Climate Crisis | How Fashion Tech Is Reducing The Industry’s Carbon Footprint

As the global pandemic swept across the globe, the way consumers buy fashion changed forever. Sustainability matters have now become more important than ever before, playing a key role in the purchase decision making processes. This trend can be viewed as a change in a positive direction that encourages companies to implement more sustainable fashion practices. Alongside the rising importance of sustainability, the popularity of online shopping has also boomed. To address both of these trends, forward thinking companies are utilising innovative fashion tech solutions that are rapidly emerging in the market and disrupting traditional ecommerce shopping experience.

The fashion industry produces 8-10% of all the greenhouse gas emissions that come from human activity. This is more than the carbon footprint coming from the aviation and shipping industries combined. If the current production rates remain unchanged, this figure is likely to go up to 25% by 2050.

The growth of the fashion industry and the expansion of manufacturing facilities exacerbates this problem further by leading to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. This causes irreversible damage to our planet.

As an example, 700 gallons/2700 litres of water are needed just to produce a simple t-shirt. An average adult will take around two and a half years to drink the same amount of water. At the same time, 10 grams of CO2 will be used when dyeing the same t-shirt. This amount of CO2 increases further if more complex products that are made of more dense materials are being dyed.

Fast fashion is another key driver of fashion industry growth, coming at a significant cost to the environment. According to McKinsey, between 2000 and 2014 global clothing production doubled, and the average consumer purchased 60% more clothing. The reason for this is that fast fashion made branded clothing more affordable to a wider consumer group. Whilst fast fashion clothing is cheaper to buy, the quality of such items is often questionable, meaning that the items lose their shape and appeal within weeks of use. From the customer’s point of view, they are not likely to give much thought to a t-shirt or any other wardrobe item that is comparable to the price of a cocktail bought in a bar. As soon as this t-shirt develops any visible defects, it will likely be thrown away and will end up in landfill.

In fact, there is a particular category of items that have a relatively short lifespan due to their nature and frequent usage. Items such as underwear, shoes and sports gear wear out particularly fast and in 95% of cases end up in landfill. Fast fashion however has broadened the definition of short-lifespan items. Currently, most clothing items sold by fast fashion brands would in fact be treated as short lifespan goods.

Every year millions of tonnes of clothing end up in landfill, with only around 15% being recycled or re-sold by second hand shops. Per average second, an equivalent of a garbage truck filled with textile waste ends up in landfill or is simply burned. This barely used clothing that is discarded every year rather than recycled is worth about $500 billion.

The numbers showcasing the amount of waste produced by the fashion industry are truly staggering. However, with increasing awareness of this issue, the demand for sustainable clothing is growing higher year-on-year.

The Covid-19 pandemic has played an important role in accelerating the shift towards sustainable products. According to the survey conducted by McKinsey in April 2020, some 67% of consumers in the UK and Germany consider the use of sustainable materials to be an important factor when making a purchasing decision.

Such a shift in demand for eco-friendly clothing encourages fashion brands to commit to sustainability goals. A great example of this is a campaign by American fashion brand Everlane that is aimed at eliminating virgin plastics from their supply chain. In order to achieve this, Everlane started by introducing a range of sustainable clothing that is entirely made of recycled plastics.

The growing demand for sustainable products was however not the only trend accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The growth of ecommerce and online shopping has truly boomed during the lockdowns. As people get used to the perks of online shopping, the demand for ecommerce is likely to stay high - with 50% of UK shoppers indicating they will continue shopping online after the high street shops reopen.

According to McKinsey, 30% of executives think that online retail is the most significant trend and opportunity to look out for. This rapid change in consumer behaviour brings not only new opportunities for retail fashion businesses, but also new challenges for the brands that would like to keep their business profitable whilst reducing their carbon footprint.

In 70% of cases product returns are caused by poor product fit and sizing. This is one of the key challenges that e-commerce brands have to overcome. As up to 50% of apparel items bought online are returned, companies are looking to utilise tech solutions that can help customers to make more informed decisions when buying online.

One of the most popular solutions available on the market is the size recommendation tool, that helps to eliminate the guesswork when choosing the correct product size. This piece of tech gives an accurate size recommendation and product fit guidance to the clients - based on several simple questions regarding their height, weight, age and body shape. With the availability of this solution on the product details page, customers are able to make better informed decisions that result in 40% less product returns.

Additionally, the size recommendation tool can be combined with a unique virtual try-on feature that helps to increase the adoption rate as well as to increase the conversion rate by up to 50%. This tool is easy to use, simply requiring customers to upload a front-facing full-body photo of themselves to receive a visualisation of their chosen item on the uploaded photo in less than a minute.

The combination of size recommendation and virtual try-on feature is the ultimate tool that is driving sustainable growth of ecommerce fashion businesses. Improved user experience, increased engagement level, seamless integration process, reduced product returns, a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions and more environmentally-friendly business operations are just some of the benefits that are enjoyed by early adopters of this technology.

Would you like to find out how to use virtual try-on and size recommendation technology for your fashion business? Get in touch!