As the focus on urban congestion and air quality in the Capital grows, particularly with the introduction of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone in April and mayor Sadiq Khan’s call to reduce online shopping deliveries to work, London’s consumers want to go greener when shopping online.
New research, commissioned by Doddle, reveals that two-thirds of Londoners (66%) plan to increase their use of click & collect in direct response to the mayor’s pledge to create more collection points across the city. And one in ten (9%) of the Capital’s residents intend to exclusively use click & collect in future.
This intent hasn’t fully filtered through to the way Londoners shop online yet though, only 5% always collect their shopping instead of having it delivered. But as the focus on sustainability grows consumers are starting to see green options as a deal-breaker. Over half (56%) say they are now more likely to shop with a rival retailer if they offer a greater range of sustainable delivery options, higher than any other region in the UK.
Nearly half (48%) don’t think retailers currently do a good enough job of offering sustainable options, and a quarter (27%) are annoyed that home delivery is often positioned as the default option, generating unnecessary emissions.
Going green will unlock customer loyalty
These changing attitudes could impact retailers’ bottom lines if they don’t give their customers green choices. 58% of Londoners only want to support retailers with a wide range of sustainable options in future, and 38% are more likely to use a delivery option where they can see the CO2 impact of each delivery.
The cost burden may seem high, but shoppers in the Capital are willing to put their money where their values are and pay a premium for sustainable options. A quarter (25%) would pay £1 or more, and over a quarter (26%) would be happy to pay £2 or more.
City trip-chaining on the up
Busy shoppers are also trying to reduce their impact on the city by trip-chaining too, with 59% planning to combine journeys to shops and other destinations more than they used to. 71% say the reason they’ll do this more in the future is to cut costs, but over half (51%) say they are doing it to be more sustainable.
Tim Robinson, CEO of click and collect experts Doddle said, “It’s clear that policies like ULEZ and Sadiq Khan’s recent call for Londoners to reduce workplace deliveries are helping change shopper attitudes. As a result, they’re demanding more from retailers in future. It won’t be enough for sustainable delivery to be an add-on or after-thought anymore, in an already tough retail environment, it will set brands apart in their battle for customer loyalty.
“We know how positive the impact of alternatives like click & collect can be. With pressure growing, retailers will need to make alternatives like click & collect, consolidated deliveries and store kiosks more prominent at checkout and be explicit about the environmental benefits.”
Doddle has also reviewed delivery figures to understand how embracing click and collect can benefit the environment. Doddle has estimated that there could be over a 80% reduction in delivery vehicles on the street if everyone used click & collect / pick up drop off points. This would be the extreme, but even moving towards this in a small way would have a big impact on the environment given every kilometre of a delivery emits 147g of CO2.
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