How can the sales of green products in the Brazilian supply chain be increased?

This paper investigates the elements that can generate an increase in industrial green product sales in Brazil. Multiple case studies were performed with five suppliers of green products, as well as two distributors for each supplier. Each supplier identified the distributor with the highest sales performance and the distributor with the lowest sales performance (in geographical areas with similar sales potential). While the findings suggest that technical specifications are mandatory for attracting and retaining the best distributors of green products, they also suggest that technical specifications cannot assure sales. Suppliers must provide not only advertising and financial and technical support to the distributors but also stable sales commissions (a problem in the Brazilian green market). Accordingly, suppliers must consider both the profits and the losses of their distributors to increase sales, and the cost of such support may be higher than the costs incurred for non-green products. However, without such support, sales will not increase. The best distributors have exclusive sales teams that explore the technical, financial and advertising support provided by the supplier, allowing these sales teams to outperform non-exclusive sales teams. Our findings fill some of the gaps indicated in the literature such as how sustainability can be better implemented in supply chains and how sales and profits of green products can be increased. Furthermore, a definition of a marketing strategy that can help to optimize the sales costs of green products, which range from 5% to 18%, and that can be applied by suppliers is presented herein.

► Technical specifications are important, but they cannot assure sales.
► Profits and losses of distributors must be considered in order to increase sales.
► The best distributors of green products have their own sales team.
► Exclusive sales teams increase the sales of green products.
► Sales costs of green products range from 5% to 18%.