Jason
Thank you very much for your review and you do raise some valid points.
Please remember the important point throughout this though - The CO2 offset does not cost anyone any extra whatsoever.
I'll try my best to address your concerns:
First of all it's early days yet and we have had to take a 'best guess' at the kinds of figures that would be viable. As we know there are a huge range of percentages in the commissions we receive, generally ranging from 0% -20%. The site is based on the
AW Shopwindow software and so if someone chooses to purchase a 0% commission item (e.g. batteries and cables from Dixons), we will still honour our pledge - i.e. the purchase actually costs us money! Thankfully, these are few and far between.
We have tried to take general everyday figures to come to some sort of starting values. From my experience I have found that when people have a wide choice, the larger stores tend to fare better than most and, as such, we have to be very conscious to account for those type of commissions.
e.g. LCD TV from a High Street Store
Cost: £1000
Commission paid on (after VAT removed): £825
Commission: 2%
Total Received: £16.50
Tax to be paid by us: approx £3.60
CO2 pledged: 200kg
Cost to us: £1.50
Net Profit: £15.00
Overall figure results in approx. 10% of our profit paying for Carbon Offsetting.
But what if the store only pays 0.5% commission?
Net profit is Just £1.90 - How much did it cost me to get the buyer there in the first place?
Anyway, this is done at no cost to the buyer whatsoever, and we have hopefully found them the best price anyway!
This is just an everyday example. There are plenty of purchases which would cost us more & less.
Of course - I'm sure I now don't also need to go into the cost of developing, running, promoting & maintaining a worthwhile site. We all know that can cost a fortune and quickly suck up any profits!
I'd like to move onto Car Insurance.
We are hoping to make this a real issue which we are truly passionate about.
Without a full-on insurance search & database we cannot make every specific car carbon neutral. However, what we can do is take the official figure for the amount of carbon pollution the average UK car produces and offset that. Overall this should average out and each driver can then be confident that they are embracing carbon neutral motoring.
So what do we make from a car insurance policy (for those of you in this field get ready to cringe!)?
We have pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 2900kgs for EVERY policy taken out.
This therefore costs us £21.75 for every policy taken out!
Bearing in mind that some commissions don't even pay us that much, even before the tax man, then you may get an idea of where the 'profits' from elsewhere go.
Sure other companies do pay more - but until we start getting firm figures then we have to ensure we have enough money avaialble, when everything is taken into account, to honour all our pledges.
Just before I finish Car Insurance - most of us have probably seen the ads by ibuyeco. Now, I have to be careful here because I really applaud what they are doing, but they allow drivers to become Carbon Neutral motorists for an additional fee (my quote was an extra £23). It would appear to me that many people have missed the true scale of what we are trying to do here.
TheOffsetShop can make EVERY car Carbon Neutral. AT NO EXTRA COST. Think about the implications there? Hence our comment, "We Challenge Others To Follow".
Moving onto another of your (excellent) points:
Proof of purchase - This is kind of embarrassing really, we knew it would be essential to show we were doing what we promised and would love to make a great feature of this. The fact is we haven't yet sold enough to to generate 3600kgs of offset, so we bought this ourselves as a kind of 'credit'. As the site grows in profile and sales we hope to make much more of this and, yes, again, up our commitment to a higher amount of CO2 offset.
As far as 'green goods' and promotions - this is an area of (minor) contention between myself and Anne. I feel that there are plenty of very good specialist sites out there catering to the desires of the 'green purchaser'. What I
am hoping to do is raise the issue without being thought of as a 'tree hugging' site. If you're looking for a new TV you don't want recycled tyres being sold to you!
Tracking of individual offsets - this is a tricky one. Although we may be 'savvy' in using a computer, signing up to sites etc, there are a great deal of people who would run a mile and this would only put them off. As the tracking would also be more complex for us we decided not to run with it. I must say that there are a couple of other sites that offer carbon offsets and they have a personal tracking feature. I
am quite happy then, that for those that desire this, it is available.
We make no excuse for trying to operate a viable business, but we are genuine, ethical and honour our pledges. As time goes by we hope to raise the amount of CO2 we can offset as much as possible.
How green are eBay, Kelkoo, Nextag, Amazon etc? And before anyone points it out, we are currently applying to make our entire operation Carbon Neutral. Our official confirmation should appear on the site soon.
I hope that has gone some way to answering your questions but I
am more than happy to answer all questions either in the forum or by PM.
Thanks for reading this far!
Finally, I know some people have their doubts about Carbon Offsetting. If this isn't for you then please don't think we're trying to convert anyone. We just felt that no-one was addressing the issue for those who wish to do something. I'm sure the Forum in general doesn't wish this discussion to go down that route, not here anyway.
Oh - nearly forgot
I'm quite happy to enter you for the competition as well Jason, it would be fair to say it might struggle to be my favourite - but it may have to be if no-one else enters!
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