The Impact Of Eco-Labeling On Young Consumer Purchase Intention In E-Commerce Platforms

Abstract

With increasing environmental awareness and the rapid growth of online shopping, eco-labelling has become an important tool to reinforce sustainable consumption patterns in the online environment. This study analyses the impact of eco-labels on consumer shopping behaviour on e-commerce websites based on Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The study analyses the impact of eco-labeling on attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, environmental knowledge and environmental concerns. The study conducted a survey of 393 Malaysian online young consumers across various product categories such as food, fashion and electronics, The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyse the relationships in the study. The findings reveal that eco-labels have a significant impact on consumer attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and environmental knowledge, which increases the intention of young consumers to purchase eco-labeled products through e-commerce platforms. Besides, attitude is the strongest predictor of purchase intention. In addition, environmental concerns play an important mediating role, where exposure to eco-labels increases young consumers’ concern about environmental issues that leads to increasing their purchase intentions. The study is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production which aims to promote conscious and responsible digital consumption behaviours. This study provides empirical evidence that eco-labeling initiatives can encourage consumers to make green product choices and further improve overall environmental  sustainability. The results of this study have practical implications for e-commerce platforms, merchants, and policy makers seeking to develop effective sustainability educational communication campaigns in promoting eco-labeled products