Sustainability is now a filter option at Galaxus

From energy-saving printers to vegan face cream to envelopes made from recycled paper – the new filter allows Galaxus customers to search for sustainable products. The filter currently applies to around 40 product types with a particularly high number of eco or sustainability labels. To date, 20 seals of quality have been incorporated. They include «Oeko-Tex», «Energy Star», «Ecocert», «FSC» and «Blauer Engel».

«By using our new filter options, our customers can now shop even more consciously,» says Oliver Herren, Chief Innovation Officer at Galaxus’ Swiss parent company Digitec Galaxus. «The Community has been demanding more transparency when it comes to products for a while now. Time for us to deliver what they want.» A survey recently conducted in Switzerland by Digitec Galaxus shows that one in three customers pays close attention to eco labels or sustainability seals. This mainly applies to food or clothing items.

Customers will find the latest filter function amongst the regular product group filters. E.g. for PC monitors. The filtering options for products include «organic», «energy-efficient use», «fair trade», «sustainable products and raw materials», «natural cosmetics», «no animal testing» as well as «vegan».

Labels not yet established for many products

To find out if a product meets the requirements of a quality seal, customers can check the product details in the specifications. E.g. for this monitor. So far, this information is available for almost 3,000 products. Admittedly, this is not much compared to the total of roughly 400,000 products available from digitec and Galaxus.

This disparity can be partly explained by the fact that labels aren’t very common for many product categories, e.g. electronics, watches and jewellery. However, the main issue is that the information regarding sustainability simply hasn’t yet been entered for many products. «In the coming weeks, months and years, we’ll be focussing on adding this information with the help of our suppliers and marketplace merchants as well as manufacturers,» says Herren. In other words, further product types and labels will be added gradually. In the medium run, digitec and Galaxus will be introducing the sustainability filter for all product types.