Consumer Preferences and Circular Economy: The Case of Reusable Packages
(A2026-132906)

AUTHORS

Hossein Eslami, ESDES Business School, UCLY

ABSTRACT

Circular economy (CE) paradigm has gained much attention recently. Implementing a CE in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market requires the buy-in from consumers who are the key players on the demand side buying environmentally friendly products and as well as in the reverse logistics returning used products to the manufacturers. Our first objective is to understand consumers’ preferences in the context of reusable packages. We specifically focus on the case of beverages such as soft drinks. To this end, we use an online survey together with a Conjoint choice-based experiment to measure consumers’ preference and willingness to pay for the drinks sold in reusable packages. Moreover, we investigate the heterogeneity in preferences and contrast the self-reported and actual behavior of consumers. The second objective is to measure the effectiveness of different incentive schemes for post-consumer package return. According to our results, while the price of product is a major factor affecting the choice of consumers, they prefer reusable packages over the disposable ones. Based on this, we could analyze the delicate trade-offs that manufacturers are facing in introducing reusable packages. The insights from our study would have implications for the manufacturers and policy makers in moving to the direction of circular economy in the FMCG market.