The Most Eco-Friendly Shoppers in the U.S.

Social responsibility is of increasing importance to consumers. This made the research team at SPS Commerce wonder, what U.S. cities are the most eco-conscious and which eco-friendly products are trending?

Thanks to Google, we can compare consumer demand data for the most popular eco-friendly products and services in the United States:

We can also identify the top U.S. cities whose populations are searching for eco-friendly products:

Search Trends for Kindles, Solar Panels and Electric Cars

According to our research, San Jose has the most eco-friendly shoppers in the U.S. On average, San Jose searches for eco-friendly products almost seven times more than the city in last place, Dallas.

Below we’ve taken an in-depth look at the three most popular eco-friendly products, Kindles, solar panels and electric cars, and highlighted the most and least interested cities.

The most popular eco-friendly product was an Amazon Kindle. San Jose has the highest interest in Kindles, according to Google searches. There are more benefits to e-readers than the reduction of paper pollution. Although, as San Jose also ranks highly for other eco-friendly products, they likely take the Kindle’s environmental impact into consideration prior to purchasing.

It goes without saying that some cities are at a distinct advantage for solar panels. El Paso has the highest demand for solar panels and the city also ranks as the sixth sunniest city in the U.S. (achieving up to 84% average annual sunshine).

However, Austin has up to 60% average annual sunshine yet still ranks as the fifth most interested in solar panels. And, Dallas has 61% average annual sunshine but ranks in the top five least interested in solar panels. Opportunity doesn’t always mean social obligation.

Not only is San Jose the top for consumer interest in electric cars, but it is also home to some of the biggest names in the electric car business. Notably, QuantumScape, a company that produces lithium batteries for electric cars whose investors include Bill Gates and Volkswagen.

Shoppers Seek Out Eco-Friendly Retailers and Suppliers

Studies have already shown that two-thirds of consumers consider sustainability prior to making a product purchase. While some regions may be slightly more conscious than others, there’s no question that eco-friendly products are on the minds of shoppers across the U.S. This is why if you are an eco-friendly retailer or supplier, it’s important to identify which cities are best to target for these products and make sure these shelves are always fully stocked.

Eco-friendly or all-natural products sell fast when discovered, just ask a few eco-friendly suppliers such as Nanoleaf and Nutricare that have partnered with SPS Commerce. With retail analytics software you can see trends from store level to a heatmap of the U.S. Allowing you more opportunities to capitalize on trends within your market.

Methodology

We used Google Keyword Planner to identify the most popular eco-friendly products and services of the past year. The regional feature identified the number of searches for the top 25 most populated cities in the U.S.

Searches were divided by the total number of searchers in each city to get searches per capita. This was then multiplied by 100,000 for searches per 100,000.

Each product was then averaged out to find an average number of searches per 100,000.

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Alison Tribus

Sr. Retail Intelligence Manager at SPS Commerce

Alison works in Customer Success at SPS Commerce on the Analytics Retail Intelligence team. Using her expertise in the industry she collaborates with customers to build out intelligent analytics and dashboards to address their business needs. Her main focus is helping customers to optimize their business operations while improving working efficiencies.

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• The Most Eco-Friendly Shoppers in the U.S. - March 17, 2021