摘要

Abstract

In 2020, Amazon launched the Climate Pledge Friendly (CPF) program to make it easy for customers to discover and shop for products with sustainability certifications.

2020年，亚马逊推出了"气候友好承诺"(Climate Pledge Friendly, CPF)计划，帮助顾客轻松发现和购买具有可持续性认证的产品。

In this paper, we measure the causal impact of products qualifying for CPF on consumer purchase behavior.

本文测量了产品获得CPF资格对消费者购买行为的因果影响。

Using a dataset of about 45,000 products spanning three categories, and a Difference-in-Differences identification strategy, we show that joining CPF leads to a 13.3% increase in Gross Merchandise Sales, 12.5% increase in sales, and 4.4% increase in shipped units in the next 12 weeks after adoption.

使用跨越三个类别的约45,000种产品数据集和双重差分识别策略，我们发现加入CPF导致在采用后的12周内，商品总销售额(GMS)增加13.3%，销售额增加12.5%，发货量增加4.4%。

These results are robust to different estimators, two identification strategies, longer time windows (24 and 48 weeks), and controlling for price, promotions, ad spend, ratings and reviews, and search rank.

这些结果对不同估计量、两种识别策略、更长时间窗口(24和48周)以及控制价格、促销、广告支出、评分和评论以及搜索排名都具有稳健性。

Importantly, we show that not accounting for these controls inflates estimates by 19-27%.

重要的是，我们发现不考虑这些控制变量会使估计值膨胀19-27%。

These differences highlight the importance of controlling for concurrent marketing efforts when evaluating sustainability programs, as sellers often increase support for certified products.

这些差异凸显了在评估可持续性计划时控制并发营销工作的重要性，因为卖家通常会增加对认证产品的支持。

We conclude the paper by showing that products with low visibility as measured by product page views, and consumable products benefit the most from the program.

我们通过展示产品页面浏览量衡量的低可见性产品和消耗品从该计划中受益最多来结束本文。

1 引言

1 Introduction

Environmental and social responsibility have become increasingly important factors for consumers deciding where and how they shop.

环境和社会责任已成为消费者决定购物方式和地点时越来越重要的因素。

Recent large-scale studies document this trend: McKinsey and NielsenIQ (2023) found that 78% of US consumers consider sustainable lifestyle important, while Simon-Kucher & Partners (2022) showed 71% of consumers worldwide factor sustainability into purchasing decisions.

最近的大规模研究记录了这一趋势：麦肯锡和NielsenIQ(2023)发现78%的美国消费者认为可持续生活方式很重要，而Simon-Kucher & Partners(2022)显示全球71%的消费者在购买决策中考虑可持续性。

These preferences vary meaningfully across demographics and markets, with GlobeScan (2022) documenting substantial variations in sustainability priorities across 31 markets.

这些偏好在不同人口统计和市场之间存在显著差异，GlobeScan(2022)记录了31个市场中可持续性优先事项的实质性变化。

In 2024, the share of customers who felt it was important to buy from socially responsible companies reached an all-time high of 66%.

到2024年，认为从具有社会责任感的企业购买产品很重要的客户比例达到66%的历史新高。

The growing emphasis on corporate responsibility not only impacts where customers shop, but also what they choose to buy, and 80% indicate they would be willing to pay more for sustainable products, also an all-time high in 2024.

对企业责任日益增长的重视不仅影响客户在哪里购物，还影响他们选择购买什么，80%的消费者表示他们愿意为可持续产品支付更多费用，这也是2024年的历史新高。

As demand grows, retailers and online stores are launching programs intended to help customers discover products and services that match their values.

随着需求的增长，零售商和在线商店正在推出旨在帮助客户发现与其价值观匹配的产品和服务的计划。

Launched in September 2020, Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly (CPF) program highlights products with sustainability features backed by at least one of the 54 sustainability certifications part of the program.

亚马逊于2020年9月推出的"气候友好承诺"(CPF)计划突出显示具有可持续性特征的产品，这些产品至少获得该计划包含的54项可持续性认证之一的认可。

The program has grown to include 1.4M products, which customers discover using badges, filters, recommendations, and a dedicated storefront.

该计划已增长到包含140万种产品，客户可以通过徽章、过滤器、推荐和专用店面发现这些产品。

Whether programs like this benefit consumers depends on comprehension and trust (Delmas and Grant, 2014), cultural and political beliefs (Aneja et al., 2023; Kim and Liu, 2023), and willingness to pay.

此类计划是否使消费者受益取决于理解和信任(Delmas和Grant，2014)、文化和政治信仰(Aneja等，2023; Kim和Liu，2023)以及支付意愿。

While consumers claim to prioritize sustainability in surveys and research studies, there is ongoing debate about the extent to which these stated preferences translate into real-world purchase decisions, a phenomenon called the "value-action gap" (Essiz et al., 2023).

虽然消费者在调查和研究研究中声称优先考虑可持续性，但关于这些陈述的偏好在多大程度上转化为现实世界的购买决策(称为"价值-行动差距"现象(Essiz等，2023))的争论仍在继续。

2 文献综述

2 Literature review

Programs like Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly (CPF) help consumers identify more sustainable products, but their effectiveness can vary based on consumer values and whether these stated sustainability preferences actually translate into purchase decisions.

像亚马逊"气候友好承诺"(CPF)这样的计划帮助消费者识别更可持续的产品，但其有效性可能因消费者价值观以及这些陈述的可持续性偏好是否实际转化为购买决策而异。

More broadly, product labeling has emerged as a strategy to influence consumer choices across various domains like health and sustainability.

更广泛地说，产品标签已成为影响消费者在健康和可持续性等多个领域选择的策略。

By providing simplified cues about desirable or undesirable product attributes, labels have the potential to aid consumers in making better decisions aligned with their values and preferences.

通过提供关于理想或不理想产品属性的简化线索，标签有可能帮助消费者做出与其价值观和偏好一致的更好决策。

However, there is an ongoing debate around the true effectiveness of such voluntary labeling initiatives.

然而，围绕此类自愿标签倡议的真正有效性存在持续争论。

In the nutritional domain, research on mandatory labeling schemes has found such labels can significantly impact choices like reducing energy and fat intake (Shangguan et al., 2019), though the magnitude varies across categories (Dubois et al., 2021) and label designs (Ikonen et al., 2020).

在营养领域，对强制性标签计划的研究发现，此类标签可以显著影响选择，如减少能量和脂肪摄入(Shangguan等，2019)，尽管幅度因类别(Dubois等，2021)和标签设计(Ikonen等，2020)而异。

3 实证背景和数据

3 Empirical context and data

Launched in September 2020, Climate Pledge Friendly (CPF) is an Amazon program that helps customers discover products with sustainability features.

于2020年9月推出的"气候友好承诺"(CPF)是亚马逊帮助客户发现具有可持续性特征的产品的计划。

To qualify for CPF, a product must be accredited by at least one of 54 third-party certifications or Amazon's own certifications (Compact by Design or Pre-owned Certified).

要获得CPF资格，产品必须获得54个第三方认证之一或亚马逊自己的认证(Compact by Design或Pre-owned Certified)的认可。

Qualified products receive a badge that appears throughout a customer's shopping journey with a green leaf icon and the number of sustainability features a product qualifies for.

合格产品会获得一个徽章，该徽章会出现在客户购物旅程中，带有绿色叶子图标和产品符合的可持续性特征数量。

Consumers can click on the badge to get additional information about the sustainability feature(s), and the certifications that substantiate the claim.

消费者可以点击徽章获取有关可持续性特征和证实该声明的认证的更多信息。

Beyond badges, customers can discover CPF products using a search filter, product recommendations, or a dedicated storefront.

除了徽章外，客户还可以使用搜索过滤器、产品推荐或专用店面发现CPF产品。

CPF's onsite experience helps customers quickly identify products with sustainability features and verify the claims are backed by robust certifications.

CPF的现场体验帮助客户快速识别具有可持续性特征的产品，并验证这些声明是否得到强有力的认证支持。

CPF's features are intended to make it easy for Amazon customers to make purchase decisions that align with their values.

CPF的功能旨在使亚马逊客户能够轻松做出符合其价值观的购买决策。

8 结论

8 Conclusions

This paper provides empirical evidence that sustainability programs which help consumers identify products with environmental certifications can positively impact consumer purchase behavior.

本文提供了经验证据，表明帮助消费者识别具有环境认证的产品的可持续性计划可以对消费者购买行为产生积极影响。

Using data on tens of thousands of products sold on Amazon in the U.S. and Europe, we find that joining Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly program leads to significant increases in sales revenue, product sales volume, and overall consumer spending on those products.

使用在美国和欧洲亚马逊上销售的数万种产品的数据，我们发现加入亚马逊的"气候友好承诺"计划导致这些产品的销售收入、产品销售量和消费者对这些产品的总体支出显著增加。

Across multiple analyses using different estimation approaches and robustness checks, the results consistently show positive impacts of Climate Pledge Friendly certification on product performance.

在使用不同估计方法和稳健性检查的多个分析中，结果一致显示了"气候友好承诺"认证对产品性能的积极影响。

Importantly, by leveraging internal data on sellers' marketing activities, we find that controlling for advertising spend, pricing, and promotions substantially affects the magnitude of these estimates.

重要的是，通过利用卖家营销活动的内部数据，我们发现控制广告支出、定价和促销会显著影响这些估计的幅度。

While unadjusted effects suggest increases of approximately 16% in both gross merchandise sales and sales and 6% in shipped units volume, accounting for these marketing activities reveals more modest increases of 13.3% in gross merchandise sales, 12.5% in sales, and 4.4% in shipped units volume.

虽然未经调整的效果表明商品总销售额和销售额均增加约16%，发货量增加6%，但考虑这些营销活动后显示出更温和的增加：商品总销售额增加13.3%，销售额增加12.5%，发货量增加4.4%。

These differences highlight the importance of controlling for concurrent marketing efforts when evaluating sustainability programs, as sellers often increase support for certified products.

这些差异凸显了在评估可持续性计划时控制并发营销工作的重要性，因为卖家通常会增加对认证产品的支持。

Notably, we find larger impacts for consumable product categories like grocery and personal care items compared to durable products like furniture and apparel.

值得注意的是，我们发现与家具和服装等耐用产品相比，食品和个人护理物品等消耗品类别的影响更大。

These positive effects on consumer demand persist over longer time horizons up to 48 weeks after certification.

这些对消费者需求的积极影响在认证后长达48周的更长时间范围内持续存在。

The impacts are even larger for products with lower initial visibility to consumers.

对于最初对消费者可见性较低的产品，影响更大。

This suggests the program helps surface sustainable options consumers might otherwise overlook.

这表明该计划有助于展示消费者可能忽略的可持续选项。

Importantly, we replicate these findings across the U.S. as well as five major European countries—the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

重要的是，我们在美国以及五个主要欧洲国家(英国、德国、法国、意大利和西班牙)复制了这些发现。

Overall, these findings indicate that despite often-discussed gaps between stated sustainability preferences and real purchase decisions, providing clear sustainability certifications and making sustainable choices more discoverable can effectively influence consumer purchasing in favor of environmentally-friendly products, especially in frequently purchased consumable categories.

总的来说，这些发现表明，尽管经常讨论陈述的可持续性偏好与实际购买决策之间的差距，但提供明确的可持续性认证并使可持续选择更容易发现可以有效地影响消费者购买环保产品，特别是在经常购买的消耗品类别中。

As demand for sustainable goods continues growing, programs like Climate Pledge Friendly offer a way for retailers and brands to meet this demand while incentivizing more sustainable practices.

随着对可持续商品需求的持续增长，像"气候友好承诺"这样的计划为零售商和品牌提供了一种满足这种需求的方式，同时激励更可持续的实践。

It is important to note that these findings pertain specifically to Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly program and may not be generalizable to all sustainability programs or online retailers.

值得注意的是，这些发现特别适用于亚马逊的"气候友好承诺"计划，可能不适用于所有可持续性计划或在线零售商。

Future research should examine the applicability of these results to other contexts and platforms.

未来的研究应检查这些结果对其他背景和平台的适用性。

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