The fashion industry is an integral part of the global economy and online shopping is a key ingredient. The first documented online purchase was made in 1994, nearly 30 years ago. Since then, online shopping has only grown. It went from being a novel concept to a multi-trillion-dollar industry that is anticipated to keep growing as we move deeper into the 2020s.[1]
The ease and immediacy of new technologies allowed consumers to move from a traditional way of shopping to a more complex one that covers both offline and online mediums. When it comes to fashion, one ComScore study on mobile shopping in Europe found that purchases of clothing and accessories led all other categories.[2] In the U.S., studies have shown that fashion e-commerce accounts for roughly 23% of total online retail and it’s estimated that in 2022, U.S. retail e-commerce revenue from the sale of fashion apparel, footwear, and accessories reach 205 billion U.S. dollars![3]
One thing is clear, fashion e-commerce is on the rise and there are no signs of it slowing down. The question is, how sustainable is it?
Online Shopping And The Fashion Industry‘s Revolution
E-commerce has transformed the fashion industry to the point that only those brands that are able to adapt and innovate will be considered key players. This type of shopping has allowed consumers to shop from the comfort of their own homes and permitted brands to be widely accessible to a worldwide market. With virtually non-existent barriers, e-commerce gives retailers the chance to market and sell products internationally and automatically. Also, the pervasiveness of mobile phones across all industries allows brands to further engage shoppers at any time from any place.[4]
Online Shopping’s Environmental Impact
Today, the fashion industry is dominated by fast fashion, known for making incredibly cheap, easy-to-buy clothes, that allows consumers to get a similar product to one of a high-end designer at a fraction of the cost. E-commerce has enhanced this phenomenon, to the point that it has become the primary way people buy clothes.
Clothes shopping has become a pleasurable and sometimes addictive activity, and e-commerce together with fast fashion have made shopping a form of cheap, endlessly available entertainment. However, buying for the sake of buying has led to overstuffed landfills with clothing and shoes that don’t break down easily. In fact, fast fashion’s environmental impact is one of the things it is best known for, together with workers’ exploitation and overproduction. After all, it is not for nothing that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world.
Online Shopping has become a pleasurable and addictive activity. Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels.com
Shopping, whether it’s online or not, means resource exploitation, layers of cardboard and plastic, and carbon emissions for the transportation of goods from sometimes one continent to another. The question is, has e-commerce made things worse by itself, or is there something else to take into account in this equation?
Indeed, MIT’s Real Estate Innovation Lab published a study that measured consumers’ Greenhouse Gas emissions while engaging in either e-commerce purchasing or more traditional purchasing from brick-and-mortar stores and found online shopping to be more sustainable than traditional retail 75% of the time.[5] Another study published by the sustainable investment firm Generation, found that e-commerce is 17% more carbon efficient than traditional retail.[6]
Those findings seem reasonable if we consider that, among other things, e-commerce reduces commuting to traditional stores (while brands can, in a single trip, deliver several online orders) and warehouses generally have a less environmental impact than traditional stores.[7] Nevertheless, the human and psychological part of the equation turns this around: are consumers buying the same number of items online as in physical stores?
As mentioned, online shopping now functions as entertainment, almost like social media. So, inevitably, consumers are buying more and more. Impulse purchases became commonplace and, subsequently, overproduction, shipments that travel across the ocean for one item only, and endless returns.
Let’s pause for a minute. What is wrong with returns? Well, on average, 20% of all online purchases are returned. A returned item means doubling the amount of transportation used to get the item to the consumer, and for exchanges, tripling it! In addition, 25% of returns arrive back to retailers unsuitable for restocking, and the other 75% isn’t simply restocked, it must pass a screening process: Is the item in good condition? Is that condition good enough to be restocked? Where should the brand restock it? All this translates into an increasingly battered environment (learn more about the environmental impact of returns here).
Added to all this, there is the packaging. Polybags, boxes, stickers, papers… it is terrifying the amount of packaging the apparel industry generates, especially if we consider that most of it is typically designed for single-use and is not recycled. Unfortunately, e-commerce has exacerbated this. I’m sure you’ve seen on TikTok or Instagram those huge Amazon boxes that only contain a t-shirt or a pair of earrings (learn more about the packaging problem in the fashion industry here).
Final Thoughts
Fortunately, e-commerce companies ranging from Amazon to Zalando, are implementing measures to lower their environmental impact. They are investing in electric vehicles, renewable energy, introducing reusable mailing bags, optimizing packaging material use and eliminating single-use plastic materials from packaging.[8]
Likewise, companies are starting to use artificial intelligence to help them gather valuable consumer data that can be used to better understand their needs, offer highly personalized experiences, and even experiential e-commerce, like virtual fitting room shopping assistants. Some real-life examples are Walmart, Shopify, Amazon, and Snap, who started to invest in augmented or virtual reality tech to help customers picture what clothes might look like on them.[9] Thanks to artificial intelligence consumers know exactly what they are buying and ultimately receive products that meet their expectations, reducing in turn return rates, shipping, and packaging waste.
It is important that both retailers and consumers become aware of the impact of their (our) actions and understand that e-commerce is a magnificent tool that can help us battle climate change yet, if not used with awareness, can turn into a lethal weapon. At a time when consumerism is rampant in our society and the global supply chain is at a breaking point, we are headed to a point of no return. As much as big brands and corporations are easily blamed for this crisis, we as consumers need to take responsibility and change how we approach the online experience and, in general, fashion itself.
Have you ever thought of the environmental impact of online shopping? What about the fact that online shopping has become a form of entertainment? Tell us in the comments below!
