business plan for eco friendly products Archives

Green Business Ideas

In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to write about “green” business ideas, especially since demand for eco-friendly and sustainable products and services has more than DOUBLED in the last five years.

Most in Demand Eco Products

In terms of products, the most demand, according to Google Trends, is for eco-friendly packaging, gifts, cleaning products, personal care products, cars, homes, furniture, clothing and phone cases, along with things like balloons, backpacks, mattresses, and yoga mats.

Make sure that you are clearly stating and showing your eco-friendly products in all of your marketing materials, along with any eco-friendly packaging and manufacturing practices if you wish to use this “green” marketing opportunity.

Most in Demand Eco Services

In terms of services, searches for eco-friendly tourism jumped 5,000% in the last couple of years, along with eco-friendly event planning companies, beauty salons, cleaning services, grocery stores, hotels, transportation companies, landscaping companies and wedding planners.

Again, if customers have a choice between a non eco-friendly service and an eco-friendly service, they will likely go for the latter. It is a competitive advantage.

Eco-Business Idea I Love

One eco-business I love is Inhabitr, where you can rent furniture and home décor items nationwide with the goal of keeping used home items out of landfills. Depending on the piece, customers can either rent it monthly or buy new, used, or later, after their rental period has started. Inhabitr even offers delivery, installation, pickup, cleaning and repair. It’s an ideal option for anyone who needs to furnish temporary housing, student housing, businesses, or rental properties, even house staging.

The Opportunity for You

This is a also great idea you can do locally if looking for a business idea. A few years back when visiting my niece who was graduating from college in Boston, and all of the graduating students just left their unneeded furniture on the sidewalk, presumedly to be picked up by the garage truck. The majority of the furniture was in perfectly good condition, they just didn’t want to haul it back to their home town. We are talking streets full of furniture. I remember thinking, someone could easily resell all of this, if they just had a truck. Maybe that’s you!

You might also like: 4 Eco Products Marketplaces and Free Business Card Templates.

Be Sure to Also Check Out:

Eco Friendly Products Website

In honor of Earth Day tomorrow, I thought I would help entrepreneurs and other small businesses discover four online marketplaces for eco-friendly products. This is actually a post of mine from a few years back that I have just updated

Younger generations prefer eco-friendly products. A Forbes report showed that 62 percent of Gen Zs prefer to buy from sustainable brands. It also indicated that 54 percent of Gen Zs and 50 percent of Millennials even stated that they are willing to pay more for sustainable products.

The Ultimate Green Store

The Ultimate Green Store sells pretty much every type of organic and green product. From baby and kids products to home goods and beauty products, they currently feature hundreds of brands, both well known eco brands and indie brands. If you are an interested, this is a wholesale opportunity, not one where you set up a shop or listings. If you are interested in having them sell your products, contact them at vendorinquiries@theultimategreenstore.com.

Leaf’d

Leaf’d runs the gambit from kids to clothing to pets to food and drink, and of course beauty products. Plus, for their sellers, they offer no monthly fees and no listing fees, just a commission fee on the sale (which they do not disclose until you are approved). There are a few restrictions. Currently, they only accept US or Canadian sellers, and they have a checklist of standards your company and products have to adhere to in order to be accepted as a vendor.

Ecorigem

Ecorigem sells the whole range of eco-friendly products. You can even sell digital downloads. Their one caveat seems to be that sellers must always use eco-friendly packing and reduced use of plastic. They charge sellers a commission fee of 6.5% on each sale, with no monthly fees or listing fees.

Veo

Veo is based in the UK, and like the other sites, they offer fashion, food & drink, health & beauty and home products in the green and organic categories, as well as crafts, gifts, garden – you name it. You can fulfill orders yourself or use their fulfillment services, but they do charge a 15% commission, with no listing or joining fees. For that 15%, they market your products to shoppers through paid search, outreach, blog, video, publicity, SEO and social media.

Earth Love

Not a marketplace, but rather a monthly subscription box so I thought it was worth adding. They curate products for categories such as food, wellness, bath & spa, home decor, aromatherapy, fashion, outdoor, art, and more. They also have a strict set of guidelines that your products must conform to. If you are interested in having one of your products included in their boxes, email them at hello@earthlove.co.