Re-Usable Bags and On-Line Shopping
Monday, April 28th, 2008Market trends and public opinion have been favoring more environmentally-friendly options. The term green is now part of any sound marketing strategy. Many shoppers are doing what our European counterparts have been doing for years and bringing their own reusable bags to the store with them. This brings up the question- how can you incorporate your customer’s preference to use reusable bags with on-line shopping?
1) The deposit approach
Offer a system for on-line shopping where customers can pay a deposit for each bag they take from the store. The cost of the deposit would be the replacement cost of the bag. They would effectively buy the bags and could note in the comments field that they had x number of bags. Upon pick-up they could either return enough bags to equal the number of bags in the new order or offer to pay the charge for each bag.
2) Storage Bins
If a customer’s groceries are stored in bins awaiting pickup, then the customer can provide you with their own bags (or theroretically bins) when they arrive.
3) Delivery
Consider the way the postal service operates- they make many mail stops along the way but don’t put everyone’s order in their own bag. If your delivery driver carries the customer’s groceries into the house, then they can unload them and alleviate the need to leave bags at the customer’s home.
