As a fashion ecommerce company, you offer your customers the conveniences of a wide range of wardrobe choices, a streamlined shopping experience, and fast, easy shipping. Yet that isn’t enough today. Over half of Brits are now turning their eyes towards climate change and considering a business’ eco-credentials when buying their products.
Of course, shifting to an entirely sustainable ecommerce approach to meet this demand takes time. But you can start with a high-impact first step: implementing green shipping practices. This change yields numerous advantages, and you can take inspiration from trailblazers in the fashion industry. Here’s more on the benefits of green shipping practices in fashion ecommerce—and how other great brands implement them.
Benefits of green shipping
Mitigated environmental impact
The most obvious benefit of green shipping is that it helps cut down on the waste and carbon emissions it usually involves. That’s easily achieved through steps like minimising your packaging. You can also partner with shipping providers that optimise routes and use energy-efficient vehicles to maximise fuel.
Eco-friendly packaging often has better quality than plastics. While this might mean higher production costs, you save on damaged products and related expenses. More importantly, such packaging materials are also recyclable. That can go a long way in encouraging your consumers to reuse them.
Improved brand loyalty
Current trends indicate that sustainability leads to increased customer loyalty. That’s especially true now that more consumers seek eco-friendly products and services. It also makes investing in green shipping worthwhile, as you may get a significant ROI from meeting this new demand.
How brands are implementing green shipping
Carbon offsetting
Fashion ecommerce companies want to provide their customers with their purchase products as fast as possible. Express delivery, though, causes damaging carbon emissions. That’s why Ray-Ban uses carbon offsetting. Their iconic designs for men’s and women’s sunglasses, including the glamorous oversized Jackie Ohh frames, the bold and edgy State Street shades, and the classic Wayfarer sunnies, are usually in high demand—meaning the brand has to ship products out as quickly and efficiently as possible. To mitigate the carbon footprint this produces, Ray-Ban practises responsible shipping. Ray-Ban only pairs with logistic providers that calculate carbon emissions from pickup to delivery. The brand then works with a verified carbon-neutral service to balance out emissions through climate protection projects like renewable energy, waste disposal, and reforestation. Your fashion ecommerce business can also partner with carbon-neutral agencies to ensure your emissions equate to a net zero.
Sustainable packaging
Some of the most common types of packaging that fashion ecommerce businesses use are plastic bags and cardboard boxes. The former is not biodegradable and usually breaks down into microplastics that can harm the environment, wildlife, and even humans. And while cardboard is recyclable, its usage and continual demand still mean trees are being cut down. To solve this dilemma, Origin X Performance utilises eco-conscious packaging. This specialised clothing retailer concentrates on creating high-quality men’s activewear. From the beginning, however, it wanted to go beyond that by committing to environmental and social responsibilities. It now manufactures its products using ethical methods—its suppliers, for example, all adhere to the regulations of the International Labour Organisation. Its packaging is similarly eco-friendly, with the most commonly leveraged material being natural resin bio-poly mailers. This is biodegradable, industrially compostable, and plastic-free. Your fashion ecommerce business can leverage sustainable packaging solutions as well.
Eco-friendly returns
An easy return process is the gold standard in fashion ecommerce. Simultaneously, sustainable companies want to avoid the wasteful practices associated with the method. A great initiative to solve the issue is the clothing company Patagonia’s recycling program. Patagonia is a green brand focusing on outdoor clothing designed to last years. Because of this, customers can get most items for free, or ask Patagonia to recycle them and get store credit in return. If your products permit it, you can launch your own program to minimise waste and even reduce costs on materials.
Consumers today are determined to make their clothing and accessory purchases ethical and sustainable. To succeed in fashion ecommerce, you can start to meet that demand by switching to green shipping.
