The Iconic has a more sustainable product assortment compared to its sister marketplaces, according to parent company Global Fashion Group (GFG).
In its recently released Sustainability Report 2022, GFG found the ANZ marketplace has a sustainable product assortment of 13%, with Zalora in South East Asia (SEA) at 9%, and Dafiti in Latin American (LATAM) at 3%.
This is because The Iconic had a one-year head start, GFG chief sustainability officer Jaana Quaintance-James says.
In early 2019, The Iconic launched its first ‘sustainable shopping edit’ - an assortment that allows customers to shop by their own personal sustainability values. This was then followed by Zalora and Dafiti in 2020.
Quaintance-James says The Iconic is further along the journey towards sustainable assortment in both product development and consumer demand.
“With the extra time in-market compared to other regions, ANZ continues to draw a higher share of Net Merchandise Value (NMV) from sustainable assortment,” she says.
GFG’s sustainable assortment metric covers products confirmed to meet at least one credential in its ‘sustainable materials’ and ‘eco-production’ categories that make up part of its sustainable shopping edits.
“For example, our Considered edit in ANZ includes seven categories (Sustainable Materials, Eco-production, Fair production, Animal friendly, Community Engagement, Clean Beauty and Circular by Design), made up of 45 individual criteria,” Quaintance-James explains.
“Recognising that sustainability means different things to different people, and positive change can be created in many ways, customers can filter products by the criteria that mean the most to them.”
The sustainable assortment covers both third-party and owned brands, with each individual product being assessed against a sustainable edit criteria, based on information supplied by, and validated with, third-party sources.
“Some brands’ whole range is included in our sustainable assortment, while others have just a selection of their products included,” Quaintance-James says. “We want to recognise and celebrate every brand on their sustainability and ethical sourcing journey, no matter what stage they’re at.”
The Iconic also increased its share of ‘preferred materials’ in its own brands by increasing the internal capacity and expertise of internal teams through materials and sourcing workshops.
According to GFG’s latest sustainability report, ANZ reached 26% of its own brand using preferred materials in 2022. It added that its ANZ and SEA markets are working towards an "aligned sourcing strategy" of directly sourcing materials and fabric consolidation, "to better address the root causes of the challenges we face in accessing preferred materials in a scalable way."
Quaintance-James confirms this, adding that it goes well beyond fabric and materials.
“We are evaluating our entire own-brand supply chain and developing a proactive, holistic, and continuous evaluation and re-evaluation of all of our sourcing activities within our organisation,” she says. “We are working towards achieving the lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while minimising supply chain risk.
“Looking at our business across regions will create opportunities for consolidation at both vendor and mill levels. Ultimately, this will help us to create value and achieve our business objectives.”
In a nutshell, Quaintance-James says this is a new way of working.
“A centralised sourcing function has already been created, which includes a dedicated fabric team based out of our Guangzhou, China office,” she says.
“A lot of progress has already been made with regards to improving supply chain transparency through our nominated fabric process.”
The ultimate goal from all of this, according to Quaintance-James, is for GFG to reach a 60% sustainable assortment by 2030, with these products made from lower-impact materials and/or eco-production methods.
Quaintance-James says GFG will achieve this by working with brands to understand customer expectations and preferences around sustainability, and encouraging these brands to provide products that match these expectations and preferences - this also includes via its own-brands.
She says this can transform the fashion industry and, “through a more sustainable assortment, make less impactful shopping mainstream.”
“As GFG continues to develop the logic that defines a 'lower impact' product, the criteria is becoming much more complex and therefore reducing opportunities for greenwashing and false claims.
“Through a tighter set of sustainability credentials relying on third party certification and recognisable standards to verify a 'more sustainable' product, GFG is able to engage with brands and communicate the increasing demand for verified sustainable assortments."
The Iconic goes pre-loved
In a separate but related update, The Iconic recently launched a pre-loved product assortment in October 2022, through two handpicked marketplace partners - Azura Rebron and The Real Deal.
According to Quaintance-James, Azura Reborn sells a curated selection of pre-loved luxury goods, primarily handbags, from international designers, while The Real Deal offers a selection of vintage clothing, with a focus on streetwear styles.
With the launch in ANZ, GFG now sells pre-loved in eight countries across its three core regions.
“As pre-loved is a new category for us in ANZ, this initial phase is very much a learning exercise as we develop this part of our business,” Quaintance-James says. “We’re looking at how best to manage practical issues such as authentication of products, listing of one-off items and the returns process for second-hand products.
“At the same time, we’re building an understanding of the types of pre-loved products that most interest our customers.”
She says the response from customers has so far been positive. This is seen in interest through wishlisting items, as well as sales in line with company expectations and feedback.
“Pre-loved is one part of GFG’s strategy designed to contribute to a circular fashion system,” she says. “Our 2030 target is for 40% of sold units from fashion assortment to be made in line with circular criteria (recycled, repaired, pre-loved, circular design).”