Which is more damaging to the environment, buying clothes online or in a physical store?

Ten years ago, buying clothes online was something that only the brave did. Shipping costs were high, and free returns were a rarity. The data shows how things have changed in just a decade. According to Modaes’ 2023 Report on Online Fashion in Spain, only 8.8% of consumers had made the least one fashion purchase through the online channel in 2013. In 2022, after a rise during the pandemic, the proportion stood at 46.7%.

Even so, the fact that in 2021 that share was 46.8% may allude to a certain stagnation, accompanied by the return to physical stores that occurred after the end of the Covid-19 restrictions. With data and news that are warning about the environmental impact of electronic commerce, many people are also choosing to go to a physical store as a more sustainable option. However, is this always the case?

The answer is a big “it depends,” in which multiple factors must be taken into account, above all the question of whether what we buy is new or second-hand. Daniel Pinto Pajares, professor of the Master in e-Commerce at the International University of La Rioja (Spain), exemplifies it in the following way: “A second-hand product that arrives from Germany to Spain requires transportation that emits more greenhouse gases than what the transport of a brand-new garment purchased three blocks from my house can emit. But be careful: that garment bought in my neighborhood may originally come from Bangladesh, while the second-hand garment bought in Germany is a product of domestic German manufacturing. In this case, which item is more polluting?”

The bad thing about online shopping: emissions, packaging, and returns

The most often cited drawback with online shopping is the emissions generated by transportation. It’s not that physical stores don’t have this problem — the clothes, after all, have to come from somewhere — but delivering 60 products to one store is not the same as delivering them from home to home. When it comes to selling lots of the same product, the physical store would be the most sustainable option.

“There are many companies that are sustainable for that last mile. For example, those that use bicycle delivery, but they are not the majority. Home delivery creates traffic congestion and an unfair distribution to cities, which in the end are configured for people to get around by car and so that goods can come and go easily,” explains Celia Ojeda, director of the Biodiversity Area of Greenpeace Spain. If you want to be less polluting when you purchase online, she points out, it is better to opt for delivery at a collection point than at home.

The urgency and speed with which we expect our packages to arrive is also a problem. Gema Gómez, director of Slow Fashion Next, mentions that these rapid deliveries mean that logistics cannot be organized well. “Many of these trucks are not optimized and the packages are far too big for such a tiny product inside. The increase in e-commerce is increasing CO2 emissions in cities by approximately 20% annually. We are directly affecting air quality and our health by relying on deliveries from virtually empty trucks,” she says.

Aggressive campaigns and free returns also encourage many people to buy clothes with the intention of returning them. “People buy three sizes, try them on at home and return the ones that don’t fit,” says Gómez, who adds that on Black Friday, for example, 50% of the clothes purchased online are returned (it’s usually 30%). Returns not only mean more emissions on the way back, but many of those clothes immediately end up in landfills.

Another aspect in which physical stores beat online commerce is packaging. “Many products come in packaging, whether they were bought at a physical store or online. But the packaging, like the typical cardboard box in which we receive our deliveries at home, is not part of the shopping experience at a physical store. At the very most, the store will offer the customer a paper or plastic bag,” explains Daniel Pinto Pajares. Although we must not forget that, since we have to pay for a bag in almost every establishment, out of environmental awareness, many customers choose to bring their own bag and take the product home without needing a fresh one.

When the only sustainable alternative is online

With everything said so far, it might seem that buying clothes online is always worse than doing so in a physical store, but this comparison can only be made if we are talking about the same garment from the same store. If the only physical option we have on hand is a fast fashion chain, it will never be better than buying online from a sustainable brand.

“Online shopping has opened up a world of possibilities and brings us closer to alternative consumption that does not exist in our city,” says Celia Ojeda. “There are many small brands that cannot sustain themselves by putting their products in physical stores because they simply do not produce at that level. For them, online sales are what allows them to reach their consumers,” Ojeda adds. “I would always choose the sustainable fashion brand, even if it is online,” agrees Gema Gómez.

All the experts interviewed insist that the issue cannot be raised by demonizing one way of shopping over the other. “We cannot answer 100% clearly about which is more or less sustainable. I believe that the most important thing in these issues is that consumers have extensive knowledge at hand about the product cycle. In other words, how and where it was produced, under what working conditions, what the journey was from the origin to the points of sale, how the raw material was obtained, etc.,” reflects Daniel Pinto.

If we are truly seeking sustainability, we need to change the system of consumption. “We must encourage local consumption, and consume what we have nearby. Also, always try to repair or buy secondhand. If I consume what I have nearby, repair what I already own, or trade it with local people, that helps me reduce the footprint of online shopping that I also do from time to time,” says Celia Ojeda. Because compulsively buying online from sustainable brands or on secondhand apps doesn’t fix anything either.

Online commerce, they warn, encourages mindless consumption, when the ideal would be to slow down and buy less. “You click and buy. Maybe the idea of shopping at a store makes you think you have to go there, you have to try out the product, and you have to think more,” adds Ojeda. “More than half of 20 to 35-year-olds currently have five items of clothing in their closet that they have never worn. You have to give much more life to each garment to help offset its footprint.”

Small sustainable fashion brands are also aware of the impact of online shopping, so in many cases they are also thinking about ways to reduce their footprint. As an example, Gema Gómez gives the Entregasostenible.org movement, which according to its website, seeks to “value all e-commerce committed to sustainability and encourage conscious decision-making by the consumer.”

There are also initiatives to save on packaging and ensure that it is truly recyclable and some companies that try to reduce the impact of the last mile as much as possible by using electric vehicles. Although, as Daniel Pinto recalls, they usually only talk about the benefits of this type of vehicle and not that “manufacturing and disposing of their batteries is also very polluting.”

Therefore, the answer lies in thinking carefully about each purchase. “It is also important to support the nascent modern system [of sustainable fashion]. If the sustainable seller can’t have physical stores right now, don’t hesitate to buy from them online,” says Gema Gómez. But only after you have decided that this new garment is really necessary. “The most sustainable garment is the one you already have in your closet,” concludes Celia Ojeda.

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