Surveys in western countries: 50-80% of consumers receive unwanted gifts.

In UK alone consumers bought unwanted gifts for £2.3 billion in 2007

After having studied the presentation at this site you will most likely say to yourself: - This is quite interesting and enlightening. I have never thought it would be a good idea to go online and establish a branch on the net! After all, I am running a local shop with local customers - why on earth should I establish a shop on the Internet?

First, you should recognize two very important factors:
- The new green consumer trend.
- The strong increase in online shopping.
(Remember, the people that are buying goods online are all “locals”.)

The climate change and the challenges it has created means that we all have to act and do things differently, i.e. in a more environment-friendly way. These new challenges also create great opportunities. The presentation at this site has focus on one single environmental issue, that both represents a challenge - and probably a great opportunity for many local shop-owners. An issue that until now has got very little attention in an environmental context: UNWANTED GIFTS.

Unwanted gifts = unwanted CO₂ emissions.

Global warming as a result of, among other things - shipping of goods, has become the no. 1 issue in media. Therefore, retailers either operating online or offline, and their customers as well, should make every effort in order to avoid unwanted gifts, i.e. unwanted and unnecessary transportation of gifts being returned and exchanged, re-gifted or sold at online auctions. The unwanted gifts result namely in quite a formidable quantity of CO₂ emissions. Another negative factor: Unwanted gifts being returned and exchanged represent increased costs, which in the end must be paid by the consumers.

Apart from that there is a negative factor at the personal psychological level; the feel guilt factor when exchanging or selling the gift that a friend or relative has carefully selected and bought especially to you.
Conclusion: Nobody wants unwanted gifts; not the consumers, not the shop-owners and absolutely not the environment!

The total environmental negative impact derived from unwanted gifts is probably much larger than many can imagine. Surveys suggest that in UK alone consumers bought unwanted gifts for the total of £ 2.3 billion in 2007. Similar research findings in other western countries indicate that as much as 50-80% of consumers are receiving unwanted gifts every year!

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