By Maria Bermudez
The idea of leveraging customer spending is an idea that has been attracting a lot of attention not only because it sounds very powerful, but because it is easy for us to do. The recognition of the impact that we as consumers can have on a macrolevel is empowering, but to ensure that the market adapts to innovative technology, companies must succeed in making it easy for us to use these technologies. And what easier way than incorporate them into our daily routine or usual habits? DoneGood is trying to do exactly that with consumer shopping habits, making it easier for consumers to find businesses that are making a difference in the world by producing and selling more sustainable, socially responsible products.
DoneGood: Quick Background
“DoneGood makes it easier for you to find companies who are changing the world so you can do it too.”
Born in the Harvard iLab, DoneGood was founded by a group of individuals who were passionate about making a positive impact in the world. The founders often talked about how hard it was to find products that they would buy, not only based on whether they were cool and of high quality, but also if they supported a company working to solve a social issue. They were looking to create and amplify the ripples that were already set in motion by many businesses across industries.
Launched in 2016, DoneGood’s Google Chrome extension aims to solve this problem and has already identified businesses that have a positive impact in the world, making it easier for you to support them and in turn, make a positive impact yourself.
The Product
DoneGood released its Chrome extension in the fall of 2016, and now also has a Firefox extension. Once you download it and start shopping online, every time you search for a product or go to a company website, it will identify companies with products that can act as substitutes for what you are trying to buy. A small orange notification will pop up (seen below) in the top right corner of your browser and you’ll be able to learn more about what the company does, in addition to gaining exclusive access to discounts and offers that DoneGood provides.
If you want to know more about how the extension works, you can watch this video.
The Review
I came across DoneGood about six months ago, when reading a BostInno article featuring the company and I ended up downloading the extension. I wanted to write a review because I think it’s a fantastic service that is incredibly easy to use and it is available for anyone with Internet access, which means that barriers to adoption are very low. I have personally used it to browse and get to know ethical and sustainable companies, but have not yet purchased a product as a result of using the extension (although I always leave my shopping cart full). Below you will find highlights of what I consider to be the best features of the Chrome extension, as well as some points for potential improvement.
Disclaimer: The following is a review of the Chrome extension, not the mobile app (which you also should check out if interested).
Highlights and Positives
- Accessibility: Once you download the extension, you’re all set. It is incredibly easy to find alternatives that are similar to the products you’re looking for. Not only is the work of identifying companies already done for you, but the company recommendations are in real time and automatically. All you need is Internet access and voilà!
- Save time and effort: Leveraging your consumer power can takes a lot of resources in your day, and with everything else going on in life, it can be hard to make time to research companies with more sustainable or socially responsible products, especially when shopping online. This extension makes your life easier and once it is activated, the alternative products will be automatically recommended to you, as seen in the image above.
- Special promotions and coupons: As if automatically recommending you other companies with a social mission is not enough, the DoneGood extension gives you exclusive discount codes that can give you 10 to 25 percent off, definitely a plus!
- It works on Amazon: If you love to browse through Amazon looking for the best available product, DoneGood can help you find the best and most responsible, sustainable alternative. Just use the search function to find what you’re looking for and the extension will work its magic, often suggesting multiple companies that might have what you’re looking for.
- Customer interaction: As a company, DoneGood seems to recognize the importance of customer feedback, encouraging the users of the extension to get in touch with any suggestions or comments (for more information on how to submit your own comments, go to the end of this article) in their Contact section. Their website even gives you an option to suggest a business that can be added to their database so it can be recommended through the extension. You can do that here.
Potential Improvements
- High prices: This relates more to the companies themselves who are recommended by DoneGood, but is still something that deserves to be acknowledged. Products with a social mission usually come at a steeper price, and this can be an obstacle for people who want to use their customer power responsibly, but whose budget cannot accommodate expensive products. I myself have been on the fence about buying a cheaper product or a more responsible one, but luckily the DoneGood’s discounts and coupon codes allow consumers to get products at more accessible prices.
- Identifying the social issue or cause being addressed: If you are looking for a company looking to solve a specific social issue, there is no easy way to identify what social issue is being addressed by the company. While the window that appears at the top right corner gives you a small explanation of the company’s vision and mission, it would be very useful for customers to have symbols to represent different causes so that they can easily identify which social issue(s) [of the ones outlined in the DoneGood website the company, shown below] the brand is addressing. Note: This function is available in the mobile app, so if you’re interested in this you can download it!
- Does not suggest a company when looking at products individually on Amazon: While the extension suggests you companies when using the search function in Amazon, it does not show alternative companies when you are looking at a specific product. This is probably a rather difficult task on the software development side, but it would be a cool feature to see in the future.
- Careful with your keywords: When searching for products on Google, the extension will not always suggest businesses even if you are using similar words to describe the same product. This decreases the value of the extension and is a potential loss of customers because even though they are looking for a similar product, consumers might or might not see recommendations depending on what keywords they use to search.
- As an example, when I googled “running shoes women,” DoneGood did not show me any alternatives, but when I searched for “tennis shoes women,” the window immediately appeared on the top right corner of the page.
What other things would you like to see from extensions like DoneGood? Let us at SEI know in the comments and submit your comments to DoneGood here.
If you like DoneGood, be on the lookout for a future post on more easy online tools to become a more responsible consumer here.
