How to open a Zero-Waste shop

Introduction

Opening and maintaining a zero waste shop can be difficult without the right information and guidance. There is very little information on how to open a zero-waste shop online; therefore we have reached out to Babatunde Sobola who is the owner of The Cleaning Cabinet, a sustainable eco-friendly shop located in Loughborough, England. We asked Babatunde to gather information, advice and give us an insight into how he opened his zero waste shop.

This blog written by Babatunde Sobola covered all the needed information and support to help guide you and support your vision of opening a zero-waste shop. We discuss choosing what niche and products to sell, the location of your shop, the reach and insights into the cost and pricing of a zero-waste shop.

Choosing a niche: Choosing your products

Considering the cost of stocking a full shop can run into a few thousands of pounds if not tens of thousands. You might want to consider a selection of products to start with, for example, cleaning products, sustainable skincare, food, grocery items, fashion, travel accessories, you name it. When you have decided on the selection that you are most comfortable promoting, you can then expand your selection into another range of products. It's safe to say that your zero waste shop should have sustainable alternative items to the traditional alternatives, if this is done well, you will quickly have a solid loyal client base. 

Your solid customer base will help you to spread the word about your wonderful products and services. This will hopefully give you a lot of confidence when it comes to expanding your product range.

Observation: Sell products you are familiar with and the products you use on a regular basis.

Key points: It is alright to have a focussed product range and grow it as you know your customers better.

Essential Products

To set up your zero waste shop, we will assume you are starting with an eCommerce site. This means you will need the following: 

• Define your brand ethos - this can be as simple as setting out how you hope your website will help other people to live a sustainable lifestyle. This will need to come from you as the brain behind the business.
• Brand name - it might be easier for some to choose the brands name after defining their ethos. To choose a pain-free name, please ensure that you can buy a website domain name that matches your brand, you also want to check that the social media name for your intended brand has not been taken yet.
• Ecommerce store - from our research, a Magento site or a Woo-commerce store will work best for you if you are the technical type and you prefer to have the flexibility of customisation for your website. If you are less technical and are happy to make do with a bunch of well tested preset website templates, then we will advise you to consider a Shopify store. Be warned, no matter which option you choose, you will need to spend a significant amount of time and money to get your website live. If you have the funds, you may choose to pay a web developer to help you design your website - expect to pay between £3000 and £5000 for starters. Along with your website, for you to take payment from customers online, you will require a payment account such as PayPal or Stripe. This will need to be set up separately and needs to be integrated with your website before you make it live.
• (Very important) product Supplier- before your website goes live you need your products ready to sell. To find the right product, you need to find a wholesale supplier who can sell the products to you at a price at which you still resell your goods at a profit. To choose the right supplier, the products need to be reasonably priced, sustainable, made locally if possible and crucially has little or no packaging. You may want to look for a local supplier so that the overall environmental footprint of your products will be lower. The other things to consider when choosing your suppliers are their practises and accreditations. If your suppliers are the manufacturer, you want to find out if their products are animal cruelty-free, what makes them sustainable, are their products palm oil-free, phosphate-free? This section is really important because it is necessary to have the right supplier to supply the right products for your zero waste shop.
• Choose your courier partner - you will need to set up a shipping account with DHL, DPD or any other courier you can trust.  You can of course use royal mail, they are actually a big player in the postal industry. For most, a combination of courier companies may be needed as some offer a better price for a range of weight.
• Postage fulfilment systems - when your orders start coming through and you need to print the labels, you can use a standard printer to print your labels and glue them to the postal box. As your order numbers increase, this will become tedious so you will need to invest in a label printer, they cost between £120 to £300 depending on the model you go for.
• Shipping boxes - you can research online for the best brands but we will suggest that you have an idea of the sizes of cardboard you need and buy-in bundles to save on cost. We will also advise that you reuse old cardboards that are in good condition instead of throwing them away as it will reduce your overall shipping cost and this ultimately is a sign of you practising what you preach as your brand is all about promoting a low waste lifestyle.
• Stationeries - you will need a selection of stationaries to help you customise each order with your personal touch.

Choosing a location

With any business, the ability to provide great service is key to the survival of the business and in growing it. If you have decided to have a physical presence, you now need to choose where. If you are having an online-only store, your location may not matter except if you require to have close proximity to your suppliers. Choosing a familiar location for your physical premises means you have a great idea of your local customers and you will be more likely to offer a more suitable level of customisation in your service to meet your local customer needs. 

Observation: More and more people are buying the idea of shopping local, if you are local to your clients, you will have a stronger point of engagement with them. The more your business can engage with the local community you serve, the more you can understand the needs of your customers. 

Key point: know your community so that you can connect well with them in order to meet their needs.

Reach: Local, Regional or Worldwide?

It is important to decide how far you want customers to find your store. If you decide to go for a wide geographic audience, you will need a lot more resources to reach a larger number of potential customers. On the other hand, if you decide to start small (this is always our preference), you can start relatively quickly provided you know your local population very well in terms of behaviour. It is always good to bear in mind that the wider you want your business to reach the more people you have access to, this is the positive note. The hard work required is in reaching a higher number of people, which will mean more advertising cost and time.

Our observation: A popular trend with many zero waste shops when they are starting out is to hire a market stall at their Saturday/ farmers market and use this flexible outlet to reach out to the local audience. A market stall is relatively inexpensive for most parts of the country and most of them give new traders the option to book on a weekly basis so you are not going to be tied to a long term contract. In addition to attending a market stall, you can also create an eCommerce store where customers can purchase from it if they are not able to visit the physical stall. As we have seen with the pandemic, more people have gotten used to shopping online and they are probably going to continue that trend, so it’s important to get your business a simple website so that you can have both physical and online reach to your customers.

Key points: Start small and local with a small marketing budget or start nationwide but you will need a bigger marketing budget. Finally, the best position to be in is to have both an online and physical store.

Pricing and cost insight

In past times sustainable alternatives have been known to cost a lot and as a result majority of the shopper cannot afford them. We will advise you to learn from The Cleaning Cabinet who have adopted an affordable sustainability approach to their pricing. The cleaning cabinet only stock essential items; this helps to reduce waste within the shop, by only stocking the essential items we are able to sell all of our products effectively leaving no waste and left overstock. Essential items sell faster so they have been able to reduce the cost for consumers and as a result, they have been able to increase repeat businesses.

Observation: If your store is too expensive, you may not see many repeat customers. If your prices are just right, you will see a higher quality of customers coming your way and sticking with your brand.

Key points: adopt an affordable sustainability approach for a smoother startup. 

Final note - this is a very simplified guide on how to set up your zero waste shop, now you need to follow companies like The Cleaning Cabinet to see what they are doing well and you can follow in their footsteps. Before You launch your store, make sure you add your own personal touch so that your brand stands out from the crowd.