We want to give our special thanks to Fanny Dorisse & Lili Azaroual, the two students who co-authored this post.

The future of Retail has been a hot topic in recent years, and the debate is turning towards sustainable retailers. 

More generally, the retail industry’s ethics and corporate social responsibility are being thoroughly questioned. And it’s no wonder with fast-fashion Retailers pumping out new collections every week. 

Consumers, on average, throw out 80 pounds of clothes every single year. So it’s no secret that many of our current practices are wreaking havoc on the planet. 

None of this is lost on the ethical consumer. 

4 Trends Driving Sustainable Retail in the Fashion Industry

There is a growing trend among European consumers that are turning more and more attention to the sustainability of the products they purchase. As of 2020, the average search growth for sustainable shopping terms grew by almost 7x. 

More and more people are making purchasing decisions based on Brands’ corporate social responsibility. 

They are also developing brand loyalty toward companies that focus on sustainability and ethical business practices. 

According to the Forrester Consumer Index, as of 2019, almost half of consumers switched to a different product because a brand violated their personal values.

Businesses that want to survive must know about the rise of ethical consumption. What does it mean in terms of environmental and social responsibility?

And what does it mean to be a responsible business today? 

Let’s look at four of the current trends in sustainable Retail:

1. Slow shopping
2. Fairtrade retail
3. Ethical retail
4. Recommerce

1. Slow Shopping: Removing Time Pressure From Retail Promotions

Online shopping and “one-click” purchasing have accelerated the pace of the buying experience. 

Still, a new trend is emerging, which intentionally slows things down. 

Instead of pressuring customers into panic buying, it encourages shoppers to take their time, enjoy browsing, and make considered decisions. 

What’s driving this move from convenience and quantity towards curation and quality?

Business savvy and intentional rejection of impulse purchases. 

Some of the biggest retail events have been built on flash sales and short-term deals that promote impulse buying. But, like slow food a few years ago, the latest trend in sustainable commerce is slow shopping. 

This forces retailers to offer something above and beyond price and promotions. They have to provide an experience and product quality that aligns with rising consumer expectations. 

This change offers a massive opportunity for brick-and-mortar retailers to provide shoppers with a more elevated experience and keep them longer within the store. 

This approach positions shoppers as guests rather than buyers, effectively fostering brand loyalty from customers. 

Stores have found different ways to invite their “guests” to slow down and spend more time on site. For example, they started adding cafes, lounges, libraries, and art spaces. Indeed, they encourage people to take their time and enjoy themselves. 

This kind of experience is far different from classical discount stores, which focus on the lowest possible price, no matter the product’s sustainability.

The slow-shopping experience is the antithesis of shepherding customers through overstuffed shelves and fluorescent lights.

2. Fairtrade Retail: How is Fair Trade Retail Sustainable?

Fairtrade is not a new concept, but it’s receiving renewed attention as demand for transparency in business practices is growing. 

Consumers want to know how brands treat and compensate their employees. 

There are headline-making events, such as the 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse in India. During this event, thousands of workers were killed, bringing working conditions into the spotlight. 

There are also many reports about underpaid and overworked laborers in many industries. 

These reports have forced brands outsourcing their manufacturing to conduct corporate social responsibility audits and search for Fairtrade labels. 

But the term “fair trade” has come to mean many things. In essence, it means that products are made by workers fairly paid and provided with ethical working conditions. 

The demand for fair trade labels spans all industries, from food and beverage to clothing to home decor. 

3. Ethical Retail: What is it and what is sustainable about it?

Ethical Retail is an umbrella term that includes fairtrade and much more aspects of corporate social responsibility. 

An ethical retailer means you have a business model that provides social, environmental, and political responsibility. 

On top of these, materials and product sourcing must meet ethical standards. 

Predatory business practices and environmentally destructive operations are no longer benefiting from the blind eye. 

There are plenty of ways that consumers can assess how ethical a business is. 

Certified B Corporations, for instance, earn that distinction by meeting the strictest standards. B-corp labels certify that companies are true to their social, environmental, transparency, and accountability standards among these standards. 

More and more customers look for labels and certifications such as B Corp. But, in general, ethical consumers vote with their wallets, aligning their values to their shopping.

Some retailers have understood that there can be significant growth opportunities as a growing number of shoppers are willing to pay more for goods and services ethically produced. 

4. Recommerce: What is Reverse Commerce?

Retail was built on consumers looking for new products to buy. 

Buying used or second-hand products were reserved for very few industries like the auto industry, but it has never been mainstream. 

That is, until the emergence of Recommerce.

Recommerce, or Reverse Commerce, is one of the most critical trends in Sustainable Retail. It is at the center of the circular economy. 

Recommerce consists of buying and selling second-hand products. 

With the rise of online shopping, second-hand transactions have found an unparalleled growth opportunity. 

The ease and reach of online CtoC commerce has pushed the emergence of online marketplaces focused on Recommerce. 

People can sell products directly to other people on these platforms and even make a living out of them. 

But this trend is nothing new.

Over the last two decades, platforms such as eBay internationally, CraigsList in the US, Wallapop in Spain, or LeBonCoin in France offered C2C transactions of second-hand products. 

But all these platforms weren’t built and designed with a specific focus on the circular economy or Sustainable Retail. 

Over the last few years, some actors have emerged in the Fashion and Electronics industries. 

These new players are offering security and reassurance in the second-hand market. They do this by providing product or seller verification, guarantees, and even in some cases, refurbishing products. 

Back market is a French marketplace that is disrupting the European electronics industry. 

Their brand positioning is based on acquiring or selling refurbished products because they are cheaper but more sustainable. This positioning has quickly resonated with European audiences. 

In the Fashion industry, players like Vinted or Vestiaire Collective are taking full advantage of the circular economy. 

These two marketplaces allow consumers to buy and sell second-hand fashion items. In the same vein as Back Market, their brand positioning is not on finding cheap products but on making the fashion industry more sustainable.

Below is a list of some of our favorite fashion brands pioneers and leaders in sustainable Retail. 

Five Fashion Brands Leading the Way of Sustainable Retail

1. Patagonia: The Pioneers Of Sustainable Activewear

Known best for: Activewear and outerwear for all ages

Key sustainability initiatives: Certified B Corp, Fair Trade Certified, Organic Cotton, 1% for the planet member, environmental initiatives, philanthropy. 

Patagonia is a California-based activewear company.

They have been at the forefront of the environmental movement for a long time. They were among the earliest companies to prioritize sustainable choices in their products. 

Patagonia switched to organic cotton and recycled materials a lot earlier than most fashion brands. 

The company’s activism extends from protecting public lands to halting the climate crisis. It even implemented a “self-imposed Earth tax,” which implies they direct 1% of revenue to nonprofits that protect the environment. 

This “tax” is the basis for the one percent for the planet initiative, launched by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard in 2002. 

The brand has been in the news recently as it joined a growing number of brands boycotting Facebook as an initiative to stop the spread of hate content globally. 

This highlights the company’s stand, which is ready to lose on one of the major traffic acquisition sources to stand on its moral high ground. 

2. Sézane: Curated Apparel For Conscious Consumers

Known best for: Curated Women’s apparel and accessories

Key sustainability initiatives: Ethical labor practices, sustainable materials, recycled packaging, philanthropy, and renewable energy in manufacturing.

Paris-based Sézane creates curated women’s apparel for conscious consumers. 

The brand positioned itself away from fast fashion, releasing only four seasonal collections per year, plus smaller monthly capsule collections. 

Most of the company’s clothing is made with organic cotton, recycled materials, and vegetable-tanned leather. This enables the brand to increase the sustainability of their produced goods and reduce their environmental impact. 

The brand was born as a digital native vertical brand (DNVB), with no intermediaries to drive costs. Instead, materials are sourced with consideration, in particular to the origin and working conditions of the sourcing place. 

The quality and design of the clothing make them pretty much evergreen pieces to be worn with a Parisian-chic attached to them. 

Sézane also helms a philanthropic initiative called DEMAIN, from which it raises money to support a diverse range of charitable organizations. 

3. Veja: Recycled Shoes That Outlast Seasonal Fads

Known best for: Fairtrade footwear for all ages

Key sustainability initiatives: Ethical labor, recycled materials and rubber, transparency regarding carbon impact, and organic cotton.

Veja makes shoes designed to outlast seasonal fads so that they look just as good in ten years as they do today. 

One of Veja’s promises is that each pair of shoes has “one foot in design and the other in social responsibility.” 

The cotton and rubber used to make Veja shoes are sourced directly from producers in Brazil and Peru. 

Those producers use a range of recycled materials made out of 100% recycled plastic bottles. During this process, plastic bottles are collected, turned into flakes, and extruded into polyester fiber. 

Veja also earns top marks for its ethical labor and sustainable retail practices, particularly when outsourcing to other countries and their carbon footprint. 

There is an astounding level of transparency regarding the Veja Project on the brand’s website. 

They explain in detail how all shoes are made in a factory in Brazil, the working conditions in the factory, and the carbon impact of importing their shoes. 

4. Ecoalf: Fashion That Recycles Waste From The Ocean

Known best for: Apparel and footwear from recycled plastic bottles

Key sustainability initiatives: Certified B Corp, recycled materials, water conservation, and the Ecoalf Foundation to remove ocean debris

Ecoalf is a Spanish fashion company with the tagline “Because there is no planet B.” 

This tagline reflects the brand’s commitment to environmental sustainability throughout its vision and values. 

The company uses over 400 recycled fabrics in its product lines to remove debris from the ocean. As a result, its “ocean sneakers” are considered one of the lowest carbon footprints in the market. 

Ecoalf was also Spain’s first fashion company to receive B-Corp certification. 

In 2015, the Ecoalf Foundation was launched to upcycle ocean waste, reflected in their motto.  

The project has collected more than 600 tons of trash from the sea in the past six years. This is a significant action to reduce plastic waste in the ocean. 

5. Pact: Organic, Sustainable, Fairtrade Cotton

Known best for: Apparel for all ages made from fairtrade cotton. 

Key sustainability initiatives: Fair Trade Certified, organic cotton, carbon-offset shipping

Pact is a US brand that refers to itself as “Earth’s Favorite Clothing Company.” 

You could think that this title sets the bar pretty high, yet they manage to meet that bar. 

The brand is careful about every link in its supply chain to meet the highest standards in sustainability. 

Indeed, they control everything from sourcing their organic cotton to the manufacturing of the pieces. On top of it, they also work to offset the carbon footprint of their shipping options. 

They designed their shipping box to be reused to donate your used clothing to nonprofit organizations. This is called the “Give Back Box.” 

Pact also participates in a fair trade movement dedicated to improving lives and protecting natural resources in over 45 countries.  

The company received a Fair Trade certification regarding their manufacturing lines, respect for safe working conditions, and paying living wages. 

Key Takeaways of Sustainable Retail In Fashion

Sustainable Retail in all of its forms is gaining more and more traction with consumers. 

Innovative businesses are taking notes and are adapting, especially in the fashion industry.

The global pandemic is accelerating a shift in the public’s values and priorities, and consumers are looking for transparency from brands. In this sense, a lack of transparency is no longer an option for companies.

Consumers are increasingly expecting social and environmental responsibility from the brands they purchase from. 

As a result, some brands are prioritizing strong values of sustainable Retail. These brands are leading the way, showing that it is possible to have a sustainable business model with strong values.

The ones that do so will pull ahead and survive the waves of change from Ethical Retail. 

Do you want more insights into E-commerce, Omnichannel Retail, and Digital Transformation? Do you want to survive in the ever-volatile retail industry? Subscribe to ApocalypseRetail to get insights sent directly to your inbox. Our content is designed for top business schools, retail managers, and eCommerce entrepreneurs. Subscribe to our newsletter to join the fight against the Retail Apocalypse!

The post Is Sustainable Retail The New Standard For The Fashion Industry? Some trends to Watch in 2022 appeared first on Apocalypse Retail.

Black Friday has become a day that, for many people, symbolizes a celebration of consumerism. It is the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season that has become a landmark event for retailers. 

For some retailers, it comes with increasing profits. For others, it can become a logistical nightmare. 

Their aggressive discounts and promotion strategies send consumers into a frenzy. 

Everyone has seen the pictures of people camping outside stores before opening, and even cases of people trampled by crazed shoppers.

But looking beyond consumer craziness, Black Friday and other mega sales events have been a target of critics for more sustainability in Retail. 

These critics argue that mega sales events encourage excessive and often unnecessary consumption, which has severe environmental and social impacts. 

Let’s look at what mega sales events are, how they started, and how big they have become. We’ll also look at these events’ environmental and social impact and what Black Friday alternatives exist for more ethical consumers. 

Why is it called Black Friday?

The Philadelphia and New York police in the fifties named the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday. 

As a US holiday that occurs on a Thursday, many people would take that Friday off work to have a long Thanksgiving weekend with their families. 

During Thanksgiving, most people exchange gifts, so retailers would stock up in certain products the month before the holiday. 

In the beginning, retailers used Black Friday as an opportunity to clear out excess inventory by discounting it. By clearing out excess inventory, retailers could make room for new products within stores for the Christmas season. 

So it was during the fifties, shoppers began to flock into the city to start their Christmas shopping. 

As consumers gathered in the city to find the most discounted items, the event started requiring more police enforcement. The police had to work longer hours and handle the chaos; they dubbed the Friday after Thanksgiving Black Friday.

But the dynamics of the event have evolved over the years. Black Friday stopped being a stock-clearance event for retailers and started to include high-demand items to attract more shoppers.

On top of this, Retailers started to entice shoppers with more aggressive discounts and significantly increased their advertising of the event. 

It was really in the 1980s that Black Friday became a frenzy in the US. 

People would queue outside department stores for hours or overnight to be the first ones into the shops. Security and law enforcement had their work cut out trying to contain the crowds fighting each other to get their hands on a discounted TV. 

Seeing the potential for increased sales, retailers kept investing in Black Friday, and the trend started spreading worldwide. 

And other mega sales events started popping up.

What are Black Friday Equivalents as mega sales events?

As Black Friday became a staple of American Retail, other mega-sales events started popping up worldwide. In some cases, these events are pushed by a single company or were based in a single country. 

With the rise of e-commerce and a more interconnected Retail, most of these events have become global. 

With Retailers everywhere aiming to take a cut of mega-sales events, some events have become very popular. But there are really three mega-sales events that are comparable to Black Friday in terms of size and reach:

1. Cyber Monday or Black Friday Weekend
2. Singles’ Day or 11-11
3. Prime Day

What is Cyber Monday or Black Friday Weekend?

Cyber Monday happens on the Monday just after Thanksgiving and just after Black Friday.

With the frenzy of Black Friday and the resources it takes in terms of law enforcement and consumer protection, cities have begun regulating Black Friday. 

In some cities, not all stores were allowed all day, and retailers had to follow specific rules for what could be advertised as a Black Friday deal. For example, to be considered as a Black Friday deal, some items needed to have a minimum amount of stock or an unchanged price for some time before the discount. 

The idea was to protect consumers from false advertising. 

But with the rise of online shopping and many stores wanting to avoid the Black Friday crowds’ craziness. 

In 2005, the National Retail Federation in the US officially dubbed Cyber Monday after a trend that retailers began to recognize a few years before. 

Online Retail is not bound by the same constraints of physical Retail to have a limited stock per store or fixed opening hours. 

So Cyber Monday allowed retailers to continue Black Friday deals one more day, with a less stringent regulation as fewer public resources are required. 

Today, most retailers mix deals between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The event has really become a Black Weekend, with sales running for four days.

For some retailers, revenues generated during Black Weekend can concentrate up to 20% of their entire year revenues. So this weekend can literally make or break a year’s performance for these companies. 

Some e-commerce pure players have even started to push deals during the week with what they call Cyber Week, a term that appeared in 2013. 

What is Singles Day or 11-11?

As profitable ideas are quick to spread, other countries started to catch on to the benefits of mega sales events. 

The original idea came from an unofficial holiday in China to celebrate people who are not in a relationship. 

The date was chosen on November 11th as 11-11 as the number 1 symbolizes an individual or a single person. The number 1 also resembles a stick used in Chinese slang to refer to an unmarried person. 

Paradoxically, the date has become a massive event to celebrate weddings and give gifts which have greatly benefited online players such as Alibaba or JD.com. 

This massive online shopping event recently surpassed Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales as the world’s largest mega-sale event. 

With Chinese companies becoming global, the Singles’ Day event has spread to the rest of Asia and elsewhere. 

Companies like Lazada in South East Asia, MediaMarkt in Europe, or Aliexpress (a global arm of Alibaba) have made Singles’ Day campaigns across different countries. 

These companies have pushed to make this event an actual global mega-sale event. 

What is Prime Day?

Amazon has been one of the biggest retailers benefiting from the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. 

But same as any other retailer in the consumer goods industry, Amazon is highly dependent on the holiday season during Q4. 

In 2015, Amazon introduced the concept of Prime Day with a single promise: “Offer Black Friday deals in July” exclusively for members of their loyalty program.

Of course, Prime Day is an opportunity to attract shoppers during the “slow-season” of Retail during the summer. 

It is also a great way to offer an additional incentive for amazon shoppers to subscribe to their loyalty program, Amazon Prime.

But from a strategic standpoint, it has two additional benefits for a company like Amazon. On one side, it allows the company to absorb fixed costs during the off-season as most of the operational structure is under-utilized. On the other side, it is a great way to test new features and processes before the high season. 

Amazon has continued pushing Prime Day sales every year since 2015 and has deployed it in every single country they operate. 

Mega-sales events have become critical dates in global Retail. 

But as consumers become increasingly aware of the impact of mass consumption, many people ask if these events are compatible with more sustainable Retail.

Are mega-sales events compatible with sustainable Retail?

There are critics of Black Friday and other events in some European countries for being “too American.” These critics are easily dismissed, and these events have found many supporters across Europe

But these events are also being criticized as being the flagships of overconsumption. 

Black Friday and mega-sales events are the flagships of overconsumption.

As consumers become more socially responsible, they realize that there is an impact of having mega-sales events. 

It is impossible to separate the environmental cost of mega-sales events from the impact of general overconsumption.

Mega-sales events are built around heavy marketing campaigns and the scarcity factor of limited-time deals. 

You could argue that the entire event is built around pushing consumers to buy items using time-sensitive deals. But, in turn, these deals inevitably promote waste as people buy things they don’t need and unnecessarily use more resources. 

Supporters of mega sales events say that they give people with limited means access to products they wouldn’t otherwise be able to buy. 

They will also argue that Retail companies need these events to clear out stock or reduce dependency on the high season. 

Let’s not forget that this was the reason Black Friday started.

But the reality is that Black Friday has turned into a much bigger event with higher marketing spend and shopper frenzy, far from its original purpose. 

Today, Black Friday has become a race to increase revenues, extending deals as much as possible to promote consumption. 

There is nothing sustainable about overconsumption. 

Black Friday and mega-sales events have a tremendous impact on retail employees.

Black Friday and other mega-sale events are a logistical nightmare. 

For online and offline retailers, preparing for a mega-sale event can take an entire year. 

There is stress involved in preparing for the event. Stress comes from making sure you have the right amount of stock at the right place, pushing aggressive marketing campaigns, and working much longer hours than usual.

But there is also the stress of dealing with frustrated customers, which have even put lives at risk. There have been reports of brawls, fights, and even deaths related to Black Friday in the US, Brazil, or Mexico. 

With the rise of social media, more and more videos surfaced of brawls in 2017 and mall shootings in 2019. 

These events alone are enough to make people question if these mega-sales events are sustainable.

Questions come not only from an environmental point of view but also from a corporate social responsibility standpoint. 

Retailers should ensure the safety of their customers, as well as the security of their employees.

Ensuring customers’ safety has become a challenge during these events, especially during the effects of the Covid19 pandemic, with social distancing guidelines and other public safety measures.

So on top of questions regarding overconsumption, Black Friday and other mega-sales raise questions as public safety hazards. Which in turn raises questions about the sustainability of these events over the long run.

With the pandemic, some of them really thought it was the perfect storm to kill Black Friday once and for all. 

The impact of Covid19 on Black Friday: longer deals and more online shopping

The Covid19 pandemic did have an impact on overall retail sales, forcing the closure of stores.  

Public safety measures inevitably hurt the overall number of shoppers during Thanksgiving weekend. 

But Black Friday remains a huge Retail event worldwide. 

How big was Black Friday 2020? It slowed a bit but remains huge!

Thanksgiving weekend includes the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, including Black Friday. As a result, these five days have become a single mega-sale event worldwide.

According to the National Retail Federation, Thanksgiving weekend attracted 186.4 M shoppers in the US in 2020. This number is down from 189.6 M in 2019 (-1.7% ’20 vs ‘19), but up from 165.8 M in 2018 (+12.7% ’20 vs ’18).

In terms of revenues, Thanksgiving weekend totaled $58.1B in 2020. This number is down from $68.6B in 2019 (-15% ’20 vs ‘19), but up from $51.9B in 2018 (+11.9% ’20 vs ’18).

So, it becomes clear that in 2020 the growth of Black Friday was slowed by the pandemic. But the reality is that most consumption instead transferred online, with a massive increase in e-commerce sales during the pandemic.

The Covid19 has far from killed Black Friday; instead, it has transformed it.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are becoming global events for online shopping.

The covid19 pandemic had a negative impact by slightly reducing the number of shoppers in the US in 2020. But it had another significant effect on how these shoppers made their holiday purchases. 

According to the NRF, online shoppers during Thanksgiving weekend in the US increased by 44% in 2020 compared to 2019. If you consider only Black Friday, the number of online shoppers during this particular event surpassed 100 M for the first time ever.

If we analyze Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers globally, online players are evidently thriving during mega sales events. 

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon totaled $4.8B in Gross Merchandise Value globally, up 60% from 2019. Another player that thrived was Shopify which racked up to $5.1B in Gross Merchandise Value globally, up 75% from 2019.

The interesting part about Shopify is that the company generated triple-digit growth in European countries where Black Friday has been most criticized. Shopify sales grew in Italy +211%, Germany +189%, and UK +122%

Interest for Black Friday in 2020 varied globally

Perhaps one of the best ways to measure where Black Friday has the most strength is by looking at online searches.

According to Semrush, Black Friday’s global interest varied considerably between countries. 

Online searches for Black Friday-related keywords grew by +34% in countries like the US and Australia, with a peak growth in searches in Brazil, where it reached +48% in 2020. 

On the other hand, interest in Black Friday seems to be stalling in European countries. The countries where interest for Black Friday dropped the most were Germany, France, and Spain, where searches dropped by -16%, -4%, and -2%, respectively.  

Covid19 transformed how traditional retailers addressed the pandemic.

Giant retailers with physical stores used the opportunity in 2020 to change how they operated during Black Friday. 

To promote public safety and limit the number of people in stores, retailers like Walmart, Target, or Home Depot made significant changes to their black Friday deals. 

Instead of concentrating on a single weekend, they pushed for month-long deals or divided into smaller sales events during the season. 

These companies, which have many shoppers visiting their brick-and-mortar stores, worked to offer a safer shopping experience. 

The main changes from brick-and-mortar retailers during Black Friday 2020 included: 

• longer opening hours, 
• limiting the number of shoppers per store, 
• promoting curbside pick-up
• making deals available for several days to avoid in-store congestion. 

Walmart, for example, divided Black Friday 2020 into three separate events and opened their stores at 5 am during these events. As a result, the campaign was called “deals for days.” 

So, the reality is that big Retailers are moving away from Black Friday, but not because of corporate social responsibility. Instead, they are moving away from Black Friday to reduce the risk of a single concentrated event which has become a logistical nightmare. 

How big are Singles day and Prime Day?

Short answer: they are huge, and they keep growing.

In 2020, all the major players involved in these events broke records in terms of gross merchandise value and the number of products sold. 

During Single’s Day 2020, Alibaba and JD.com made more than $115B in revenues, with Alibaba making $74B (+26% vs. 2019) and JD.com making $41B (+33% vs. 2019). At the height of the event, a record number of 583k orders per second were recorded. 

Yes, you read these numbers correctly. In 2020, these two companies alone generated more volume than the entire US Retail thanksgiving weekend 2020 combined! 

During Prime Day 2021, which was held at the end of June, Amazon totaled $11.9B worldwide, up 7.6% from 2020. To give a sense of the event’s magnitude, the company founded by Jeff Bezos shipped more than 250M items during Prime Day 2021.

In other words, the global volume for Prime Day 2021 was almost 2.5x as big for Amazon as thanksgiving weekend 2020. Very few companies can create a global mega-sale event of their own and make it even bigger than Black Friday. 

Despite the environmental and health concerns, 2020 Mega-sales events broke records worldwide. 

One could even argue that despite a slight decrease in foot traffic in 2020 due to the pandemic, Black Friday and other mega-sales events are bigger than ever.

And forecasts for 2021 predict an even higher volume as consumers are flocking back to the stores.

But if we consider searches related to Black Friday, keywords related to sustainable black Friday alternatives are increasing sharply. 

According to Semrush, online searches for “shop sustainably” and related terms grew by an average of over 650% between 2020 and 2019. 

It seems that consumers are more interested than ever in looking for Black Friday Alternatives. So, what can consumers do?

Brands are offering Black Friday alternatives to answer consumer interest in sustainable shopping.

It’s clear that when consumers start to care about something, brands follow. 

A 2019 survey from Hotwire found that 47% of internet users worldwide claimed to have switched to a different product or service because the company that made them violated their values.

In this sense, brands worldwide embrace the rising consumer interest in Sustainable Shopping, which illustrates a significant shift in consumer behavior. 

To attract a more environmentally conscious consumer, certain brands are launching Black Friday alternatives. 

Some of these alternatives can be considered as pure green-washing campaigns. 

Companies are readjusting their strategies instead of competing during Black Friday, which is a logistical nightmare and has high traffic-acquisition costs. 

Some companies argue it’s driven by a mission to stop hyper-consumerism as flash deals often lead to rushed purchase decisions. 

But these companies are not stopping sales. They are making longer, less aggressive deals, benefiting their bottom line while getting great PR

True hardcore sustainability stems from only buying what we need and then making good use of it for as long as possible. 

This makes it challenging to balance the temptation for increasing sales with taking environmental actions.

We have selected a few alternatives that seem to stick true to the core values of retail sustainability: environmental and social responsibility.

5 Black Friday alternatives to empower ethical shoppers

First and foremost, we understand the best alternative to black Friday is simply to not purchase anything during that period. 

But since it is just before the holiday season, chances are you are looking for gifts to give, or maybe for items you need.

Here are what we think are the Black Friday Alternatives for sustainable shopping available today. If you have any other, don’t hesitate to tell us! 

1. Buy Nothing Day

As we just said previously, an authentic hardcore approach to sustainable shopping would be to boycott Black Friday entirely. And not just Black Friday, but all mega-sales events during the year which promote hyper-consumerism.

In this sense, the most obvious alternative to Black Friday is simply to buy nothing on that day.

This movement was born in 1992 in Vancouver, Canada, which has since spread to multiple countries in Europe and America. 

On their website, they argue that “The simplest way to celebrate is, of course, to avoid making any purchases on the day. That means dodging the Black Friday sales, no quick trips to the grocery store, no online purchases, etc. “

The passive approach is simply to buy nothing on Black Friday. Still, the Collective has since taken a more militant approach to organizing protests to draw attention to overconsumption.

They have organized credit card cut-ups, where participants stand with scissors on shopping malls, cutting credit cards as a sign of protest. Another creative form of protest is what they describe as the zombie walk, where participants wander around in stores with a blank stare.

2. Recommerce: making retail circular 

Recommerce or Reverse Commerce is a significant trend impacting Retail today. It can basically be summed up as purchasing (or selling) second-hand items. 

Over the past years, certain online players have grown tremendously by allowing customers to sell or purchase their second-hand items. 

Within the fashion industry, players like Vinted or Vestiaire Collective in Europe have demonstrated the true potential of second-hand fashion.

In other industries, some players have taken reverse commerce to the next level. Companies like Craigslist, LeBonCoin in France, or Wallapop in Spain allow millions of transactions of second-hand items from almost any kind.

Finally, other companies have taken full advantage of the refurbishing business model to offer a second life to pre-used items.

A company like BackMarket offers refurbished electronics items to tackle waste in the electronics industry. 

In the car industry, companies like Carvana, Cazoo, or Kavak are refurbishing used cars to extend their life and offer a more sustainable alternative to buying new cars. 

The concept of ReCommerce is not really something new, but with the help of technology, it can reach new heights. 

Sin 1989, the concept of ReCommerce was already at the heart of protests and support songs. 

In the words of Pete Singer in his song to support environmental policies in the city of Berkley in 1989: “If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled, or composted. Then it should be restricted, redesigned, or removed from production.”

3. Brands donating proceeds during Black Friday

Eco-friendly veterans, Patagonia, have long fought against the linear economy. Instead, they design products using recycled plastic and repair and resell used goods to stop them from landfills. 

Patagonia was a pioneer in pushing back against the consumerism of Black Friday. Their viral campaign told consumers “Don’t buy this jacket” back in 2011, reminding people only to buy what they needed.

Five years later, Patagonia notoriously committed to donating 100% of their Black Friday sales to grassroots environmental organizations worldwide, which ended up being $10 million, over five times their original estimation. 

Patagonia has been involved in these kinds of actions for a long time. The founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and the founder of Blue Ribbon Flies, Craig Mathews, started the 1% for the Planet initiative back in 2002. 

The initiative aims to prevent greenwashing and certify donations that effectively go to protecting the environment. The 1% for the Planet certification is given to businesses and individuals that donate 1% of annual turnover or salary to environmental causes

4. Brands closing stores and telling consumers to #OptOutside

Another outdoor goods manufacturer, REI, has also been battling Black Friday for many years now. 

They close their stores so that their employees can spend the day after Thanksgiving with their families and encourage shoppers to join in the #optoutside campaign. 

The idea is to spend this mega sales day enjoying the outdoors instead of giving in to the temptation of compulsive shopping. 

Even if the campaign was initially created for Black Friday, the #OptOutside hashtag has been used frequently on Instagram with over 18M posts. 

Another brand that took a decisive stance against Black Friday is the US skincare brand Deciem. 

During Black Friday 2019, the company closed all its stores and blacked out its website with a message saying: “We no longer feel comfortable being involved in a single day so heavily focused around hyper-consumerism.”

The brand became known for its stance promoting slow shopping, making less aggressive deals during more extended periods to remove the element of time pressure. In turn, they argue their customers have time to shop more mindfully.

5. Make Friday Green Again Collective

As a response to the environmental impact of Black Friday, there are also European initiatives like the Make Friday Green Again collective. 

The Collective is a group of 400+ retailers and e-commerce players in Europe committed to making Black Friday environmentally friendly. The movement is the brainchild of Nicolas Rohr, one of the co-founders of eco-friendly clothing company Faguo. 

All members decided to opt-out of Black Friday discounts. These encourage consumers to buy on impulse instead of what they need. 

Instead, their campaign aims to make consumers think about their clothes’ environmental impact during their whole life cycle. 

Their message was to use Black Friday not to shop but rather as a day to review our closet to see what we can still use, recycle, repair, or resell. 

This way, we make sure we extend the life of our existing clothes before giving in to the temptation of significant discounts. 

Many of the brands that collaborate with them are moving from fast to “slow fashion” or “slow shopping. They educate consumers to buy fewer items but of better quality and more responsibly made.

There is an undeniable rising interest in sustainable shopping. With more and more consumers asking questions about what they’re buying, who they’re buying it from, and their values, retailers can benefit from taking note.

Nevertheless, it is also clear that Black Friday and other mega-sales events are still a massive deal for the global retail industry. 

Some brands are making small, superficial efforts to make their overall campaigns more sustainable to answer consumer demands. Other smaller, more militant brands are taking measures to the next level to educate consumers and boycott Black Friday. 

Only time will tell how consumer interest varies over time and if the rising critics to mega-sales events make Black Friday finally stumble. 

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