Search Data: The Rise in Interest for Eco-Friendly Products and Services

If nothing else, change is inevitable – especially over the course of ten years. What might not have been popular, or important, at one point in time, is likely to have an uptake in some form or another.

What’s more interesting is how something changes. Concepts, ideas and approaches shift and alter their guise all the time, and that’s something that interests nerdy digital marketing types like us in a big way.

Take the change in consumer behaviour and values when it comes to sustainable and eco-friendly products. It’s a lot more at the front of peoples’ minds than it was a decade ago. But how exactly have things changed?

That’s what we’re investigating below. Read on to find out what we did.

The Importance of Sustainability to Customers

Climate concerns are more prevalent than ever, so it’s no surprise that things like sustainability are a hot button issue for consumers.

How much of an issue? A 2020 report from the Capgemini Research Institute showed that sustainability now has a significant influence on consumer behaviour. The pull is such that the report found that 77% of consumers were more likely to buy from and remain loyal to, brands with a social responsibility pledge.

It makes sense. Consumers are wising up, and brands without any sort of game plan when it comes to the planet could pay the price for their indifference. There are powerful benefits for businesses who are savvier about the environment too. Capgemini also reported that more than half of consumers (52%) said they share an emotional connection with products or organisations that they perceive as sustainable. Elsewhere, 64% said that buying sustainable products makes them feel happy about their purchases (this reaches 72% in the 25-35 age group).

The Rise in Interest for Eco-Friendly Products and Services

So how exactly have the figures and state of play above come to be?

That’s where our own research comes in.

We’ve taken search trend data from Google Trends to look at the average YoY average, comparing them mainly between 2013 and 2023 to see the change over the past 10 years. More specifically, we looked at a group of top eco-friendly and sustainability-related searches for products and services, and then investigated how the search levels for these queries and keywords have changed in that period of time.

Here’s what we found…

An overall increase in search popularity for eco-friendly and sustainable products and brands

Across the board, search terms were doing big numbers. Searches for Eco Friendly Products were up 101% from 2013 to 2023, while Sustainable Products were up 158% from 2013 to 2023.

Tellingly, it’s Sustainable Brands that had the biggest leap, up a massive 1469% over the course of ten years – a clear indication of just how important eco-friendly companies truly are to consumers.

Eco-friendly household products have also seen an increase

The increase in greener household products may not be too surprising. At the very least, making eco-friendly choices around the home is a pretty quick fix, so the 810% increase in Eco Friendly Cleaning Products from 2014 to 2024 makes sense.

Eco Friendly Toilet Paper also increased in searches, though interestingly(?) it only started gaining consistently high volumes of searches in 2019. Clearly, it was something we weren’t too bothered about looking for in the 6 years prior.  

Searches for Eco Friendly Washing Up Liquid also rose, but it was only in 2018 that they began getting consistently high volumes of searches, jumping up 117% from then up to 2023.

Consumers are buying more sustainable and eco-friendly gifts

Gift giving has also taken on a green hue in the past ten years. In fact, Eco Friendly Gifts was up by an enormous 900%, while Sustainable Gifts – itself only truly gaining traction as a search term in 2017 – is up 1144%. For the more eco-conscious people in your life, there’s never been a better time to gift them with something that takes it easy on the planet.

With that said, Eco Friendly Presents was slow to get started, as was Eco Friendly Bag Fillers, with the two only gaining high volumes of searches in 2018 and 2020, respectively.

Clothing and fashion are following suit too

The human and environmental impacts of clothing production are well known, at this point. The fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water, and is responsible for anywhere between 2-8% of global carbon emissions.

And the results of our research show that consumers have most definitely been clamouring for more sustainable alternatives. Between 2014 to 2024, Eco Friendly Clothing was up by 381%, while Sustainable Fashion was up by 517% from 2017 to 2023, although this term was actually starting to get consistently high levels of search all the way back in 2008.

Most impressive of all was the jump from 2017 to 2023 for the search term Sustainable Clothing Brands. In six years, the term was up by a whopping 2520%. Again, a clear sign of the demand for brands that cater to consumers looking for green alternatives.

B2B’s growing demand for packaging and building materials

B2B brands have also had to demonstrate a shift towards more sustainable practices too – and the results of our research make that clear. Eco Friendly Packaging was up 627%, while Sustainable Packaging was up 518%.

Interestingly, Sustainable Building Materials had its biggest leap from 2004 to 2013, where it rose 35%, showing there’s clearly been an appetite for less environmentally impactful construction in the less recent past. By comparison, the term was up 12% from 2013 to 2023.

Our Conclusion

The results above underpin just how important sustainability has become, for both businesses and their customers. And while these search terms and keywords have fluctuated in popularity year by year, the general upswing means that brands shifting their focus towards more sustainable practices can only be a positive for their customer base.  

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We can help with any digital issues you might be having too. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, boosting sales or a brand-new website you’re after, we’ll get to work and make it happen. To find out how, give us a call on 0345 459 0558 and let’s get talking.