The McPlant paradox and why sustainable brands should be on Amazon

Amazon’s appeal

In the days of Amazon aggressively adding new product selection (in the covid & pre covid years), vendor managers would often talk about how ‘70% of product searches start on Amazon’ meaning Amazon is essentially free brand exposure, with the opportunity for sales. And they were correct. Most product searches did start on Amazon, and for 1P brands (vendors) there was no set-up cost. Fast forward to today, and there’s not many categories Amazon hasn’t cast its web to. Now it’s not just free search waiting for you on Amazon, its bona fide customers in great numbers. Failure to be on Amazon is inviting your competitors to eat into your market share.

So why are sustainable brands, brands that are generally motivated beyond just financial gain in support of a worthy cause, so reluctant to list their products with Amazon? To provide context, the analogy of the vegan’s dilemma with the McPlant may explain why.

The McPlant Paradox

Vegans don’t consume any animal products in their diet or use animal products in their lifestyle – meat and dairy is off the menu, as are leather clothes and down pillows. Ask most vegans and they will tell you how the world would be a better place if everyone was vegan. They will also say the biggest blocker to vegan adoption is the availability of vegan food. So, when McDonald’s launched the McPlant in the UK in late 2021, why did so many ‘hardcore’ vegans turn their backs on it? On the surface, the McPlant increases availability for existing vegans, and offers easy options for people wanting to access vegan food for the first time– everything vegans seemingly covet?

But, every pound sterling spent on a McPlant is going to a company whose primary business is the selling of dead animals – that’s not very vegan. And any incremental sales (i.e. from the new McPlant range) compounds this. McPlant sales could also be cannibalising the sales of ‘pure vegan’ eateries where greater spending, in isolation, may have a more positive impact on the world.

The similairites to sustainable brands and Amazon

Many sustainable brands share similar reluctance to working with Amazon. Amazon is the fifth biggest company in the world by market cap (valued at 2.4 trillion USD as of Nov 2025) and has a significant impact on the natural environment with vast logistic networks, high velocity shipments and associated pollution, increasing number of energy-intensive data centres, and the direct and indirect packaging waste associated with e-commerce.

But the practical challenge both for sustainable brands (and vegans by analogy) is that hoping sustainable product sales increase only through 100% ethical retailers and market places will be painfully slow – the infrastructure and scale isn’t built yet. Compare that to working with the existing established retailers where latent demand exists and the cost of waiting for more sustainable sales outlets to grow could far outweigh the short-term harm of trading with the likes of Amazon.

If the mission of a sustainable brand is improving the world through incremental purchases, then being a sustainable brand and not selling on Amazon is like a roman pottery trader not setting up stall in the forum, or a coffee shop only opening in the evenings. You're hurting your ability to sell.

Why sustainable brands should seriously consider working with Amazon

Amazon is now not necessarily the great moral trade off it used to be. And here’s why:

1. Consumer conversion

Selling on Amazon broadens your customer base. The vegans’ argument against McDonalds is valid in isolation – they don’t want a big bad animal killer to get richer and more powerful. But, by increasing the availability of vegan food you increase the likelihood of non-vegans choosing to buy vegan. You’re then changing the mix of customers purchasing vegan food (more non-vegans buying vegan). The same can be said for Amazon. By making your products available to an incredibly broad audience, you increase the likelihood of consumers, who don’t necessarily align with your dominant customer profile, purchasing from you. Long term this can only be a good thing.

2. Availability

Selling on Amazon also makes it easier for your existing sustainable consumer base to purchase sustainably. Take a normative sustainable consumer, one that balances convenience with ethics. That consumer is not going to want to shop around multiple online stores to ensure every single item purchased is ethical and sustainable. No. That consumer is far more likely to ensure that, from the selection available, they are purchasing the most sustainable products on offer. If no sustainable products are offered, then the customer will still make a purchase, but the sustainability movement has lost a potential sale. The Cheeky Panda (bamboo toilet roll) are a great example of this. If the normative sustainability-minded consumer needs toilet roll, and no bamboo or eco toilet roll are available, the normative consumer is certainly not avoiding purchasing on the grounds of sustainability. This consumer profile, ones sympathetic to, but not driven by sustainability, are the next frontier for sustainable brands…and they’re waiting for you on Amazon.

3. Amazon's sustainable potential

To make any meaningful change, change needs to come from consumers, businesses, and governments alike. Amazon is a trailblazer in terms of the scale of what it can and claims it will achieve. The UK government, in line with the Paris agreement, want to achieve Net Zero by 2025, Amazon say they will do it by 2040. By 2030, Amazon will have 100,000 fully electric delivery vehicles on the road. By the end of 2025, their investments into wind and solar capacity will equal the energy use of all echo, fire, and ring devices globally. And last year, 100% of electricity consumed by Amazon was matched with renewable energy sources for the second consecutive year. They still have a huge negative impact on the environment, but they’re pioneering innovation in sustainability and will reach a desirable end goal far sooner than many companies or governments will.

Amazon may seem like the devil, but they won’t be forever. What matters is your product, your values, and your mission. Amazon is just the easiest way for you to reach your customers and further your mission.

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