Moving beyond the green sustainability flag: Zalando updates sustainability related information

BERLIN, MARCH 27 2023 // Zalando updates sustainability related information, moving from the green flag to a more specific level of sustainability related information, guiding customers to make more informed purchasing decisions.

Helping customers to make more informed decisions

According to our own research in the Attitude-Behavior Gap Report in 2021, every second customer doesn’t know what sustainability means in a fashion context. The way sustainability related information is communicated at Zalando has evolved since 2017, given by the continuously changing fashion industry, consumer demands and regulatory landscape. Against this background, in October 2022, we commenced the first milestone of a group wide project to  enable our partners (and Private Label brands) to make more specific sustainability related product claims. We replaced the ‘green sustainability flag’ with information about the specific sustainability related attributes of a product. Those sustainability related attributes are backed by explicit certifications, trademarks or licensed materials. With the transition we now request a higher standard of data when communicating these to our customers. The goal of our new approach is to better support our customers' decision-making in alignment with the current legislative guidance.

Moving to a more specific level of data with our brand partners

For brands on Zalando the change means that they are invited to join the transition; continuing to make positive decisions and investments regarding how an article is manufactured, while now showing customers more specific data to inspire their shopping and support decision making. However, the transition comes with some early-mover challenges, such as access to the sustainability  related article information, which is required for this level of consumer facing transparency and the lack of an industry standard on how to share such data amongst brands and retailers. Despite the intensive collaboration of Zalando and brand partner teams, some products will temporarily lose their sustainability related information until brands prepare themselves to share more specific data.

Zalando remains focussed to allow consumers to easily find products that align with their tastes and values. Therefore, we are committed to being part of the solution to industry wide challenges of bringing relevant supply chain data in front of customers. Following this extensive project, we believe that our new data requirements for brands represent the minimum viable proposition to show consumers relevant sustainability related information throughout their fashion and beauty shopping experience. We hope to share these learnings across the European Market to support retailers’ alignment and support brands in their sustainability journeys.

Zalando strongly believes that the transition and changes will contribute to more informed decision making for customers and improve the information flow of the platform, benefiting the industry at large.

In the context of further upcoming EU legislation regulating how companies make green claims about sustainable related information, Zalando agrees that environmental claims should be properly verified, not only to protect consumers but also to ensure fair competition. Zalando calls for clear and standardised rules across countries and therefore harmonisation of such legislation across Europe.