Australian retailers say having a sustainable product range is the single most important focus area when attempting to increase sales this Christmas season.

This surprising statistic comes from the Deliotte Retailers’ Holiday Survey, which shows that going green is great for business.

When asked ‘What is the single most important focus area of your business to increase sales this Christmas?’, having a sustainable product range was the top answer, ahead of digital and omni channel focus, pricing, and store format.

Shockingly, customer experience is the most important for just 3 per cent of retailers.

“Environmental, social, and governance choices are fast becoming strategic financial decisions, which will increasingly be seen in the bottom line,” writes Melissa Dean, Deliotte’s National Leader,
Retail, Wholesale and Distribution.

“By holding businesses to account to be more transparent, authentic, and collaborative, consumers are placing great expectations on brands and businesses to lead responsibly with integrity – and they put their money where their mouth is.”

This isn’t surprising, considering the tech world is increasingly focused on environmentally sustainability. At the recent IFA trade conference in Berlin, this appeared to the major focus for most brands.

Just today, the official release of the new Apple iPad Pro dedicated more ‘column inches’ to the iPad environmental bona fides than the features of its new operating system.

The ACCC is aware of the cache that environmental credentials give Aussie businesses.

Earlier this month, the watchdog launched an investigation to identify Australian companies making false environmental and sustainability claims.