Study confirms: Sustainable To Go packaging strengthens customer loyalty

As a scientific study from 2022 shows, environmentally friendly products and services promote the image of restaurants and thus also the flow of customers. The study builds on findings already collected previously. It confirms the importance of sustainable action and its transparency of restaurants for their customer loyalty.

You can find out what’s behind it in this article.

Scientific background of the study

Several international marketing and business researchers published a joint study in 2022. Among other things, it dealt with the topics of "sustainable consumption" and customer perceptions of sustainable actions by restaurants. The scientists focused on restaurant guests who were born in the last quarter of the 20th century.

A test group that makes up a large part of the market! These were consumers from South Asia. Around 300 questionnaires were designed to provide insights into the consumption behavior of restaurant guests. It emerged that guests are willing to invest time and money in sustainability...

Exciting results for restaurateurs

“Restaurants' green practices and services enhance perceived value in their customers' minds […] green perceived quality increases green trust, which leads to satisfaction and loyalty.”*

“Environmentally friendly actions and services of restaurants increase the perceived value in the minds of customers […] the perceived environmental factor increases trust in sustainability, which leads to satisfaction and loyalty.”*

Restaurants that publicly strive for sustainability not only do something good for the environment, but also benefit from it themselves: Young customers in particular value environmentally friendly behavior and, according to the study just described, are willing to pay higher prices if they can rely on the restaurant operators acting sustainably in return.

Communicating sustainability and strengthening customer loyalty

The main result of the study: The more commitment to sustainability can be perceived, the more young people are willing to pay money and visit restaurants again. Therefore, you should definitely let your guests know when you pack your takeaway food in environmentally friendly packaging. The more you communicate your environmentally friendly packaging and food to your target customers, the more likely your customers will come back to you again and again. With this result, the 2022 study confirms similar studies from all over the world. The trend is therefore clearly foreseeable: By acting sustainably and communicating this, you strengthen your customer loyalty.

*Riva, Farzana et al.: Green consumerism, green perceived value, and restaurant revisit intention: Millennials' sustainable consumption with moderating effect of green perceived quality. In: Business Strategy and the Environment 31 (2022), pp. 2807–2819, here p. 2814.