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Are you an eco-minded consumer on the look out for products that are safe, non-toxic, fair trade certified, organic, etc?
If so, you’re part of a group that spends about $45 billion annually on products for living green…but you probably don’t go looking for those products on eBay.
Guess what, eBay has realized that. Will their new fair trade community and marketplace be all it’s touted as, or will it be another case of consumeristic greenwashing?
I think chances are great that this new fair trade eBay marketplace, called World of Good, will be close to what it’s being promoted as.
Why?
It’s not a new section of eBay, per se. eBay has teamed up with a separate and pretty well established fair trade company, World of Good, Inc, to roll out this new marketplace and community–so it’s not just eBay’s baby.
CNET.com quoted eBay’s GM, Robert Chatwani, saying:
"That segment of shopper [people interested in goods that are made of recycled materials or produced by fairly treated workers] spends as much as $45 billion on green products annually.
Those people aren’t on eBay. We believe only between 7 and 12 percent of these social change consumers are eBay users now … so this could be accretive to the business."
The new World of Good marketplace is set to launch later this summer, but the community aspect of the page–complete with blogs, discussions, polls, and useful information–is up and running right now.
Drawing inspiration from the companies partnering to bring us this new fair trade shopping center, I’ve decided to create a hybrid name for the site: World of fairBay. What do ya think?
Would you shop at the new eBay fair trade marketplace?
If you’re one of the many people out there wondering what all this fair trade mumbo jumbo is, this video is REALLY helpful, check it out:
I think every little step toward living green is an awesome one… but eco-snobbery sucks! My goal is to help newbies learn the most important steps toward living green — individually and collectively. Personally, I strive to have as little impact as possible on Planet Earth while I'm here.
