How Ikea, WHSmith and Decathlon are going green to win shopper spend

Retailers are on a deadline when it comes to sustainability. By 2030, businesses must halve their emissions and reduce them by 90% by 2050 to limit global warming and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.  

Equally important for compliance credentials are customer perceptions of retailers’ sustainability initiatives. 

Over half of UK online shoppers want retailers to be actively upping their sustainability credentials, according to new research published in Retail Week’s Shopper Unlocked report. But, they aren’t prepared to pay extra for it.

Just 8% would pay more for zero-emissions deliveries, according to our survey of 1,000 consumers, even though 37% think they’re an important part of retailers’ strategies.  

So how can retailers balance the books when it comes to going green? And what sustainability strategies are most likely to boost consumer spend over the next year? Here we explore the topline sustainability innovations of Ikea, WHSmith and Decathlon.

Download Shopper Unlocked: Inside the minds of 1,000 consumers, published in association with global delivery and experience management experts nShift, to dive deeper into retailers’ sustainability strategies. 

Ikea 

Omnichannel giant Ikea is one retailer working swiftly towards sustainability targets, vowing to hit zero emissions for home deliveries by 2025.  

In April 2023, the Swedish homewares specialist announced plans to invest £4.5m in one of the biggest electric vehicle infrastructure projects for last-mile fleets in the UK, and it has already achieved 100% electric last-mile fulfilment in cities including Glasgow.  

Interestingly, the costs for this move haven’t notably been passed to the consumer.

Instead, the retailer aims to model the behaviour it would like to see in shoppers when it comes to going green. Alongside the infrastructure funding for deliveries, Ikea offers customer EV charge points for use when visiting the store, making more sustainable travel options even more accessible. 

Ingka group, the largest Ikea franchisee, saw retail sales climb 5.7% to £36.4bn for FY2023. Group revenues rose 5.4% to £38.6bn for the period.  

WHSmith 

Stationery retailer WHSmith is on a journey to reduce waste, protect natural resources and support climate action, with net zero emissions goals by 2050. In its 2023 sustainability report, the retailer claimed to have reduced emissions by 66% since 2020, with 100% of pulp, paper and timber products purchased for resale now coming from certified sources and recycled materials.  

In terms of consumer-facing action, the brand offers a book buyback scheme, launched in October 2023 via an exclusive partnership with retail buyback service Zeercle, which allows customers to swap used books for gift cards.  

Named ‘BookCycle’, the scheme has been rolled out across all UK high-street WHSmith stores.  

Customers scan barcodes on their books and Zeercle’s technology determines the value for items based on condition, popularity and demand. Consumers get their kickback for going green with vouchers to spend at WHSmith. Zeercle ensures the books are resold or donated, thus keeping them in circularity.  

Group sales at the retailer rose 28% in FY2023 to £1,793m, with its travel arm of the business bolstering growth.  

Decathlon

In a similar vein, Decathlon’s buyback service allows shoppers to return sports equipment they no longer want or have outgrown in return for store credit.  

Initially announced in October 2023, the rollout first focused on Decathlon’s own-brand bicycles, but was expanded in April this year across its breadth of sports equipment, from fitness and gym equipment to golf clubs, tennis rackets and more. Plans are in the pipeline to ‘expand to other products in the near future’.  

Pre-loved, or ‘second life’ items as Decathlon calls them, can be bought on the retailer’s website at a reduced cost, both increasing price affordability for the retailer and driving sustainability among its customers.  

New Shopper Unlocked research has found that 38% of online shoppers agree with the statement, ‘If the retailer has a buyback scheme for the items I purchase, then I’m more likely to shop with them in the future’. Just 17% disagreed with the statement, suggesting a potential for brands to build loyalty and spend by offering such schemes. 

Decathlon’s buyback scheme complements its equipment rental scheme, launched in March 2023, which aims to “to make the joy of sports more accessible to people by allowing them to pick up something new at a fraction of the retail price.” The brand committed over £1m to the scheme in 2023.  

Decathlon group sales climbed 1.2% to £13.6bn in FY2023, or 4.4% in constant currency, heralding a “transformative year” for the brand.