Online fashion is becoming a dirty business and we couldn’t be happier.
2019 has been a defining moment for brands finally listening to customers when it comes to sustainability. Earlier this year, global brands including Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever and The Body Shop began introducing reusable and refillable packaging options.
One industry that has been a little slow to change is fashion. With online shopping showing no signs of slowing down, the fashion industry is now contributing more packaging to our lives than ever before. Skirt inside tissue paper, inside box, inside bag, inside plastic delivery bag. Remember the old lady who swallowed a fly? Spoiler alert: she died.
While pretty packaging is a factor when it comes to purchasing in-store, online should be purely about getting the product there in one piece. One company tapping into this insight is New Zealand based, The Better Packaging Co, makers of sustainable courier satchels that break down to organic matter. Founded by Kate Bezar and Rebecca Percasky, the company produce “packaging solutions for the new eco-nomy”. Made from corn starch and natural binding agents, the bags can be filled with food scraps and popped in the garden for future worm food.
The Business of Fashion reported that 66% of millennials would spend more money on brandsthat were sustainable
The companies dirt bag approach to packaging has been embraced by brands big and small including L’Oréal Paris, Tigerlily, Karen Walker, KitX, Worktones, INCU and Spell and The Gypsy out of Byron Bay.
The shift to environmentally sustainable packaging is not just good for the planet, it’s also good for business. Last year The Business of Fashion reported that 66% of millennials would spend more money on brands that were sustainable. And with the potential for bad PR to spread even faster thanks to social media, the need for brands to look closely at all of their channels has never been more important.
Although, surely, the real reward for brands moving to a more sustainable packaging model is hearing their customers talk dirty, ‘hey nice package’.
