An undisclosed Japanese fashion and lifestyle company develops and manages a portfolio of highly successful consumer brands. With a significant retail presence across Japan, it is committed to innovative design and delivering value to its customers.
Looking to explore the real-world impact of sustainability messaging, the company partnered with Arbor to evaluate how environmental data in-store influences consumer behaviour.
In a market where sustainability is becoming an area of growing interest among consumers, the Japanese fashion company faced a key question:
Does sustainability data influence consumer purchasing decisions?
The company needed to understand whether providing carbon footprint information on clothing labels, accessible via QR codes, would resonate with customers in-store. Would this level of transparency influence how consumers perceive the brand? More importantly, would it impact their purchasing decisions?
This pilot aimed to determine whether real-time sustainability insights could influence consumer behaviour and foster deeper brand engagement in a retail environment.
The Japanese fashion company used Arbor’s platform to power an innovative pilot focused on deepening consumer engagement around sustainability. They calculated the carbon footprint of popular products across select brands, launching the initiative in eight high-traffic mall stores throughout Japan.
Using Arbor’s platform, the team gained a detailed view of the environmental impact of each product, from raw material extraction to end of life. This gave them the precision and confidence to share product-level data directly with consumers.
The company brought Arbor’s data to life through an interactive in-store experience. Shoppers could scan QR codes on product tags, leading to a custom transparency page with information about the item’s environmental footprint. This allowed the brands to connect with a new generation of consumers increasingly looking to align their purchases with their values. To better understand the impact, the team also gathered survey responses from participating customers.
reported having a more favourable impression of a brand that provides transparency into its products' CO₂ emissions.
believe that this type of CO₂ visualization should become more widespread, signalling a clear market demand for greater transparency.
who scanned the QR code went on to purchase one of the tagged products from the collection.
The pilot project yielded compelling data on consumer attitudes, drawn from 440 survey respondents who interacted with the QR codes in-store. The results clearly indicate a strong consumer appetite for sustainability information and its tangible impact on brand perception.
The collaboration successfully validated the hypothesis that providing clear, accessible sustainability data at the point of sale enhances brand image and influences consumer behaviour. Overall, it was a resounding success, proving that integrating Arbor's sustainability data into the retail experience delivers exceptional business outcomes.
Engagement with the product’s carbon footprint data translated into a significant sales boost, with nearly half of those shoppers completing a purchase. This strong correlation highlights how accessible environmental data can directly influence consumer behaviour and increase revenue. Customer response was overwhelmingly positive, with 90.5% reporting a more favourable impression of the brand, reinforcing its reputation as a forward-thinking and trustworthy market leader.
From a business standpoint, the pilot transformed sustainability efforts into a powerful engine for growth. By fostering a deeper emotional connection with its customers through transparency, the company unlocked a competitive advantage that enhanced loyalty and strengthened its bottom line.
This collaboration sets a new benchmark for the Japanese retail industry, proving that authentic, data-driven sustainability storytelling can create immense value, increase sales, and build a more resilient brand.
