Fast Fashion: Online Shoppers

Online Shopping

Online shopping has transformed the retail landscape, perhaps accelerated by the COVID pandemic. In June 2020, global retail e-commerce traffic reached a record 22 billion monthly visits and a staggering $26.7 trillion in sales. The uptick in online shopping has stressed global supply chains, and it has also impacted the environment due to the excessive packaging. Packaging contributes in large part to CO2 emissions from producing plastics, polluting ecosystems as well as adding enormous amounts of waste to our landfills. 3 billion trees are pulped yearly to produce 241 million tons of shipping cartons, the forest conservation group Canopy found. And of the 86 million tons of plastic packaging produced globally each year, not even 14% is recycled. Shipping also takes an environmental toll, especially fast shipping, where products are often shipped out as available, rather than in a group. In 2020, shipping and returns accounted for 37% of the total GHG emissions - a figure that is likely to increase over the next decade. Returns are crucial in this increase: return rates, especially of fashion items, have skyrocketed, exceeding 30% of all purchased goods. A study on consumers’ behaviour showed that 79% of consumers want free return shipping and 92% of them are likely to buy again if the items they purchase are easy to return. Cardboard boxes from shipping have increased. The good news is that most of this makes it to the recycling bin. Still, 10% of cardboard - 350,000 tons - winds up in landfills. Also, cardboard fibers get shorter with recycling, so they can only go through 5-7 recycling loops before the fibers become too short to bond. 

"While buying online was initially a way to find the best deals, with innovation and technology, e-commerce has turned into a fast machine conceived to satisfy more and more consumers’ demands and expectations. In September 2021, several industry groups representing over 65 million transport workers wrote an open letter to heads of state at the United Nations General Assembly, warning that, if this trend continues to grow at the same rate, global transport systems are going to collapse. "

Martina Igini, "The Truth About Online Shopping and Its Environmental Impact"

Buy Now Pay Later

Many fast fashion brands come with the easy option of buying now and paying later, through services like Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal, Sezzle, and Zip. Research shows that this generation is spending 925% more through point-of-sale services now than they did in January 2020 and according to data from Afterpay, 73% of this is spent on fashion. A Credit Karma survey that 42% of Americans had used BNPL services at least once, 38% had missed a payment, and as a result, 73% of those who missed a payment saw their credit score drop. Another recent survey found that on average, young Americans take $103.16 from budgets intended for a monthly food shop to make clothing purchases only to be worn for Instagram and TikTok.