Search engine expands access to ethically sourced clothing
While shoppers want access to sustainable clothing, brands that combine both ethical and style often have smaller advertising budgets. Due to the visibility barriers this can cause, these businesses are sometimes difficult to spot. Among the sea of other mainstream clothing designers, shoppers could easily miss out on ethically sourced clothing brands that align with their values.
Ethical clothinga Spain-based clothing search engine, is trying to solve this problem with the recent addition of hundreds of North American clothing brands.
Consumers want ethically sourced clothing, but finding legitimate brands is a challenge
Looking at the research, it’s clear the company is onto something with its technology. According to a study, nearly two-thirds of Americans are willing to pay more for sustainable products. The same survey found that 74% of shoppers don’t know where to find these products. Additionally, the data revealed that 78% of people are more likely to purchase a product clearly labeled as sustainable. With this information in mind, it’s clear to see how the ethical clothing search engine could bridge the gap between business and consumer to the benefit of both.
The technology has the basic filters that consumers expect from clothing websites, such as price, product, and material type. However, Ethical Clothing says it has additional filters in the works, such as a sustainability rating system.
“Our dream is that we can ingest all the data brands offer on their materials, processes and supply chains and provide our visitors with a rating system that gives them control of how rigorously they want to be in their criteria. for sustainable clothing,” said Ben Heinkel, co-founder of Ethical Clothing, in a public statement.
A growing market for sustainable clothing
Eco-friendly clothing brands are continually emerging in the United States and Canada. Through expansion, the team behind Ethical Clothing hopes to make a difference by helping some of these small ethically sourced clothing businesses gain recognition. The company also aims to make product discovery a more seamless experience for shoppers.
Across the pond, Ethical Clothing says it has already enabled thousands of monthly customers in Europe to source stylish, budget-friendly clothing through the combination of its database of ethical brands and… easy-to-navigate search options.
Prioritizing the desire to de-stigmatize the notion that sustainably sourced clothing is inherently expensive, Ethical Clothing also offers additional tools, such as its price drop alert service. This feature allows those who sign up to stay up to date with all the offers offered by its entire catalog of brands.
Mastering ethics
While rapid and drastic changes in the fashion industry as a whole are ideal, practicality must be considered to avoid falling into the “greenwashing” trap. Slow and steady changes are probably the best way for consumer apparel companies to lay the groundwork needed to launch improved sustainable business practices.
Ethical Clothing joins other tech companies looking to give consumers more information about fashion brands. Good On You, for example, recently partnered with Klarna to roll out an app focused on sustainable clothing. Meanwhile, coalitions such as Rewiring Fashion are determined to shift consumer thinking away from the idea that clothes are disposable and plentiful, and reduce the waves of textiles flooding the market.
Initiatives such as this search engine could play an important role in emphasizing to large companies that there is genuine consumer demand for ethically sourced clothing and that it is worth taking the time to enter correctly. in the space of ethically produced fashion.
This is an important question to pursue not just to save face, but also to stay relevant.
Image credit: Kayle Kaupanger via Unsplash