Identification and implementation of sustainability indicators in e-commerce for electronic goods: a Swedish case study

When looking at shopping online there is a large amount of waste and mass consumption associated with it, therefore the topic of sustainability within e-commerce is a rising. There is research within shopping more sustainably for fashion and beauty, however there is a gap in the market when looking at the electronic goods sector. This thesis aims to add to the existing literature by showing shopping platforms how consumers interact with different sustainability indicators and whether they understand the value of sustainability indicators when looking at electronic goods. Thus, the purpose is to understand further the potential for shopping platforms to change the way consumers shop when given the opportunity to see sustainability indicators that are checked externally, in the electronic industry. An online survey took place to ask 160 respondents their opinions on sustainability and electronic e-commerce. The results showed that both social and environmental indicators were important. However, the working conditions of workers ranked higher than issues such as female-owned businesses, whereas environmental indicators were closer in their rankings. Furthermore, the results highlighted that the importance is not as much on whether the indicators are rankings or stand-alone indicators, but more that they are validated and transparent. People want to shop more sustainably and therefore if the information from this thesis is used by shopping platforms to showcase what companies do to be more sustainable, the hope it that brands will start to make those changes too.