Consumers will pay more for responsible products

More than half of global consumers are willing to pay extra for socially responsible products, including sustainable seafood, according to a new study. 

In the largest study of its kind, researchers at NYU Stern School of Business conducted a meta-analysis of 83 different research papers on consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for socially responsible products of all types (both durable and nondurable items such as seafood).

“This has some implication for how companies market and develop their products. In the seafood industry, issues such as saving jobs or providing good working conditions for industry workers may pay off better than considerations for the fish themselves,” Russ Winer, chair of NYU Stern’s Marketing Department and the study’s author, told SeafoodSource.

“Certification increases the percentage WTP [willing to pay] over the base price, suggesting that people are willing to pay considerably more when the good in question has some kind of official certification,” Winer wrote in the report.

Shoppers in Europe and Australia are much more willing to pay a premium for socially responsible products, compared to North Americans. They will also pay significantly more for socially responsible products than South Americans and Asians, according to the researchers.

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