The Best Online Stores for Sustainable & Ethical Fashion – GWC Mag

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It’s not always easy to be a sustainable shopper. While the ethical retail space has greatly improved over the years, greenwashing still runs rampant, and it can be hard to know if a brand is as sustainable as it seems. Sometimes, you just want a simple online shopping experience without doing research on every brand that catches your eye. 

Enter: sustainable online shops. These digital marketplaces carefully curate a selection of ethical and environmentally-conscious brands, and often even sort them for you by their sustainable values. The best sustainable stores dive deep into each brand’s supply chain, materials, and certifications to make sure everyone meets their standards before sharing them with their customers. 

While shopping through sustainable marketplaces is easier, it’s still important to pay attention and make intentional choices. Here are a few things to look for:

Rigorous Brand Criteria: Look for online shops that have a multi-faceted set of standards that include material sourcing, fair wages and supply chain transparency, and chemical use. Check to see if it works closely with their brands to make sure they’re adhering to its standards. These shops often visit their factories and workshops and look for third-party certifications such as GOTS and Oeko-Tex to verify the brands’ claims. 

Value System: Some sustainable online marketplace organize their brands by their ethical attributes. This allows you to shop by your values, such as POC-owned or organic materials, and can help you avoid synthetics. 

Shipping & Packaging: Many online shops let brands take care of their own shipping to reduce emissions. If the shop does ship itself, check to see if it uses recyclable or compostable packaging. 

 

What we love: This slow and ethical online marketplace encourages slow living by promoting upcoming conscious brands. Its slow and ethical index ensures all products were made transparently and ethically, and makes it easy to shop by your values. It updates its selection of sustainable, timeless, and affordable goods daily. Each brand ships directly to the customer to avoid extra emissions. 

Shop: Women’s and men’s apparel, accessories, jewelry, purses, shoes, cosmetics, and home goods.

Price Range: Super wide. $20-$550 for clothing, $5-$2,054 for accessories, jewelry, and purses, $45-285 for shoes, $7-94 for cosmetics, $5-$390 for home goods. 

Available in: Worldwide, depending on individual brand capabilities. Check each product page for more information. 

 

What we love: This certified B-Corp fosters a community of environmentally-conscious brands. It vets its brands through its five-criteria sourcing methodology to make sure all of its quality products are responsible and sustainable. You can shop by values, including organic materials and ingredients, responsibly certified brands, and fair labor. It recycles any extra packaging from brands to reduce waste before it ships products. 

Shop: Women’s, men’s, and children’s apparel and accessories, home goods, pets, travel, cosmetics, and tech. 

Price Range: Fairly affordable. $9-$165 for clothing and accessories, $2-$1,109 for home goods, $5-$50 for pets, $2-$190 for travel, $2-$84 for cosmetics, $20-$150 for tech. 

Available in: The U.S.

 

What we love: Made Trade selects only hand-designed and ethically-made goods that prioritize people and the planet. It verifies sustainability by making sure all products adhere to at least two of its eight values, which you can filter its selection through to shop by your own ethos. 

Shop: Women’s, men’s, and children’s apparel, home goods and furniture, and accessories. 

Price Range: Pretty wide. $20-$520 for clothing, $8-$6,185 for home goods and furniture, $19-$575 for accessories 

Available in: United States 

 

What we love: This luxury retail platform hosts ethical and sustainable brands that prioritize the environment. Most of its designers are independently owned, and use primarily natural, organic, and upcycled fibers. Reve En Vert checks to make sure each brand pays living wages and avoids harmful chemicals. 

Shop: Women’s apparel, cosmetics, accessories, home goods, baby’s, and gifts. 

Price Range: Upscale. $30-$1,484 for clothing, $16-$275 for cosmetics, $68-$21,450 for accessories, $14-230 for baby’s, $6-$21,450 for gifts. 

Available in: Worldwide, depending on individual brand capabilities. Check each product page for more information. 

 

What we love: Staiy evaluates its organic brands and designers based on its five sustainability pillars, including air, water, materials, supply chain, and working conditions. It conducts thorough interviews with each one, and digs deeper into their sustainable practices on its blog. It hosts a large selection of GOTS-certified products, and all of its children’s and baby products are Oeko-Tex-certified. You can shop by values such as plastic-free and toxin-free. 

Shop: Women’s, men’s, gender-neutral, and children’s apparel, cosmetics, and home goods. 

Price Range: Super wide. $4-$1,683 for clothing, $6-$180 for cosmetics, $5-$2,539 for home goods.

Available in: Most Countries

 

What we love: The Folklore Group is a commerce company that empowers African designers. Its online shopping platform, Folklore Marketplace, connects customers with diverse and sustainable brands and retailers. It fosters close and long-term relationships with its partner brands, and promotes inclusivity while helping develop streamlined supply chains. 

Shop: Women’s and Men’s apparel, accessories, cosmetics, and home goods. 

Price Range: Upscale. $30-$3,215 for clothing, $56-$1,428 for accessories, $13-$85 for cosmetics, $85-$185 for home goods. 

Available in: Globally, depending on the brand. 

 

What we love: This nonprofit organization fights economic disparity by hosting handcrafted goods from makers around the world. Its home to over 75 artisan partner groups, 60% of which are women, and encourages upcycled and locally sourced materials. It establishes long-term relationships with its artisans and visits their workshops to ensure they earn living wages in safe conditions. 

Shop: Home goods, accessories, and gifts. 

Price Range: Fairly affordable. $5-$225 for home goods, $5-$325 for accessories, $4-$295 for gifts. 

Available in: The U.S.

 

What we love: This BIPOC-owned online marketplace was founded and curated by celebrity stylist Dechel Mckillian. She highlights unique designers who use sustainable and environmentally-conscious production methods. 

Shop: Women’s and men’s apparel, accessories, and cosmetics.  

Price Range: Mid-range. $97-$425 for clothing, $109-$145 for accessories, $8-$32 for cosmetics

Available in: United States and Canada 

 

What we love: This ethical marketplace carefully evaluates partners to make sure they have transparent supply chains, pay fair wages, and use natural, recycled, and innovative materials. You can shop by values, such as synthetic-free and handmade by artisans, and its packaging is made with recycled materials.

Shop: Women’s and men’s apparel and accessories. 

Price Range: Fairly affordable. $5-$265 for clothing, $15-$75 for accessories. 

Available in: United States, U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Most Asian Countries, Most European Countries, Brazil, and Canada. 

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