Food waste reduction a key ESG priority for 70% of consumers

By: Trademagazin editor Date: 2025. 04. 15. 09:13

Some 70% of consumers believe retailers should focus their ESG efforts on food waste reduction rather than addressing ‘mainstream’ sustainability efforts, such as recycling.

New data of over 1,000 shoppers from in-store execution software Retail Insight, found that a further 70% felt there wasn’t currently enough focus on food waste reduction in retailers’ sustainability goals, rising to 74% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers.

More than seven in ten (72%) of shoppers felt that retailers and consumers need to work more collaboratively to shift the dial on climate change, with this figure rising to 80% of Millennials.

To play their part, 44% of consumers are now motivated to buy marked-down goods to stop food from going to landfill, while a further 47% purposefully don’t overbuy groceries to prevent food waste.

While many shoppers want to waste less and purchase more marked-down groceries, Retail Insight’s research of 124 retailers found that many are missing out on the opportunity to drive increased sales through Reduce To Clear (RTC) processes.

The study found that 12% of retailers globally are not implementing any markdown processes within their stores, while in the UK, only 5% of markdowns are dynamic and data-driven. This means that retailers are missing out on the opportunity to increase sell-through, recover revenue and reduce the amount of food wasted.

Retail Insight chief executive Paul Boyle said: “Strategic markdowns are not just a tool for clearing inventory; they are also hugely important in reducing food waste whilst maintaining healthy levels of profitability. However, they remain an overlooked opportunity, with many retailers choosing to do nothing or simply relying on basic predefined values, usually set at 25%, 50% or 75%.

“This leads to poorly timed, over-discounted markdowns, often taking no account of the volume to clear, that eat into margin and don’t then generate the sell-through needed to shift the stock.”

He added: “Retailers should instead look to harness their existing store data to create more effective dynamic pricing systems that consider historic sales, inventory volume and seasonality. In doing so, they maximise the opportunity to drive sales and reduce waste, while offering value to customers.”