Half of EU retailers are willing to pay extra for green delivery

28 April 2021, London – European retailers are becoming increasingly motivated to contribute to the planet's welfare, with just under half (46%) willing to pay additional fees of up to £1 per parcel to compensate for CO2-neutral ‘green delivery’, according to new data.

One-third (34%) of European retailers surveyed said they would be willing to provide consumers with the option to pay extra for green delivery, while 51% said their consumers would find this valuable to them.

More than half (63%) of European retailers said it was important for their business to be seen as eco-friendly, the report commissioned by e-commerce shipping platform, Sendcloud, has found. However, just 1% of EU retailers currently offer green delivery options.

Retailers are not the only ones concerned about the environment. A separate consumer report aligned with these findings, with 57% of UK consumers fearing the impact of e-commerce on the environment and 38% said they would be happy to pay extra for green delivery options.

Speaking on the results, Rob van den Heuvel, CEO and Co-founder at Sendcloud, said: “We set out to find out who is willing to pay when it comes to saving the planet, consumers or retailers. Now we know it’s both. From these results, we can see that both retailers and consumers believe sustainable delivery is important, but that there are simply not enough options at this point in time to reduce or compensate for a company’s carbon footprint. 

“The research shows retailers can play a huge role in this by offering consumers the chance to reduce their environmental impact while also taking responsibility and footing part of the bill themselves. The industry is making great strides to become more sustainable, and this is one such way we can make another step in the right direction”

About Sendcloud

Sendcloud is an all-in-one shipping platform for e-commerce businesses that want to scale. It is our mission to empower online retailers to compete by optimizing the full shipping journey from checkout to returns. Our solution turns e-commerce logistics from a bottleneck into an accelerator, making shipping a competitive advantage.

Founded in the Netherlands in 2012, Sendcloud has quickly become one of the fastest growing scale-ups and leading shipping solutions in Europe, with more than 23,000 customers across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Austria. Customers range from small to enterprise-sized online retailers and in industries from fashion and electronics to food & drink.