Two reasons why every e-commerce brand should sell eco-friendly products:
One, it’s a spotlight niche. With increasing clamors around climate change and conservation, shoppers are highly watching for businesses that respond to the call – businesses that sell lifelong, sustainable products.
Two, it’s a lucrative niche. The reason? Recyclable materials such as plastic, cotton, and wood are gaining preferences.
Whether to genuinely contribute to the global cause to preserve the climate, or to look cool, consumers’ interests in eco-friendly products are skyrocketing. Selling these products puts your business in a win-win situation.
In this article, we’ll discuss what eco-friendly products are. We’ll recommend the top products you should consider for your Shopify store, from tech stuff to pets.
What are Eco-friendly Products?
Eco-friendly products are products that conserve water and energy during manufacturing, and emit less carbon dioxide during usage. They’re items such as recyclable water bottles, reusable straws made from silicone or other suitable substituents, and zero-waste shopping bags.
These products are assessed through three criteria: energy efficiency, natural-origin materials, and sustainability (or durability).
The call to preserve the environment is primarily a call to reduce energy consumption and emission. CO2, fossil fuels, and coal – a compound of carbon – are the biggest contributors to negative climate changes. Eco-friendly products combat this by contributing lean energy during production and usage.
Complex manufacturing processes consume high energy. Thus, eco-friendly products rely on simpler processes using natural-origin materials. These could also be non-animal-based materials such as wood or wool.
Durability and sustainability are necessary metrics for determining eco-friendly products. How long do they last from production to wearout? Are they self-repairing? The more a product can repair itself, the lower the chances it’ll be tossed or thrown away.
Looking to get into selling sustainable products? Check that your chosen products:
- Have longer shelf-lives.
- Are from natural or organic sources.
- Are ethical and fair-trade items.
- Can be produced from recycled materials.
- Can be packaged or shipped through low-impact materials.
Here are fifteen eco-friendly items you should consider for your Shopify store.
Eco-friendly Products to Sell
We’ve compiled a list of fifteen suitable items, including some brands and businesses manufacturing or selling these products.
1. Biodegradable Handbags
Mother Erth presents a collection of artsy, climate-kind handbags for all ages and classes.
Merging a passion for female empowerment with a desire to reduce waste disposal, their clutches, purses, and handbags will spark both “compliments and conversations”.
They intercept materials discarded due to printing defects. Rather than arriving in landfills, the materials are converted into stunning, durable handbags. They also engage the expertise of artisan women to create products for women, lifting many out of poverty.
Eco-conscious handbags are fast becoming a fashion trend since they’re fitting for work, trips, or casual events. With a growing demand for them, adding these handbags to your store secures you a seat at the sales table.
2. Phone Accessories
If you’ve never held or used one, you’d be surprised to know that wooden phone cases exist. They’re fast gaining popularity, especially across the UK, US, and Canada. While displacing conventional synthetic materials like leather, these eco-cool cases are as attractive.
Since their manufacturing procedure is less complex, they conserve water and energy in production. Pela, a leading producer of compostable phone cases, offers a variety of options for both Android and iPhone users.
3. Reusable Food Bags
Recyclable food bags are statement shopping items. Thinking of preserving bread, coffee, pastries, or other edibles? Consider these climate-friendly products.
Onya, a recyclable products brand, sells quality bread bags that will keep the bread fresh for up to three months. While these food bags haven’t gained household adoption, shoppers with an eye for eco-friendly packaging will be glad to order them from your store.
4. Reusable Groceries and Shopping Bags
Everyone disposes of groceries’ or shopping nylons. It’s easier when you don’t pay for them. These bags contribute a significant quota of disposed waste to landfills and refuse dumps, exacerbating the concern for safe environments.
Enter reusable shopping bags. Brands that produce these bags not only make them repairable, they’re also easy to move about. They can be washed, dried, aired, and packaged for multiple trips to the grocery store.
And, they barely break your purse. The average reusable bag costs about $2 per count. That’s a fair price to keep the world clean. It’s also a fair price to appeal to customers interested in purchasing a pack of these bags on your website.
5. Sustainable Furniture
If this feature looks strange on the inclusion, it’s because we love these pieces. From a classy patio furniture chiseled from recycled ocean materials to gorgeous flatpack stools carved from disposed plastic, sustainable furniture serve both indoor and outdoor uses.
Sabai, Kaiyo, and Yardbird are some of the top brands in the recycled furniture business. They also contribute to the cause for cleaner environments.
Kaiyo plants a tree for every completed order. They also reduce the volume of furniture that hit landfills through recycling for improved manufacturing.
Yardbird tracks plastic wastes extricated from oceans and other relevant water bodies. This raises awareness about unregulated plastic waste disposal, making their products a recommended addition to put up on your store.
6. Recyclable Food
For adventurous consumers, items such as vegetable pulps can be processed to make pastry. Yes, they’re quite healthy too. The goal of these food items is to reduce the energy emitted in the form of carbon dioxide, especially during production and distribution.
There are also other creative ways to convert food waste into new edibles. Looking to stay ahead of your competition? Research brands or businesses that sell recyclable food near you. They may be keen about packaging eco-friendly food items such as mushrooms or optimize food waste for healthier products.
Suggest a partnership with your Shopify store. You’d be contributing to a worthy cause, while boosting your brand visibility and securing an influx of buyers.
7. Woven Belts
Recyclable belts combine fashion with eco-friendliness. Most are adjustable, have little need for holes, and offer both comfort and convenience.
Made from packs of discarded or disposed plastics, manufacturers of recyclable belts serve a consistent demand while creating products that help the environment. The added cherry is that most manufacturers, such as Jelt and SwolePanda, donate a portion of their profits to environmental causes.
Eager to help fight climate depletion and pollution while steadily selling to willing buyers? Reusable woven belts are a must-own in your Shopify store.
8. Ethical Footwear
Tennis shoes, basketball fits, comfy sneakers for morning jogs, all available as eco-friendly products. The benefit of sporting one of these? Your fitness improves with each use, while the earth is preserved.
Not exclusive to athletes, ethical footwear stem from upcycled fiber, recycled cotton, or other materials. They factor in sustainability and repairability during the production process.
You can add ethical footwears to your Shopify store to spice up your array of eco-friendly products to sell.
9 Skincare Products
Organic skincare is a relatively familiar concept. They’re skin products sourced from organic substances or products with trace quantities of harmful chemicals. Suitable products within this category include body creams, make up items, and toothbrushes.
Clean, eco-conscious products lend multiple advantages to e-commerce stakeholders. For buyers, these products contain natural ingredients with anti-aging and skin-smoothing properties. Moisturization? Covered. Long-term skin freshness? Covered. Smoothness? Covered.
For sellers, adding skincare products to your Shopify store communicates business value and consumers’ welfare. You’re looking out for them, concerned about their safety and wellness while using products shopped from you.
10. Recyclable Straws
We highly recommend eco-friendly straws because they’re so cool. Common straws take decades of years to complete one life cycle. In that time, they clog waterways, drainages, and culverts.
With eco-friendly straws, waste is drastically cut. Made from stainless steel or glass, they are more durable than the single-use straws.
11. Drink Bottles and Cups
Every minute, one million bottles shift from “add to cart” to “purchased”. One million. More bottles are sold in a week than there are humans on earth to use them.
Non-recycling materials affect this high usage rate. Plastic bottles harm the environment physically – clogs, dumps – and chemically – by breaking down into complex substances such as bis-phenols, PFASs, and UV stabilizers.
Adopting eco-friendly bottles, containers, and lids address plastic pollution and streamline tendencies of contamination or chemical harms.
Ready to add these bottles to your store? Start with some recyclable drink bottles or coffee cups, and see where it leads.
Conclusion
Our compiled list of eco-friendly products to sell is by no means an exhaustive one. Other items we excluded are recyclable rugs, yoga mats, pet foods, towels, creative toys, and DIY gardening units.
Interests in eco-friendly products will continue to soar. Aligning your store with the tide will ensure customers can constantly turn to you for relevant purchases. In an innovative and competitive e-commerce space, that’s an advantage you certainly need.
FAQs on Eco-friendly Products
What eco-friendly products should I sell?
Any climate-conscious product. Think of any household item and there’s an eco-friendly alternative. Before deciding on a product, pass it through the criteria: Is it energy efficient? Does it support repairability for reuse? Is it derived from plant or natural materials?
The best eco-friendly products support these requirements. They reduce waste production and prevent reckless environmental pollution, either during manufacturing or degradation.
Are eco-friendly products popular?
A study revealed that at least 8 in 10 shoppers prefer sustainable products over non-recycle ones. Another study showed that 77% of respondents consider plastic as a high-risk packaging material.
There’s a buying market for eco-friendly products. With continuous initiatives and causes to raise awareness about climate change, more consumers will shift towards eco-friendly products. Businesses involved in the supply chain position themselves to benefit from this trend.
How well do eco-friendly products sell?
As with other commercial goods, the profit margins on eco-friendly products depend on a number of factors. One thing is certain – eco-friendly products appeal to their target customers, people conscious about safer, cleaner environments and living conditions.
