The environmental awareness of consumers is increasing rapidly and so is the demand for organic and sustainable products. The market for sustainably produced products is growing faster than the trade of conventional consumer goods. 

The topic of sustainability and environmental-friendliness is not only about the direct business impacts of its revenue and profit - It also aims to minimise the consumers bad conscience when it comes to consumption or disposal and increase the buying mood. 

However, sustainable products offer even more opportunities for the retail trade: They are regarded as trendy, reflect one's lifestyle, and are highly demanded despite their higher prices and often also margins. The business is booming and more and more participants can benefit.  

zentrada, Europa’s largest sourcing platform for the wholesale purchase of consumer goods online, is now offering its retailers a special Buyer World starting with 1,500 articles from the household, cosmetics, and food sectors that have a sustainable character. The selection will grow rapidly with the existing and new suppliers and provides ideas paired with a direct channel for purchasing for resellers.

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Not everything can be “organic”. Sustainability relates to many aspects in production, packaging, transport, and disposal of products. For example, cotton shopping bags, reusable products or innovations that replace plastic and aluminum with natural raw materials also offer environmentally friendly alternatives that benefit climate and retailers simultaneously. 

But retailers and consumers are and will remain realistic. The advantage of a global division of labor and mass production, which are both necessary for the large business of consumption, are also likely to have a superior environmental balance compared to the many smaller local production sites. The increasingly digital and innovative logistic chains have also worked on more ecologically efficient systems. 

“Everything that increases efficiency is also ecological - We as a digital trading platform and logistic service provider also have the goal of shortening the path from manufacturer to retailer, bundling transactions and thus improving the ecological balance of trade,“ says zentrada CEO Ingo Schloo about his task for an ecological future.

Following the digitalisation of sales and the new opportunities in online sourcing, the retail sector is experiencing another wave of opportunities and change to be mastered by the “greening” of consumption and assortments.