Lyst sees eco search surge, resale also on the rise

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 14, 2019

We’re constantly being told that eco issues and sustainability are becoming increasingly important to consumers, especially the young, and global fashion search giant Lyst has come up with some evidence to support that view. It said this week that searches for eco/sustainable products are rising sharply.

The company said ‘vegan fashion’ searches have risen 119% since October and accounted for 9.3 million+ social impressions. Overall, sustainable fashion searches have gone up 66% since last year with the sustainability focus also drawing ethical issues into its remit. Searches for words like ‘econyl’ and ‘ethical brands’ have been rising.

‘Organic cotton’ searches have risen, but only by 16%, although ‘sustainable denim’ is up 187%, which seems to justify the big investment brands and retailers are putting into this product area at the moment (at the budget end of the market, Primark launched a new eco jeans line only this week).

Lyst is a powerful bellwether to see where search trends are heading as 80 million shoppers started their fashion search journey on the platform in the last year and it used 100 million+ actual searches to track the movements in sustainability interest.

“From the most wanted green products to inspiring icons that are moving the needle, [the] data reveals how the search for a more sustainable wardrobe has been pushing us to do better,” the company said.

And it expects 10% of all fashion purchases made via its platform to have a sustainability angle by as early as next year as brands invest more in meeting consumer demands for more eco/ethical products.

Brands have benefited from links with other labels known for their sustainability credentials with searches for Adidas Stan Smith trainers up 21% in the six months after Stella McCartney’s vegetarian Stan Smiths launched last year. They were top of the search chart for sustainable trainers on the platform and benefited both the Adidas and McCartney brands.

Interestingly too, sustainability hasn’t only been focused on newly-made products with traffic to luxury resale sites growing 329% via Lyst in the last year.

Pre-owned brands in demand include Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci in the top three spots, followed by Hermès, Prada, Dior, Celine, and Burberry. Consumers are spending an average of between $500 and $1,000 per purchase when buying these brands secondhand.