy – Retail, Blue Yonder. “Retailers in these categories can gain a clear competitive advantage and grow their business if they execute with credibility, affordability and convenience in mind.”
Again, most consumers say that they are prepared to increase their spending, with 47% reporting a willingness to spend an additional 5–9.9% more on sustainable products, most notably among Gen Z (52%) and Millennials (50%). An additional 14% of consumers are willing to spend 10–19.9% more, while 4% are willing to spend more than 20%. Just over one-third (36%) are not willing to spend more money on sustainable products, which is especially true among Baby Boomers (52%) and regions including ANZ (42%), the U.K. (39%) and U.S. (38%). This year, U.S. consumers were much less willing to pay more than 10%; just 12% expressed interest in spending 10–19.9% more, dropping from 22% in 2024 and 2023.
Consumers Doubt Brand Sustainability Claims
Sustainability continues to be incorporated into corporate messaging; however, only 20% of consumers believe that brands are accurately communicating their sustainability initiatives in their ads and marketing. The trust is highest in France (25%), followed by the U.S. (23%), Germany (22%), the U.K. (17%), and ANZ (13%). However, U.S. consumers have grown more trusting of these claims in the past year, increasing from 17% in 2024.
In contrast, one-quarter (25%) of consumers feel they cannot trust brands’ sustainability claims, with 17% saying they feel the need to do additional research and 9% saying they feel brands capitalize on sustainability as a trend whether their actions are authentic or not. However, the majority (55%) of consumers feel they can sometimes trust brands’ sustainability claims, depending on the message, brand, or history.
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Other Key Findings:
- Consumers say that they are willing to delay delivery – to a point: Consumers are willing to increase delivery timeframes for sustainable purchases, with 30% willing to delay one to two days and 36% willing to wait up to five days. In addition, 15% of consumers are willing to wait up to one week for their deliveries if it means being more sustainable.
- Opinions vary on who bears primary responsibility for upholding sustainability efforts: One-third (33%) say the onus is on brands and corporations, 28% say it should be government agencies and policymakers, and 32% say everyone has a role to play. Only 8% say environmental nonprofits and advocacy groups bear responsibility.
- Consumers are split on the role AI will play in sustainability: One-third (33%) of respondents are optimistic that the technology could lead to new innovations and more sustainable outcomes, but an equal share (33%) said they are unaware of how it might be beneficial while 12% do not believe it will have a significant impact on sustainability. The remaining 22% of consumers are concerned about the increased environmental impact of AI and data centers.
“Our survey findings indicate that sustainability can be a competitive advantage and drive growth for brands,” said van Gendt. “Sustainability can increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, meet regulatory requirements, and improve brand perception. To support claims validation, brands and retailers can turn to technology and a multi-tier, multi-enterprise network to improve visibility and authenticate responsible practices across their end-to-end supply chains.”
