The evolution of sustainability in e-Commerce

 

Sustainability has become increasingly important in e-Commerce. Instead of a fun bonus point, the sustainability of a brand and/or an e-Commerce operator is now a central requirement for a rapidly growing number of consumers. In the UK, for example, 60% of shoppers actively seek eco-friendly shipping options, while 73% would even pay more for sustainable packaging.

 

With figures like that, it’s time to take a look at how sustainability can help your business thrive.

 

 

The state of sustainable e-Commerce in 2025

e-Commerce sales are rapidly rising. In 2025, global online sales are predicted to reach $1.4 trillion, up from $907.9 billion in 2022. As this growing industry has a large ecological footprint, it’s no wonder that legislators around the world tend to impose sustainability requirements on e-Commerce operators.

 

 

Sustainable e-Commerce in the EU

From 2025 onwards, the EU requires nearly all products sold in its territory to feature a Digital Product Passport (DPP). This passport, accessible via RFID or QR codes, contains all relevant information about the product’s origins, raw materials, environmental footprint, and proper disposal. The DPP is a part of the EU’s ecodesign requirements regulation and is aimed at improving the transparency of commerce. 

 

Since packaging and shipping materials are responsible for about 25% of the ecological footprint of e-Commerce, the EU has introduced the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation to curb the environmental damage caused by single-use materials. The regulation requires producers to design packaging for recycling and/or reuse, setting the principle of “design for recycling” as the new industry standard.

 

 

Illustration of a person recycling packaging material

 

 

Consumers want a more sustainable e-Commerce

As noted before, there’s a growing consumer demand to make online shopping more sustainable. Over 70% of shoppers are happy to pay more for sustainably created products. This is especially true for younger consumers. 57% of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers (currently the two youngest economically active generations) regard sustainability as one of their most important criteria when shopping for clothes, accessories, and footwear. This figure is up from 47% in 2022.

 

Find out all about the preferences of Gen Z in e-Commerce!

 

 

Best sustainable e-Commerce practices in 2025

There are several ways your business can become more sustainable. Many of them depend on the nature of your actual business activities, but there are a variety of practices almost all brands can use for increased sustainability.

 

1. Think about your products’ packaging. Is it all necessary? Could it be more streamlined, reduced, or improved in any other way? Once you have it reduced to the minimum, come up with ways to reuse and recycle your remaining packaging.
   
   
2. Lower your emissions. Whether production or transport, the emissions connected to your business harm the environment. Curbing those by looking for alternative production or transport methods, like electric vehicles, will help you become more sustainable.
   
   
3. Offset your ecological impact. Although emissions can be reduced, some level of them is inevitable, at least with our current knowledge and technology. Compensate the climate for those emissions with contributions to offset projects like reforestation and renewable energies.
   
   
4. Recycle. Whether production waste, old packaging, or used products, recycling goes a long way toward protecting our environment. Let your customers in on the idea and encourage them with actionable advice on how to recycle your products.
   
   
5. Reduce your returns. Products travelling back and forth between you and your customers have double the impact of a single delivery. While laws usually prohibit businesses from outright refusing returns, you can subtly discourage your customers from treating your webshop as a fitting room. Using new technologies like AI and AR can help customers visualize how a certain product would look on them and thus make it unnecessary for shoppers to order multiple colors and sizes of the same garment, only to send back the majority of them.

 

Find out what Swedish online marketplace Boozt does to discourage excessive returns!

 

 

6. Introduce recommerce. Buying and selling pre-loved items is a growing segment of e-Commerce. Brands like Zara and Zalando have embraced this trend and aid their customers in marketing their used products. Recommerce can help you get on top of the sales of your used products and, with the same breath, increase your customers’ loyalty.
   
   
7. Work with a green e-Commerce platform. You have many features to consider when choosing an e-Commerce platform, like their user-friendliness, price, scalability, etc. Eco-friendliness should be one of those features. For example, Shopify integrates a carbon-offset program into its platform, while WooCommerce offers plugins to increase the eco-friendly features (e.g., minimizing waste) of your shop.
   
   
8. Increase transparency. Let your customers know what you’re doing and encourage them to participate in any way they can. Transparency is the aim of legislative measures like the DPP. This and similar tools give a clear picture to both businesses and consumers about the origins, journey, and life cycle of any product.
   
   
9. Become circular. The above steps lead to the circular economic model, where products, packaging, and raw materials are reused, repaired, or recycled instead of thrown away.

 

Related topics

The importance of a great online shopping experience

 

EU legislation explained for businesses

 

How luxury brands can successfully implement sustainability

 

Top 7 e-Commerce trends for 2025

 

 

Sustainable brands

While many brands are taking the plunge, let’s take a look at a few prominent examples.

 

 

Patagonia

Well-known outerwear company Patagonia prides itself on taking major steps toward both environmental and social sustainability. The company works with fair trade manufacturers to ensure the safety and wellbeing of workers. Similarly, most of Patagonia’s products are made from recycled raw materials and created for durability. The brand also runs a platform for the recommerce of its used products.

 

 

DHL

Shipping significantly contributes to global emissions, which is why it’s crucial for logistics companies like DHL to become more sustainable. In its Strategy 2030: Accelerate Sustainable Goals, the company explains how it plans to decarbonize its operations. For example, it employs a carbon-neutral design in all new buildings while aiming to electrify 66% of its last-mile delivery vehicles and using over 30% of sustainable aviation fuels to reduce its emissions.

 

 

Tentree

True to its name, sustainable clothing brand Tentree promises its customers to plant ten trees for every product sold. Besides that, the brand offers clothes made from organic and recycled materials, minimizing their ecological footprint. In addition, Tentree also runs a recommerce platform and offers a carbon sequestration program for its customers called Climate+.

 

 

Screenshot of www.tentree.eu displaying the company’s homepage

 

 

Avoid greenwashing

Beware: claiming you’re more sustainable than you actually are is a dangerous path, and several brands have faced controversy when being found guilty of greenwashing.

 

 

IKEA

Although the Swedish interior design giant is adamant about its sustainable strategies, reporters have discovered that IKEA sources at least some of its wood from clear-cutting virgin forests in Finland and Romania. Due to insufficient legislation, wood sourced this way may still carry an FSC certification, a token that’s supposed to guarantee sustainable forestry.

 

 

H&M

Fast-fashion company H&M has introduced various steps toward becoming sustainable, like collecting used clothing for recycling and marketing garments created with more sustainable materials like organic cotton. However, the idea behind fast fashion is selling a large amount of cheap clothing as fast as possible, which is not exactly sustainable.

 

Critics have discovered several problems with H&M’s sustainability agenda. Namely, it seems that clothes brought in for recycling are usually downcycled into cleaning rags or insulation, or shipped to developing countries. In addition, the “Conscious Collection” created from sustainable materials is smaller in the company’s product line than advertised. H&M is also being sued for misleading sustainability claims in its marketing.

 

 

Sustainable e-Commerce and online brand protection

While normally concerned with keeping your brand’s IP rights safe from infringement, online brand protection measures can also contribute to your sustainability efforts.

 

For example, globaleyez’s online monitoring services detect all kinds of content (e.g., marketplace listings, images, ads, social media posts) referring to your brand and products. This is essential for discovering infringing content, but it can also help you find used products for recycling, available on C2C marketplaces.

 

Moreover, as counterfeit products often harm the environment much more than originals, protecting your IP rights can also contribute to protecting the environment. Our enforcement service ensures the removal of infringing and environmentally harmful offers from the internet, creating a Clean Marketplace where your products can shine without any interference from bad-quality product listings.

 

In the fight for sustainability, every step matters. We are happy to contribute, however much we can, to assist you in reaching your sustainability goals while protecting one of your most invaluable assets - your IP rights.

 

 

Conclusion

Climate change is a real danger that governments, businesses, and consumers have to tackle together to save our planet. Sustainable practices are therefore more than a marketing gimmick: they have to become integral to the operation of e-Commerce businesses.

 

Contact us if you want to learn more about how online brand protection can assist you in reaching your sustainability goals!