Western Europe, especially Germany and the DACH region, is often considered to be especially conscientious regarding topics around sustainability and environmental awareness. Consumption in general and shopping in particular are sensitive issues in this respect. The new Statista Dossier “Green e-commerce in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland” features statistics that suggest that consumers see high responsibility in online retailers when it comes to fighting climate change. Around 90% of Germans, for example, think that online retailers should reduce the number of single packages, donate returns instead of destroying them or pay more attention to human rights standards in the supply chain in order to contribute to more sustainability in eCommerce.

Interestingly enough – although a study published by MIT Real Estate Innovation Lab, suggests that eCommerce is more sustainable than stationary retail, most consumers have the feeling that the opposite is true – only 13% think that eCommerce is the more sustainable option in the respective statistic in the Statista Dossier. A survey by KPMG shows that despite all eco-awareness, DACH consumers still pay a lot of attention to other aspects in their decision for a certain shopping channel:

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in a little boost for hybrid online-offline shopping solutions like click&collect. Many used the service during lockdowns because there was no other way to shop from stationary stores. Today, the reasons for consumers to use click&collect in the three biggest German-speaking countries in Europe Germany, Austria, and Switzerland are different. The results of the KPMG survey show that saving costs for shipment is the number one reason in all three countries, with Austria showing the highest percentage of answers (58%). In Germany, the second most important reason to use click&collect is to support local stores: 48% of Germans name the reason, while in Austria and Switzerland, only 40% and 28% try to support their local physical stores by using click&collect, respectively. Flexibility is the second most important click&collect in Austria and Switzerland. A higher eco-friendliness only comes in fifth as a driver for consumers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to shop via click&collect. Germans name eco-friendliness significantly more often with 36% – compared to 24% and 23% in Austria and Switzerland, respectively.