We all want to help save the environment, and as a brand deciding its next steps in its supply chain management, sustainability should probably be a consideration, not just for the benefits to the environment, but also for your bottom line.
According to Barrons, 2/3 of consumers want sustainable products. Globally, 8 in 10 consumers are looking for sustainable options, and 7 of 10 are willing to pay on average 35% more for eco friendly products.
E-commerce fulfillment shipping has a lot of opportunities, where if the brand thoughtful in its up -front planning, it can really improve their environmental impact.
One of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce environmental impact is choosing the right location of your distribution center based on the location of your customers.
As an example, we did a location study for one of our brands- Beam Electronics. You may own one of their cell phone car mounts- they have approximately 80,000 4.5 star reviews on Amazon and have been featured in multiple publications.
Looking at a of sample of their Fulfilled by Merchant and Seller Fulfilled Prime shipping data, we analyzed over 1 million orders. They wanted to decide if they should keep their warehousing in California, or move to the East coast.
In reviewing their data, we found that 70.5% of their orders were occurring in areas that could be reached with 2 day ground shipping from our Atlanta DC. Only 29.5% of their orders were occurring in areas of the west coast where they could receive 2 day ground shipping, and yet they were warehousing there.
We analyzed their shipping expenses and found that not only were they able to meet more demand for 2 day shipping (such as for Seller Fulfilled Prime) from warehousing in Atlanta, but it was also going to save them over $1,700,000 per year in reduced shipping expenses.
This was a critical move for them regarding reducing their carbon footprint. Prior to this move, every item was shipping from California to the east coast. So 70% of their orders were traveling an extra 2000 miles before arriving at their customer’s doorstep. According to the Environmental Defense Fund Green Freight Handbook, an average 1000 mile truck trip has total emissions of 1.7 metric tons of CO2.
When you consider those numbers, all of a sudden you can quickly see the impact of using a distribution center closer to your customers.
Additionally, these massive savings gave them an opportunity to give back without losing any profitability. Using a carbon neutral shipping option through UPS will range from 5 cents for ground shipping to 20 cents for domestic air shipping, and the savings we found them more than covered this expense.
Have you done a shipping study to analyze where your customers are located? We can help you with this, just give us a call or shoot us an email to get started!
In addition to reducing your footprint from shipping logistics, there are many environmentally friendly packaging options for e-commerce, that we discuss here.
