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The UK lockdown saw a shift with British consumers’ behaviour, The Independent reported that Brits would be willing to pay £3,654 more a year for eco-friendly household goods and services. A further group of 2,000 adults said they would spend 12 percent more on sustainable items on top of the annual household expenses of approximately £30,000. The pandemic not only impacted the way we treat our bodies, but the way we treat the world too.
You only have to spend a bit of time researching about the products we use on a daily basis to understand how they’ve contributed negatively to the Earth today. Because of this, 45% of UK shoppers are buying sustainable products. Consumers are swapping out non-recyclable items for higher quality refillable products to reduce waste and carbon footprint.
That’s what Imogen Minoli and Ed Davies were trying to figure out back in 2017 when they launched Wearth London, an online marketplace building a greener future. From a consumer perspective, it was simply really difficult to find brands that created eco-friendly products. After months of research, they realised that it wasn’t that the brands weren’t there, it was that they weren’t well known.
In a company blog post, Jack McKenna of Rust and Fray, openly expressed the marketing challenges small sustainable brands suffer from. As an eco-friendly label, specialising in upcycling fashion, the market for them is becoming saturated and dominated by the big players such as Everlane and Reformation, which leaves little room for the smaller brands to make their mark. However, in a world where 60% of fabric fibres are synthetics derived from fossil fuels, and 85% of textile waste in the US goes to landfills, we’re relying on these small brands to influence long term change.
Wearth London was created to help conscious consumers by being the go-to destination for all things eco-friendly, whilst providing an active pool of buyers to independent brands. In just four short years, Wearth has grown to stock over 250 eco-brands (70% being UK-based) in several categories including zero-waste, fashion, beauty and home. Companies like 8.7 Living, a reusable product brand, and Stidston Studio, an eco-friendly clothing and swimwear brand, all benefit from Wearth’s 110,000 social media followers and 210,000 blog subscribers.
Not to mention the press the company has been able to bring to their group of niche brands. Wearth has been featured in Elle Decoration, Financial Times, Vegan Food and Country Living to name a few. Vogue’s Fashion Editor-at-large, Julia Sarr-Jamois, proudly included the Wearth-stocked brand, Clean Natured, as one of her favourite sustainable brands, linking to their Wearth London store page.
To date, Wearth London has made £1.8 million in sales, selling over 180,000 products in the UK. Customers are loving the company too, as proven by their 4.77 average on REVIEWS.io with over 1,379 reviews. Minoli and Davies are now ready to take the next leap and bring their community with them, with a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs. Wearth London are currently raising £150,013 with the aim of boosting their marketing strategy through paid and organic channels, growing their team to align with company growth plans and developing a new enterprise level website.
Their plans will not only help their brands get the recognition they deserve, it’ll also allow them to educate as many people as possible about why going green is the new black.
To learn more about Wearth London, visit the pitch.
