Have you noticed the green triangles on the Vinmonopolet website? When we came back after a while to see if we had managed to secure some of the month's sale items, it looked for a while as if the column had marked all of its sale items with a green triangle.
We were wrong. The green triangle does not mean cheap or cheap, but rather indicates that the product is environmentally friendly.
– We do this to make it easier for our customers to find sustainable products, says Jens Nordahl, Communications Director at Vinmonopolet, to DinSide.
-More and more of our customers are keen to know as much as possible about the products they choose, so we do this to make navigation easier.
Five sustainability codes
The green triangle means the products are sustainable, Nordahl explains, and there are several product characteristics that can give rise to the green triangle.
– The three most common are environmentally certified, third-party controlled production; Climate-smart packaging, such as glass, box, apron or bag; And organic products.
In total, there are five different characteristics that can be considered a green triangle, either alone or in combination:
- Climate smart packaging
- Environmentally certified production
- Ethically approved
- environmental
- Vitality
Five codes: It should be easy to tell if the product you're buying is sustainable, whether in store or online.
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Each has its own icon, which you can find on the edge of the shelf in stores, and if you click on the product sheet on websites, but for simplicity, the green triangle is only used on the overview pages.
Eco-friendly against the trend
Vinmonopolet's sales shares are currently pointing down, according to Nordahl, and part of that is because the market is still correcting after the pandemic.
– We saw a slight decline after the pandemic subsided, and people are slowly starting to get back to their old lives – such as taking advantage of alternatives to bars.
Another explanation is bad weather in winter.
– Every time the weather is bad, we sell less, most likely because people postpone their shopping trip.
We also buy slightly fewer of the more expensive items.
– Champagne is an index category, and its market share is declining slightly. Maybe you can see that in the context of expensive time.
More organic
One product group that bucks this trend is organic wine, says Nordahl. Total sales are down, but market shares are increasing.
From about half a percent in 2014, the share is now about ten percent, Vinmonopolet sales statistics show.
Some of this may be due to the fact that the classification of organic wines has improved.
Hidden sales: Sales of organic wine were higher than the statistics show, as the products were not registered as organic wine, says Jens Nordahl. Archive photo: Lars Eivind Pons/Dagbladet
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– Many producers did not have documentation proving that the wine they sold was organic, until 2014. Since 2014, there has been much more interest in organic wine, and many products have been labeled organic in the following years, says Nordahl.
However: Most people buy the same thing as before.
– People are loyal to their favorites. They buy widely, and many products are available, so if the price of your favorite wine rises – for example wine from Piedmont – there will be many other red wines from the same region, made from the same grape, and it should be easy for customers to find On cheaper alternatives.
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