Earth Day and Greener Shipping Options for eTailers

April 22nd, 2008 by Carolyn Gardner

Being Earth Day, we’re all extra sensitive to the environment and what we’re doing / not doing for it. So I did a little extra googling on the topic and came across a company called ShipGreen.net.

Apparently a few smarties have stepped up to “offer a web-based program that integrates with retailers’ online shopping carts, enabling consumers to easily – and accurately – offset the carbon produced from product life-cycle shipping emissions.” Sheer genius, I say. My curiosity had me pick up the phone and I was lucky enough to get a call back from the ShipGreen.net CEO, Jason Sperling. He told me the trial period was a huge success and that they are currently developing the full software release which should be out in some months. We’ll have to keep our eyes on these guys. I can see this market really taking off!

Reducing carbon footprints is already very important to many retailers including one of our very own Sitebrand clients, Roots. This past fall, as part of its commitment to the environment, Roots Canada installed a very cool interactive window display (touchscreen) at its flagship store in downtown Toronto.

Passerbys who used the touchscreen to browse the Roots website were also invited to sign up for the “Roots Insider” e-newsletter (avoiding paper is very green you know). For each and every new Roots Insider subscription, and as additional incentive to environmentally conscious consumers, Roots committed to purchasing carbon offset credit equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide released in a 50-kilometre car trip (the average distance shoppers drive to get to a Roots store).

This brilliantly green promotion is now over but Roots continues to offer greener shipping options as part of their commitment to the environment - not just today on Earth Day, but every day. And they do it with a company called Zerofootprint.

And last but not least, have you heard about eco-friendly clothes? Well guess what, Roots has a new line of apparel fittingly called ROOTS GREEN. Made with organic cotton and other sustainable fabrics such as bamboo, hemp and soy, these sound pretty green to me. But don’t worry, they come in colours other than just green!

Roots Green

Posted in Carolyn Gardner, Conversion, Customer Experience, Email marketing, Optimization, Personalization, eCommerce |