Sustainable marketing: Why transparency, sustainable omnichannel strategies and the Digital Product Passport are key to building brand trust
The food retail sector is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Whilst sustainability remains a key societal driver, marketing departments are simultaneously under immense pressure: rising costs, fragile supply chains, new ESG regulations, artificial intelligence, and a consumer climate caught between price sensitivity and value-driven purchasing.
Between inflation, AI and greenwashing: why sustainable marketing needs to be rethought
The challenge is no longer whether companies communicate sustainably, but how credibly and effectively they do so. Consumers are highly sensitive to superficial sustainability messages. At the same time, they expect transparency, digital traceability and consistent brand experiences across all channels.
According to BearingPoint’s Sustainable Retail Barometer, nearly 70% of European consumers now take sustainability factors into account when making purchasing decisions. At the same time, scepticism towards greenwashing is growing significantly. Sustainability alone is no longer enough — it must be communicated in a way that is verifiable, understandable and relevant.
“Sustainability is evolving from a communication discipline into an infrastructure issue in the retail sector.”
— Retail and ESG analysts, 2026
This also shifts the role of marketing: away from short-term campaign thinking, towards data-driven brand management with a focus on resource efficiency, transparency and cross-channel consistency.
Sustainable Omnichannel: Why cross-channel consistency saves resources
For a long time, omnichannel was seen primarily as a matter of convenience. Today, cross-channel consistency is increasingly becoming a factor in sustainability.
Many retail companies still operate with fragmented campaign structures: using different assets for print, social media, apps, point of sale and e-commerce results in duplicate production costs, redundant data management and high operational overheads. Sustainable marketing therefore also means organising communication processes more efficiently.
A sustainable omnichannel approach not only reduces media discontinuity but also delivers tangible savings in resources: fewer production cycles, lower material consumption, more efficient media planning and more precise campaign management.
This approach is particularly relevant in the context of increasing ESG requirements. Companies are increasingly required to demonstrate just how efficient their communication and production processes actually are. Sustainability therefore does not end with the product, but also extends to the way in which brands are presented.
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- centralised management of content and campaigns
- less redundant production of marketing materials
- data-driven targeting of specific audiences rather than mass communication
- consistent sustainability messages across all touchpoints
- reduced resource consumption in the marketing process
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The key factor here is credibility. Customers expect the same approach on the shop shelves, in the online shop, in the app and on social media. Inconsistent communication is perceived as opportunistic more quickly than ever before.
Digital Product Passport: What marketing teams need to prepare for now
Hardly any other issue will transform the European retail sector more significantly in the coming years than the Digital Product Passport (DPP).
The EU regulation on digital product passports is gradually introducing new transparency requirements across the entire supply chain. In future, products will be required to contain digital information on their origin, materials, carbon footprint, recyclability and production conditions — accessible via QR codes or digital interfaces.
What may initially appear to be a regulatory issue will have a massive impact on marketing and brand communication.
This is because emotional sustainability claims are suddenly no longer enough. Consumers now have direct access to verifiable product data. Communication is therefore becoming data-driven, comparable and measurable.
For marketing teams, this represents a paradigm shift:
The question is no longer which sustainability story to tell, but which data can back up that story.
Marketing departments need to start preparing now:
- new data structures for product information
- consistent ESG data across all channels
- transparent communication of product origins
- integration of product data with CRM and commerce systems
- user-friendly UX concepts for complex sustainability information
What is particularly exciting is the link between DPP and the customer experience. In future, sustainability information will become an integral part of the shopping experience itself. Brands that integrate this data in a way that is clear and trustworthy will gain a significant competitive advantage.
AI, crises and costs: Why efficiency is becoming a key marketing objective
The economic climate is further accelerating the transformation. Inflation, volatile commodity prices, geopolitical conflicts and rising energy costs are forcing companies to adopt more efficient marketing structures.
At the same time, artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the day-to-day operations of many marketing teams. Generative AI speeds up content production, automates campaign processes and improves data-driven decision-making. At the same time, a new tension is emerging: greater speed versus greater responsibility.
After all, AI does not automatically produce credible sustainability communications. On the contrary: the more content is automated, the more important transparency, the quality of sources and consistent brand values become. Many companies therefore face a twofold challenge: they must make their marketing processes both more sustainable and technologically more efficient.
The future is likely to belong to hybrid models: automated processes combined with clear editorial control and ESG-based brand management.
Sustainable communication needs evidence, not just messages
One of the biggest changes in green marketing concerns consumer expectations. Sustainability claims are increasingly being scrutinised. General statements such as ‘climate-neutral’, ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘sustainably produced’ lose credibility without concrete evidence.
The European Union is already responding to this with stricter regulations against greenwashing. For marketing professionals, this means that communication must become more precise, transparent and fact-based. At the same time, this opens up new opportunities for brand positioning. Companies that highlight verifiable data, transparent supply chains and genuine resource efficiency will strengthen trust and customer loyalty in the long term.
“Trust is becoming the most important currency in sustainable brand management within the retail sector.”
Brands that are currently particularly successful are those that do not treat sustainability as a stand-alone campaign, but as an integral part of their overall customer experience.
Conclusion: Sustainable marketing is becoming the backbone of modern retail
By 2026, sustainable marketing in the food retail sector will have evolved significantly: moving away from tokenistic communication towards operational transparency, data-driven efficiency and a consistent omnichannel strategy.
Topics such as sustainable omnichannel, digital product passports, AI-driven resource efficiency and ESG-compliant communication demonstrate that sustainability is no longer merely a matter of image. It influences processes, technologies, data structures and, ultimately, the entire brand architecture.
For marketing teams, this means one thing above all: in future, sustainability must not only be communicated, but systematically organised.
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