Contents of the Entire Guide
How Does The MindfulCommerce Sustainability Guide ⓒ work?
The Six Pillars of Sustainability
The Current State of Sustainable Ecommerce
Research & Key Findings
Welcome – we're so glad to see you here 😁!
We firmly believe that mindful commerce is the future. It has to be.
Ecommerce businesses like yours have a huge role to play - you have the power to take action that goes far beyond reducing the impact that your own business is making. You have the potential to inspire, encourage and empower other ecommerce businesses to do the same.
We know that addressing sustainability as a business can feel overwhelming. It's tough to know where to start. What will have the biggest or more meaningful impact? What's worth investing time and effort into? That's where our Framework and this Guide comes in.
We've worked closely with expert sustainability consultants and some of the UK's leading ecommerce brands and "green" developers to undertake a huge research project (see the findings report here) into the various sustainability and social impact issues in ecommerce.
The MindfulCommerce Sustainability Guide was created for business like yours to navigate their journey to becoming a more mindful, ethical and eco-friendly ecommerce business - in a very manageable way.
How does the MindfulCommerce Sustainability Guide work?
Our suggested plan of action rests on 6 Pillars of Sustainability and Positive Impact. These represent six distinct areas of your business that you can focus on to make meaningful changes.
The pillars lend structure and focus to your future improvements, and can keep you on track towards a better, less impactful ecommerce business.
We know that big changes take time, so for each pillar, you'll find a list of short and long-term projects to help you start making a difference right away. We call these “quick wins” and “big wins”.
Not all improvements need investment or a great deal of time - sometimes it's as simple as having a conversation or thinking a bit more deeply about certain goals and targets.
Move through the Guide to see how you can apply the advice, tips and changes to your business. This is a journey – no one is expected to implement all of these changes instantly. It's about taking a series of steps in the right direction, at a pace that works for you and the resources you have access to. We are with you every step of the way.
👉🏼Join the MindfulCommerce community for free and chat to your peers!
Our 6 Pillars of Sustainability and Positive Impact
By breaking your business down into these six components, you'll be able to approach improvements to your brand in a methodical, effective manner. No overwhelm, no burnout. Just steady progress, as individual improvements start to add up to big change.
This Guide will break each of these core pillars down into practical, actionable tips that can help you make quick changes for instant impact. It will also provide ideas for making more significant changes to your business over time.
Each chapter will delve into a new pillar, offering prompts for things to consider with your team. Each pillar and prompt will have a short explanation as to why it’s important, examples and case studies of ecommerce businesses putting this into practice and directing you to people or apps to help you.
Here are our 6 Pillars:
Click on each link to learn more:
1️⃣ Introduction to Mindful Sourcing
2️⃣ Mindful Products
6️⃣ Mindful Business
The Current State Of Sustainable Ecommerce
We are in the middle of an ecological emergency. Science indicates that we have less than a decade to start making some serious lifestyle changes. And this includes the way we shop online.
Ecommerce businesses have a big role to play to ensure that consumers have access to the shopping experiences they crave in order to practice sustainability.
A recent survey showed that 98% of consumers think brands have a responsibility to make positive change in the world.
MindfulCommerce commissioned a significant amount of research into the current state of play when it comes to sustainable ecommerce, you can find the full report here.
Here are some examples of apps that help make ecommerce more sustainable:
Okendo is a customer review app, enabling customers to show how products have worked for them, including how they fit and feel in real life. This helps shoppers buy the right product the first time around, building trust and giving online stores a sense of community. Feedback informs the product team who can then edit the information on a product listing accordingly - reducing returns as a result (saving tonnes of carbon emissions).
For example, if a product runs large for most people, they’ll say so in the product description.
Recurate integrates a resale marketplace on any Shopify-powered store, so that customers can easily sell unwanted used clothing from a particular brand on that brand’s own website. This boosts sales whilst reducing waste and consumption. It also makes branded clothing more affordable for the masses.
ShoppingGives is an app that enables customers to donate to a cause of their choice via the brand they’re shopping with for no extra fee. This creates a unique relationship between the customer and the brand, builds loyalty and creates positive social impacts.
What does all of this add up to?
There’s a lot of enthusiasm to make a positive difference. But people don’t know where to start when it comes to navigating sustainability in their ecommerce business. With the impact of the services we offer in the ecommerce world, we hope that the MindfulCommerce community will start to make a real difference - together. This is where we come in…
We connect merchants and experts through our Community and Directory, and provide clear structure, suggestions and guidance. When it comes to making tangible improvements in your ecommerce business this Framework is here to help.
Before you get started, we'd just like to take a moment to sincerely thank you for being a force for positive, proactive change in our ecommerce world!