Brands including Ecoalf, Mud Jeans, Swe-s, Girlfriend Collective and Stripe + Stare will launch on Zalando in the coming weeks. The online retailer is reacting to an increase of searches for terms like “organic” or “fairtrade” and an increased demand for sustainable products by its customers.
“At Zalando, we know that customers are increasingly concerned about the future of our planet and want to make more sustainable fashion choices. Our customers’ demand for sustainable products, which we see in the increase of searches for “organic,” or “fairtrade,” for example, reflects the growing interest. One of the challenges our customers face is that it can be difficult to know what sustainability actually means, and how to find products according to their social and environmental values. We want to play a role in changing that,” said the German e-tailer in a statement yesterday.
Since 2017, Zalando flags items with more sustainable materials or certificates in the fashion store with a sustainability flag; since 2018 in all 17 markets. Currently, Zalando’s sustainable fashion selection consists of more than 15,000 items from over 240 brands, across all categories, and ranges from premium brands like Mother of Pearl and Filippa K to footwear with Veja, outdoor brands like Patagonia, denim by Nudie Jeans and Eco Fair Fashion for women and men by Armedangels.
In the coming weeks, newly added brands will further diversify Zalando’s selection with sustainable clothing by Spanish label Ecoalf, denim by Dutch label Mud Jeans, activewear from Girlfriend Collective or stockings by Swedish label Swe-s.
“Our current fashion assortment with a sustainability benefit is already one of the largest available in Europe, but we’re just getting started. Our ambition is to provide customers with a bigger assortment to choose from, clearer information to choose with, and all the inspiration they need to make more sustainable choices. Onboarding these new brands is an important step on our journey, and we’ll focus on adding more sustainable choices to our assortment in the upcoming months,” explained Sara Diez, vice president womenswear at Zalando.
Within the company too, Zalando is working on making more sustainable decisions. “We established several initiatives to improve parts of our business, for example, making our packaging more sustainable by changing Beauty Bags from plastic to paper. Our current sustainability strategy, our goals and further information about all corresponding initiatives can be found in the annual report,” said the company.
Photo: Sara Diez / Zalando SE, Svenja Krueger