How To Step Into Becoming A Sustainable Brand?
Sustainability is a hot topic in the fashion industry - brands are being slated for their manufacturing processes, others for greenwashing. It appears that getting the right balance is difficult, you want to be seen as “doing the right thing”, but how can you make your eCommerce brand more sustainable? And without seeming like you’re jumping on a bandwagon?
What is greenwashing?
Greenwashing is when a company falsely claims that they’re becoming “sustainable” to gain the customer’s trust. This can be for marketing purposes, to have another dimension to their brand and create another selling point. Due to this, most Americans don’t believe companies that say they’re becoming sustainable.
The race to sustainability
There’s a lot of pressure within the fashion industry for retailers to care. According to a study done in 2023, only 2% of Vogue readers were not interested in making sustainable purchases. Customers’ demands are increasing on how their favorite brands are dealing with the issue. Companies are now looking to build their corporate social responsibility. This pressure in particular seems to be coming from Gen-Z, however, there’s a disconnection between their need for sustainability and their behavior. Shein, for example, is still one of the biggest fashion retailers in the world, having generated $30 billion in 2022. This proves that they are still fast consumers, favoring maximalism over sustainability and minimalism.
Consumers are very skeptical about brands becoming “sustainable”, with nearly 9 out of 10 consumers saying they don’t immediately trust brands that say they are sustainable and half believe “greenwashing” is common in the industry. The error that brands have been making, whether they’re truly becoming sustainable or not, is thinking that this is a huge marketing focus and that their whole marketing strategy should revolve around it. But when you think about it, how many of us search for “sustainable denim”? Sure, a few of us do, but it’s not a traffic and sales-generating search. It can be one of the many sides to your company, but if sustainability wasn’t in your original vision, then it has to take a back seat to your main selling points.
Sustainability is a hot topic but it shouldn’t be seen as a marketing trend. Is this change authentic with your brand? Does it correspond to your values? If the answers to these two questions are no, then it shouldn’t be your main focus. We’re not saying scrap your sustainable initiatives, because they are important, but this will not be a focal part of your marketing strategy for the time being.
When it comes to marketing, your main focus will always be “What gets them to click?”. Most people click for the following reasons:
Curiosity: You will see that for online magazines, click-bait titles will always get a high number of clicks. It gets people curious.
Benefit: The customer has to see a benefit for them - perhaps it’s getting up to 50% off, or a welcome discount code.
Emotion: Something touching for Mother’s Day, or just a relatable brand message will help consumers identify with your brand.
Be prepared for scrutiny
When going on your sustainability journey, you need to have a thick skin. Whenever you announce these initiatives, whether it is through your eCommerce store or on social media, you’re opening yourself up to scrutiny. Due to people’s skepticism, they’ll find the smallest faults even in the baby steps you’re making. The fact is, you can’t sell yourself as 100% sustainable, so it is important to review your mission statement and to select your wording carefully.
Baby steps
Reviewing your manufacturing process is a long process, but while you’re working on this, there are still baby steps you can take as an eCommerce brand to reduce your carbon footprint:
Improve your packaging: Work with recycled cardboard/recycled plastic when necessary, and kraft envelopes for orders only containing 1 to 2 items. Plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose, so now’s the time for change.
Improve your returns: There are plenty of online recycling initiatives for returns such as Rebound Returns which allow customers to return excess packaging.
Recycling initiatives with benefits: Some brands offer customers to return old items in exchange for a gift voucher. This allows the clothes to be recycled and to gain the customer’s trust.