By a guest author from Charged Retail Tech News
Zalando has launched a new “shop-by-values” service across its platform allowing shoppers to filter brands based on “the causes and values they care about”
Zalando’s new filter enables customers to browse the retailer’s myriad of brands based on which sustainable fashion issues they are seeking to address, including animal welfare, reusing materials, worker well-being, water conservation, reducing emissions and extending the life of fashion.
The new initiative comes off the back of a new research conducted by the German fashion giant, which explored the “disconnect between how customers want to shop when its comes to sustainable fashion and how they actually do”.
In its “It Takes Two” report Zalando lays bare what it calls the “attitude-behaviour gap”, in which well meaning shoppers are prevented from shopping sustainably because of the complexity of doing so.
According to the report half of all customers do not understand what sustainability means in a fashion context, while currently there is no industry-wide definition of what sustainable fashion is.
“By mapping our existing sustainability criteria and assortment to impact areas, we aim to break down the complex topic of sustainability into a language that everyone can understand,” Zalando’s director of product and digital experience sustainability Julien Slijan said.
“When customers have built that understanding, the experience allows them to act on their values, bridging the gap between their values and their fashion choices.”
The move forms part of Zalando’s wider do. MORE campaign which aims to see 25 % of all gross merchandise value come from more sustainable products by 2023.