The Greening of Ecommerce: Keeping it Simple

Minimizing the carbon footprint is not just a concept for automakers and energy producers. For average individuals, it’s also not limited to conserving water, recycling, and buying energy-efficient light fixtures. Going green is a trending strategy among merchants, influencers, and anyone who spends a significant amount of time and energy creating online content.

Today’s consumers are savvy about eco-friendliness, and often they will expect it from those with whom they do business. That includes ecommerce entities, and the ways you can make that happen may surprise you.

Just as coal-based fuels, water, and quality soils are not infinite, the availability of digital resources are limited; they take a toll on bandwidth, compromise delivery speed, and overall are a commodity to conserve. If your customers—especially the younger set—reflect a general trend, they will be most comfortable patronizing green-centric companies. They want to know that your desire to fill their needs may also translate to saving their future.

​How do you make that happen? There are a number of ways.

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• Optimize. Go green by incorporating digital efficiency into your visual content. Faster page speeds result from compressed images uploaded at correct scale values; modern format fonts consume far less digital energy than uncompressed typefaces.
  
  
• Hosting. Use a data center that runs on renewable energy. Providers will, or should, be willing to disclose that information. It makes a difference.
  
  
• Speed up transactions. Paring down the steps customers take to complete a purchase is a fabulous way to observe eco-friendly ecommerce practices. Not only will you avoid annoying good clients, but you will cut down significantly on bandwidth.
  
  
• Smaller is better. Uploading large, grand, colorful images is tempting. We know that. But reconsider, as they are slower to load, they hog bandwidth, and they present an unnatural rhythm for consumers hoping to speed along through sales. Think minimalism when it comes to digital content of any sort.
  
  
• Code Read. Cleaning up the coding on your business website is a must. Whether you administer it yourself or have a web guru do it for you, make sure you use only what you need. Replicated coding and content and superfluous plug-ins sound fun to use, but they muddy the waters and become first-rate energy sucks.

 
The cultural and environmental movement toward clean energy and conversation is underway, with average citizens embracing its benefits. If you can demonstrate a commitment to doing your part, you will become more attractive to an important class of consumers.