With Black Friday fast approaching, you may be considering the pros and cons of participating in this annual sales event. To help you make an informed decision, we have created a series of blog posts that explore the key factors your business should consider before getting involved.
In this blog, I’ll focus on one critical aspect: Black Friday's environmental impact and whether it aligns with your business's values.
As someone who loves a good deal, it's difficult aligning my environmentally conscious values with an event that promotes overconsumption.
What should a business consider on Black Friday?
Every decision you make as a business should reflect your core values. Therefore, it's essential to evaluate whether participating in Black Friday aligns with your brand’s beliefs, especially if you’re committed to environmental sustainability. Do Black Friday sales support your goals of reducing waste, offering sustainable checkout options, or promoting social responsibility?
Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of greenwashing and are quick to call out companies. If you're exploring new ways to become sustainable, take a look at our blog post on Sustainability in eCommerce.
The Environmental Effects of Black Friday
At its core, Black Friday is designed to drive mass consumerism through aggressive marketing strategies and deep discounts. However, this rush to buy can have serious ecological consequences throughout a product's life cycle, from its production in factories to its eventual arrival at the customer’s doorstep.
Before Black Friday: Overproduction and Waste
Black Friday events often encourage consumers to overconsume by creating a sense of urgency and promoting steep discounts. This behaviour leads to the overproduction of goods, especially in industries like fast fashion, where trends are short-lived and items are cheaply made. It’s reported that 92 million tons of fast fashion clothing end up in landfills each year (Greenpeace, 2024).
This spike in production to meet Black Friday demand results in even more excess waste. Even before the sales begin, manufacturers ramp up production, and many unsold items eventually head to landfills or are incinerated. Fast fashion, in particular, drives much of this waste, as consumers are enticed to purchase items they don’t need and likely won’t use or last for long.
The Carbon Footprint of Delivery
Online shopping during Black Friday further exacerbates this problem. The demand for faster delivery times, particularly with the promise of next-day or same-day shipping, leads to inefficient delivery practices. Delivery trucks are often dispatched without being fully loaded, increasing the number of trips and, consequently, carbon emissions.
According to Greenmatch (2024), Black Friday delivery trucks release 94% more CO2 compared to an average week.
After Black Friday: Returns and Disposal
The environmental damage doesn’t stop once Black Friday ends. Overconsumption leads to a significant rise in product returns, as many customers purchase items impulsively due to the discounts. This creates a ripple effect of waste and emissions.
It’s estimated that 80% of products purchased on Black Friday either end up in landfills, are incinerated, or are recycled improperly (Green Tulip). The return process itself generates massive carbon emissions, a logistics company, Optoro, found that returned items bought during sales events used over 1.2 billion gallons of diesel and emitted 12 million metric tonnes of CO2.
Packaging Waste
Another major issue linked to Black Friday is the sheer volume of packaging waste. With the surge in orders, more packaging materials -often non-recyclable single-use plastics - are used. Much of this packaging is discarded improperly, contributing to pollution and landfill overflow.
We all know of well known brands who ship one small item in a ridiculously large box and tonnes of paper, but this issue is only amplified during Black Friday.
It’s estimated that 700,000 tonnes of cardboard and plastic packaging are generated during Black Friday sales alone.
Is Black Friday Right for Your Business?
The environmental costs of Black Friday are significant and should not be overlooked. For businesses committed to sustainability, it’s important to weigh the immediate financial gains against the longer-term environmental consequences and how this can impact your profit margins overall - Here's 6 reasons why Black Friday could be ruining your profitability.
Consider whether Black Friday aligns with your values or whether there are alternative ways to engage customers more sustainably. Take a look at Rebecca's article on"Is Black Friday Hurting Your Brand’s Reputation?" to learn more about Black Friday's long term impact on your brand.
Are you looking to become more sustainable? Our expert developers can help support the optimisation of your website
Phoebe Dodd
Designer & Content Creator
Phoebe is a Designer and Content Creator who has worked in design since 2019 and has been with Develo since 2020. Phoebe’s favourite aspect of Content Creation is creating engaging graphics and videos that blend storytelling and marketing. Her biggest achievement from working at Develo is enforcing humanised content in a B2B business that engages with our target audience. Outside of work, she can be found competing in cross country and athletics, or walking her Romanian rescue dog, Lyla.
Develo is a leading Magento agency and eCommerce web development company based in Birmingham, in the UK, serving clients globally since 2010. Our Blog covers topics around the array of services our certified Magento Developers offer, including Hyvä themes development, Adobe Commerce, Magento Punchout catalogues, ERP integrations and much more. To speak to a friendly member of the team about your next project, contact us here.
