Information availability and accessibility regarding ecological products offered in online stores – a case of retail chains

Abstract: The global impact of increasing environmental pollution and the impending climate crisis are now becoming central concerns of modern-day societies at large. More than ever before, enterprises that introduce products to the market find themselves under pressure to take ecological actions and provide eco-friendly solutions. A large role is also played by consumers, whose everyday decision-making when selecting or buying products strongly affects the processes occurring on the market. However, for members of society to be able to make informed choices of products, they must be able to gain sufficient knowledge and information about them.The aim of the study was to assess the availability of information concerning organic products on the websites of the largest retailers in Poland. The research method used was an elaborated questionnaire to assess the availability and accessibility of environmental information on store websites. In total, 10 selected e-shops were evaluated. The study was limited to examining only the offer of food products, so that the results could be comparable.The obtained results suggest that there is a very large difference in the approach to providing consumers with knowledge about the impact of sold products on the environment. What is more, the assessed e-shops lacked direct links to subpages with eco-friendly or organic products. Only in a few cases did retailers decide to use additional, larger eco-labels, such as the EU organic logo. In most cases, the only way to recognize an ecological product was to observe photos of the offered products, which were often characterized by low resolution and small size.The development of e-commerce means that an increasing number of products are sold through this channel. In the case of traditional trade, many solutions have already been developed that can substantially bridge the information gap, thus allowing consumers to make more informed decisions.The obtained research results refer to the situation on the Polish market. However, the overall conclusions are rather disturbing. The analysis of the conducted research prompts to take actions and measures to achieve significant improvement in the availability, accessibility, and ease of identifying eco-friendly and organic products in e-commerce.

Keywords: e-commerce, environmental information, ecolabel, food, online shopping, retailers

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005668

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