Many people in business try hard to add environmentally friendly products and services. The problem is that conventional suppliers for retail outlets are often not up to speed on what’s available.

With a bit of digging around online, you can find some excellent, environmentally friendly options for your retail store, and sometimes even new stock, adding to your range of eco-friendly products, while greening your store in the process.

You can actually do a sort of green check list” for the things you need as a green retailer:

• Waste elimination: Green environmental shopping bags, reusable containers, and recyclable packaging are all good, useful products with built in green values.
• Sustainable materials: Plantation timber shelving and shop displays, recycled goods, certified organic products, even your store carpeting can be ultra-green.
• Green product options: Green products are now available in every industry on Earth. Even the major corporations have taken up some green production lines. Finding what you need may take some patience and research, but it’s doable, and often provides you with whole new lines of products your business can use.
• Emissions and carbon footprint issues: These are identifiable on some modern green products, but this type of listing isn’t yet as common as it needs to be. It’s best to research products first, and pin down their green values.

This checklist approach is also very useful when you’re trying to phase out old products with poor sustainability credentials. You can replace the fossil products with eco-friendly equivalents progressively.

Presenting your green products

One of the basic principles of marketing is to give your products high profile. For retailers, that means putting them in a central position, preferably with colorful signs and a clear sales pitch including viable discounts. These attention-getters also promote a basic awareness, so they’re not going to be wasted effort.

Good business is green business

A real business opportunity is also available for green retailers. You’ll find that your green products are attracting plenty of motivated customers. The good news for your business, as well as your environmental ethics, is that these customers will also be interested in any new green product ranges you want to try. You’ve got an expert market research facility in your customers.

As a green retailer, you don’t have to be limited in your approach to green products. As long as you’re licensed to sell a class of product, you can experiment with new ideas for your eco-friendly range of goods.

There are a lot of real positives, including some notable business advantages, from using this experimental approach:

• You can speed up phasing out the carbon-guzzling products.
• You can create more shelf space with a better, more diverse range of products.
• You can check demand for new products, reducing risk on outlays.
• You can stay up to date with your inventory, ready to meet demand for new green products.

The fun side of the green retail business

Now the fun part: You can use your business to explore all the really fascinating new green business ideas on the market, and have a ball.