This holiday season promises to be the biggest yet for on-line shopping. According to Forrester, US eCommerce sales are projected to grow 15 percent in 2011, approaching $60 billion in total sales. Furthermore, mobile commerce is expected to play a prominent role in this increase, with eBay alone projecting $5 billion in mobile payments in 2011, this being strongly supported by upcoming holiday spending. As consumers continually move on-line and go mobile in their purchasing, this presents significant opportunity to leverage technology in nudging consumers to make more ethical purchasing decisions. Several efforts are underway to bring product transparency and awareness to consumers shopping in-store and on-line: Ethical Bean, Label Lookup, Honest Label Foods, Barcoo, and Slavery Footprint, to name a few. As smartphone penetration continues to rise (58% of mobile users by 2015), on-the-go location-based information regarding products, supply chains, and sustainable business practices can be made available at the touch of a button. Additional third-party rating systems are currently being developed allowing on-line consumers to immediately access comparative product ratings based, not just on price, but also on the particular values consumers hold. These efforts are certainly welcome because, right now, finding “ethical” products is just damn hard.

Drawing on personal experience, ingredient and product labels can be confusing and difficult to understand, particularly when compounds are indicated whose names are obscure and only intelligible to someone with a doctorate in chemistry. Further ascertaining if a product has been sourced fairly, whether environmental standards have been upheld, and if sustainable business practices have been used proves overwhelming, especially given competing labels, claims, and standards, some being verified, certified, or simply “claimed”. And finally, many myths (e.g., organic = pesticide-free) and distortion (e.g., 100% “natural”) surround ethical product claims, leading to consumer distrust and reticence. One company addressing these problems, along with bringing clarity and peace-of-mind is GoodGuide.

GoodGuide has recently received significant media attention, being profiled in the New York Times and USA Today and being named one of the Most Innovative Companies in 2010 by Fast Company. Founded in 2007, GoodGuide has undergone impressive growth and now has the backing of several venture capital funds. While providing a web platform for company/product search and comparison, of more interest for this holiday season, however, are three core components now integrated in their expanding web and mobile presence: mobile app, browser add-on, and purchase analyzer.

The mobile application, available for both iOS and Android, provides scanning functionality for 140,000 products and supplies a mixture of absolute and relative scores regarding a product’s ethical attributes. A quick trial run in the UK, however, returned few results and no ratings, suggesting that the app’s functionality is limited to the US market. Additionally, the app was buggy, preventing Facebook connect login. And when the app did “log-in”, the app did not update to reflect this change. Nevertheless, the scanning was smooth, being powered by RedLaser, and the app has a well-designed and easy-to-navigate UI. The additional inclusion of personal filters which can be used to determine whether a product passes user-specified ethical criteria makes this app a potentially powerful and effective asset this holiday season as consumers hit the stores looking for eco-conscious and price-sensitive products and deals.

The browser add-on is the second innovative component. Available for both Firefox and Chrome, Amazon shoppers can instantaneously receive comparative ratings and prices for products they are viewing. As Amazon is the largest Internet retailer, this quick and simple extension supplies needed information when making the ethical purchasing decisions many consumers face, particularly for electronics and apparel. The problem, however, is that browser extensions are not mainstream. Firefox reports that 85% of its users have extensions (60 million users), while Chrome reports that one-third of its userbase has downloaded at least one of Chrome’s 8500 extensions. While these numbers may sound impressive, many, if not most, users want two things from their browser: (i) low clutter (i.e., no toolbars, beside, e.g., Google search) and (ii) speed. Add-ons have traditionally been the domain of power-users and techies, which fail to overlap or only comprise a small contingent of the target demographic: mothers and/or supporters of a cause. This demographic is not necessarily the type to be found digging around the Mozilla Add-Ons store, searching for that perfect extension telling them how products compare ethically. Hence, a double hurdle exists in (a) educating the target demographic about browser extensions and (b) convincing users to incorporate the extension into their everyday routine (here, always turning to Amazon before making a purchase decision).

Further, while Amazon is a mega-store, the most popular items are electronics, books, and games. Based on personal experience and that of friends, Amazon is not where one typically turns to purchase consumables, such as food and household goods and cleaning supplies—goods which feature more prominently when consumers consider buying ‘ethically’. Rather, such goods are bought locally, in-store, or through another e-tailer. Hence, the scale and impact of the browser toolkit is circumspect. Others have launched similar initiatives, such as WeGreen, which provides a manufacturer ‘sustainability footprint’. WeGreen automatically displays this footprint on the company’s website, as well as in Google and Amazon searches. This seems more in line with ethical consumer thinking. Yes, finding that one most ‘ethical’ product at the best price is valuable to the consumer; however, the ethical consumer undoubtedly wants something more. This consumer wants to buy from brands which are inherently sustainable, from the bottom-up, not just selling a version of toothpaste slightly more ‘ethical’ than another. Accordingly, WeGreen’s approach seems more intuitive, whereas GoodGuide’s approach provides the more fine-grain details as to why a particular product is less ethical than another. A possible combination of the two approaches may provide a more ubiquitous and comprehensive middle-way.

Lastly, the purchase analyzer is the third innovative component of GoodGuide’s platform. By pulling in one’s purchase history from select e-tailers (e.g., Amazon), a user can determine if her shopping history is in accord with her ethical values. This feedback is combined with new product suggestions, helping the user become a more conscious consumer. This is another welcome feature, particularly when consumers believe they are purchasing ethically and upholding their values but are, in fact, not doing so. Once again, however, this functionality is limited in much the same way as the browser extension. Everyday shopping is not typically performed on Amazon, eCommerce comprising less than 10% of all retail expenditure, with most consumers purchasing on-line less than 1-2 times per month. Thus, the impact is limited. One possible avenue to increase reach and scope is to extend such functionality beyond the web to the store. For instance, Lemon is a mobile and web application allowing users to scan and save receipts in one place. Many services also provide similar functionality, but what sets Lemon apart is its ability to scan images of receipts and convert these to text. This text is then automatically analyzed to provide an itemized breakdown of products bought in-store. Accordingly, a similar functionality could be incorporated for GoodGuide: by importing one’s purchase history from, e.g., Tesco, through, say, Lemon’s API, purchase analysis would reveal a better and more detailed account of ethical consumption and better inform consumers in their future purchasing decisions.

GoodGuide is working on additional initiatives. GoodGuide members can create on-line profiles and contribute to an on-line community through recommended products. Members subsequently earn points and badges based on their product recommendations and the number of followers they have. These points are translated as an ‘influence score’ and used to rank members on a leaderboard. Currently, the network has 70,000 members, and the top ranks of the leaderboard are primarily populated by GoodGuide employees. Cursory inspection suggests that the community lacks much activity with less than 20 product recommendations per day and many users having only 10 or fewer total recommendations. The benefits of building such a community seem quite vast—for example, in helping members crowdsource ethical products and locate knowledge ‘experts’ in specific product areas—but, at present, the on-line community features as something of an afterthought. The user experience is relatively poor, and the gamification is weak, at best. Having users compete across a global leaderboard is not an incentive, particularly as such an ‘incentive’ can actually seem hopeless: few actually believing they can become #1. Rather, community strategies need to be incorporated which serve to deepen user engagement and create a more vibrant and dynamic community.

Additionally, a recent article in the Economist hints that GoodGuide is planning better integration with existing social media platforms, such as Facebook. The principle idea here being that, by sharing on Facebook, two things can be achieved: (1) an existing member’s friends can be pulled to become new GoodGuide members, thus providing free marketing and reducing customer acquisition costs, and (2) peer pressure to make more ethical purchasing decisions based on product recommendations can be exerted on a member’s extended network. Intuitively, this strategy makes sense, but, although I may be wrong, I do not believe sustainable. Two reasons: (a) Facebook is a distraction, a destination where individuals seem more keen on sharing everyday happenings in life and seeing what others are doing than really engaging and seeking information and ethical insight. Pressuring friends to make more ethical decisions does not nearly engage ‘friends’ as much as posting about one’s pending night out. As corollaries, social sharing on platforms like Facebook means, first, competing for interest among much noise, and, second, contending against user psychology—users go to Facebook to feel good and laugh, rather than feel bad and pressured to make better purchase decisions. (b) Unless individuals are referred to a really great product, they are not going to stick around. For instance, if a member’s friend clicks on a Facebook link to GoodGuide’s web platform, she is not likely to register as a GoodGuide member when she sees that the community is poor, the incentives weak, and the application limited. A good example of a company which has recognized this and seems to have gotten this right is Recyclebank. In any event, unless the infrastructure, the backbone, the really great product that a consumer did not even know she needed but makes her life so much more amazing, is there, GoodGuide will fight an uphill battle to “turn being a good shopper into an online game.”

Criticism aside, GoodGuide has many good ideas and initiatives. And nevertheless, the functionality provided can certainly be beneficial this upcoming holiday season, especially as more shoppers head on-line and shop at destinations such as Amazon. Even the small amount of information which can be gleaned from Amazon purchase history can be insightful and raise awareness, hopefully nudging consumer behavior to a more ethical and sustainable lifestyle. We will continue watching GoodGuide closely to monitor their development and progress, and we are hopeful that they will continue doing their bit of good to make the world a more transparent and ethical place.

Happy Holiday Shopping!!

Kristofer Gryte is the Founder and CEO of Emaji. He is a philosopher, scientist, and all-around techie who has developed an integrated software package for robust, automated data analysis. Outside of his research, he helps consult a Kenyan MFI on improving operations. He is currently a DPhil candidate at Oxford University mining data and using statistical analysis to study DNA-protein dynamics. He lives in London.

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