Amazon.com is going after the environmental crowd with a new site called Vine.com for buying green products.
Vine is part of Quidsi, the company that Amazon bought in 2010 that also runs sites like Diapers.com (baby stuff), Wag.com (pets) and YoYo.com (toys). Vine will sell everything from cleaning supplies to baby accessories, beauty supplies and clothes — as long as they are green.
That means wildly different things to different people, but Vine has created its own formula. Products must fall into one of the following categories: they must be designed to remove toxins, energy-efficient, natural, organic, powered by renewable energy, reusable, made of sustainable materials or water-efficient.
For example, bamboo cutting boards make the list because bamboo is sustainable. So do reusable cloth diapers, organic cotton bedding, low-flow shower heads, water filter pitchers and paraben-free cosmetics.
“This is a site that is not necessarily about saving the planet, though we feel the products are useful in that regard,” said Josh Dorfman, the site leader, who previously created the Lazy Environmentalist books and radio and TV shows. “It’s really saying to mom, ‘If you care about raising safe and healthy kids and you feel green products without chemicals can help along the way, we’ve figured out ways to help you do that.’”
A package that says natural is not enough, Mr. Dorfman said. Vine has asked vendors to verify that their products meet certain standards and has scanned ingredient lists to make sure they do not contain banned substances. Seventh Generation is an initial sponsor on the site.
Vine is catering to other civic-minded shopping trends, too, with sections stocked with fair trade products or products made within 100 miles of a shopper’s home.
None of this squares with the way people typically think of Amazon and the other e-commerce sites that it owns. Some small, local retailers say Amazon puts them out of business. Huge amounts of energy are spent operating warehouses, shipping products and wrapping them in bubble wrap and cardboard boxes.
“It’s a fair point that no matter how you’re going to engage in commerce, there’s going to be an environmental impact,” Mr. Dorfman said. “We’re not promising to be the greenest company right away, and we’re owning up to the fact that it’s not the way we operate across the entire company.”
It won’t be obvious on Vine.com that shoppers are buying from Amazon, just like on other e-commerce sites that Amazon owns, including Zappos.com, Shopbop.com and Woot. But it is another instance of Amazon’s spider-like reach in the online retailing world in its quest to sell people anything they want to buy.
Like Diapers.com and Quidsi’s other sites, Vine will deliver in one or two days, with the help of robots that pack boxes in the warehouse within minutes of an online order, and will emphasize customer service and easy returns. And Vine shoppers who just want a tube of Crest toothpaste or nonrecycled toilet paper can add items from other Quidsi sites to their shopping carts.
Vine is part of Quidsi, the company that Amazon bought in 2010 that also runs sites like Diapers.com (baby stuff), Wag.com (pets) and YoYo.com (toys). Vine will sell everything from cleaning supplies to baby accessories, beauty supplies and clothes — as long as they are green.
That means wildly different things to different people, but Vine has created its own formula. Products must fall into one of the following categories: they must be designed to remove toxins, energy-efficient, natural, organic, powered by renewable energy, reusable, made of sustainable materials or water-efficient.
For example, bamboo cutting boards make the list because bamboo is sustainable. So do reusable cloth diapers, organic cotton bedding, low-flow shower heads, water filter pitchers and paraben-free cosmetics.
“This is a site that is not necessarily about saving the planet, though we feel the products are useful in that regard,” said Josh Dorfman, the site leader, who previously created the Lazy Environmentalist books and radio and TV shows. “It’s really saying to mom, ‘If you care about raising safe and healthy kids and you feel green products without chemicals can help along the way, we’ve figured out ways to help you do that.’”
A package that says natural is not enough, Mr. Dorfman said. Vine has asked vendors to verify that their products meet certain standards and has scanned ingredient lists to make sure they do not contain banned substances. Seventh Generation is an initial sponsor on the site.
Vine is catering to other civic-minded shopping trends, too, with sections stocked with fair trade products or products made within 100 miles of a shopper’s home.
None of this squares with the way people typically think of Amazon and the other e-commerce sites that it owns. Some small, local retailers say Amazon puts them out of business. Huge amounts of energy are spent operating warehouses, shipping products and wrapping them in bubble wrap and cardboard boxes.
“It’s a fair point that no matter how you’re going to engage in commerce, there’s going to be an environmental impact,” Mr. Dorfman said. “We’re not promising to be the greenest company right away, and we’re owning up to the fact that it’s not the way we operate across the entire company.”
It won’t be obvious on Vine.com that shoppers are buying from Amazon, just like on other e-commerce sites that Amazon owns, including Zappos.com, Shopbop.com and Woot. But it is another instance of Amazon’s spider-like reach in the online retailing world in its quest to sell people anything they want to buy.
Like Diapers.com and Quidsi’s other sites, Vine will deliver in one or two days, with the help of robots that pack boxes in the warehouse within minutes of an online order, and will emphasize customer service and easy returns. And Vine shoppers who just want a tube of Crest toothpaste or nonrecycled toilet paper can add items from other Quidsi sites to their shopping carts.
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