The answer is yes: Customers are increasingly demonstrating a commitment to sustainable shipping, even if that means waiting a bit longer for their orders to arrive, says TJ Roberts. vice president of enterprise accounts with Sifted.

As many as 90% of e-commerce customers today are interested in sustainable shipping options, Roberts says. He has seen a marked shift in customer attitudes over the past two years, from a focus almost entirely on price to one that also embraces the importance of sustainability.

Retailers are responding to these concerns by building the customer experience around sustainable shipping. Often that means doing a better job of matching the size of the box with the product within. Gone are the days, for the most part, when a small item came to the customer’s door in a box that was many times larger than it needed to be.

Customers are being given the option of more sustainable shipping techniques. In the case of Amazon.com and others, that means letting them decide whether they want multiple orders to be delivered immediately in separate packages, or wait an extra day or two for those items to be consolidated into a single delivery. In an increasing number of cases, they’re opting for the latter choice.

Yet another means of reducing emissions from e-commerce delivery is an increasing dependence on electric vehicles. The major automakers are all ramping up production of EVs, and big delivery companies such as UPS and FedEx, along with Amazon, are incorporating those vehicles into their fleets.

The transition to a more sustainable supply chain involves a higher up-front cost for manufacturers, retailers and shoppers alike. In the long term, however, they’ll be saving money, as they streamline their operations and become more efficient in routing, material acquisition and delivery methods.