How to Communicate Sustainability: From the Corporate Web to E-Commerce. The Case of the Fashion Industry

Patricia Sanmiguel,Silvia Pérez-Bou,Pedro Mir-Bernal,Teresa Sádaba

doi:10.3390/su132011363

Patricia Sanmiguel, Silvia Pérez-Bou + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011363

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Oct 14, 2021
Citations: 12	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidad Publica de Navarra

Abstract

Sustainability strategy at companies has become a key business and management aspect for the development and success of an enterprise. The communication of strategies and actions relating to sustainability has become increasingly important for both companies and brands. This research studies the communication process that forms part of the sustainable strategy of fashion companies, ranging from the corporate website to e-commerce, and it proposes improvements for sustainability communication. Two new models are presented: the Operational Model for Evaluating Fashion Corporate Websites (OMEFCW) and the Operational Model for Evaluating Fashion E-Commerce (OMEFeC), based on the core dimensions of online sustainability communication (orientation, structure, ergonomics and content—OSEC), as established by Siano. In order to obtain an optimal view of the fashion industry, four corporate groups—two luxury fashion groups (Kering Group and Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH)) and two fast fashion groups (H&M Group and Intidex)—are compared. In addition, all of the e-commerce operations of the groups’ fashion brands are analyzed, a total of 32 brands. The results show that it is necessary to continue improving in terms of the communication of sustainability within the fashion industry, whilst demonstrating the great deficiency that exists regarding the communication of sustainability in the case of the brands’ e-commerce operations, which are precisely the web pages most visited by consumers.

Highlights

IntroductionVarious studies analyze the importance of communicating companies’ sustainability strategy to the different stakeholders that make up a company [1,3,4,5,6]
The sustainability strategy at companies has become an essential part of the vision and mission of a company given that sustainability is a key business and management aspect for the development and success of any enterprise [1,2].Various studies analyze the importance of communicating companies’ sustainability strategy to the different stakeholders that make up a company [1,3,4,5,6]
This research aims to study the communication process relating to the sustainable strategy at companies, ranging from the corporate website to e-commerce, in order to propose improvements for communication relating to sustainability, a business dimension that has become increasingly important in the eyes of society [7,8,9]

Summary

Introduction

Various studies analyze the importance of communicating companies’ sustainability strategy to the different stakeholders that make up a company [1,3,4,5,6]. Most of these studies have focused on the communication of sustainability from a corporate point of view, but very few studies analyze how the sustainable strategy is communicated to the consumer. This research aims to study the communication process relating to the sustainable strategy at companies, ranging from the corporate website to e-commerce, in order to propose improvements for communication relating to sustainability, a business dimension that has become increasingly important in the eyes of society [7,8,9]. This research aims to study the communication process relating to the sustainable strategy at companies, ranging from the corporate website to e-commerce, in order to propose improvements for communication relating to sustainability, a business dimension that has become increasingly important in the eyes of society [7,8,9]. 4.0/).

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