Unpacking Buycott: The App That Makes Ethical Shopping Easier With Consumer-Driven Campaigns

As consumers, we’re becoming more conscious about where we spend our money. A company like Buycott makes it easier for us to use and access the information we need to make our purchases ethical!

Buycott was developed by Ivan Pardo, who felt that consumers should be allowed to have enough knowledge about a company before making a purchase. It’s available on both AppStore and Google PlayStore so that everyone can use it.

Ivan Pardo was inspired by his friend who was trying to boycott for a cause. The problem that arose when keeping track of all the companies you shouldn’t support was difficult to memorize!

You don’t have to memorize all the labels and jargon used by companies to cover up their unethical practices. What’s better is that you can do it immediately instead of reading through several articles.

The ethical standards are based on fair treatment of employees, animal testing, and support of humans rights causes. All the information is available to you through the app.

But if you’re stuck in the food aisle, you’re surrounded by different brands, and that makes it difficult to make your choices. That was no challenge for Ivan! He designed the app to scan barcodes that made choosing on the spot easier.

After downloading the Buycott app, you need to sign up for an account. After doing that, you can pick a campaign you would like to follow, so if you’d like to follow a campaign for the ethical treatment of workers, you can, and you’ll find products that are in agreement with your chosen campaign.

You can then set how high a level of support you’d like to provide the campaign. That makes it easier to use the barcode scanning option when making choices.

The app uses your camera to scan the barcode on the items you’d like to know more about. A screen will pop up to tell you if the item supports your cause, so if it’s green, you’re good to go, but if it’s red, you should avoid the product.

“The more consumers know about what goes into creating and distributing the products they buy, the more accountability they will demand from the companies that produce them.” Ivan Pardo

The only downside to using the app is that shopping might take a little longer because you’re weighing your options. But you’ll get to leave the store confident with the decisions you’ve made for the world around you!