Otrium wants to empower better choices

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Founded in 2015, Otrium aims to keep brands’ overstock from going to landfill or incineration. “Our goal is making sure every item of clothing produced is worn,” explains Marlot Kiveron, who leads sustainability at the Amsterdam-based e-commerce platform. It works with many leading fashion brands to sell their excess inventory, then offers services such as repairs to consumers. 

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One central theme across Otrium’s consumer platforms is making more sustainable fashion choices more accessible. It’s why Otrium partnered with Good On You in 2021 to bring trusted and independent brand sustainability ratings to its shopping experience. But lately, as emerging regulation has led some e-commerce players to shy away from tackling sustainability, Otrium has only underscored its commitment. In June 2024, Otrium announced the latest iteration of its “Ethically rated brand” filter, which brings more information to consumers and is powered by Good On You. 

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Opportunity: Consumers voting with their wallets

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Shoppers want to make better choices—but it’s complicated

As a platform that brings together hundreds of brand outlets in one app, Otrium saw an opportunity to better engage consumers who want to make values-based decisions. There are, of course, many criteria consumers use to make a shopping decision—style, fit, size, and more. But a growing segment of conscious consumers are also looking to choose brands that take action for people, planet, and animals. Figuring out what information they can trust, however, is a real challenge for consumers. 

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Challenge: deciding what brands Otrium could spotlight

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Any e-commerce player that wants to engage with more conscious consumers needs to provide credible, verifiable, and easy-to-understand information. In 2020, Otrium first considered doing this on its own, and it assembled a “green team” to explore possible solutions. But there are few easy answers. The team quickly realised that mapping certifications to brands and products, assessing the overwhelming amount of public information, and presenting it to consumers in a user-friendly way was, well, really hard. Then there was also the desire for an independent authority to make the tough calls, explained Marlot: 

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“We don't have the expertise in-house to set up a rigorous rating system that is watertight. We needed an objective third party that could validate what brands are doing and empower consumers to choose the brands going the extra mile.”

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Solution: Winning UX + trusted brand ratings

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Integrating independent brand ratings

Good On You has already done the work to create a world-class methodology for rating brands on the issues that consumers care about. It evaluates brands based on their public disclosures to ensure transparency. And it assesses policies and practices on the key issues relating to people, planet, and animals across brands’ entire supply chains. Plus, Good On You widely engages with industry experts, activists, and increasingly regulators to ensure its brand rating system reflects widely accepted best practices in sustainability. That made teaming up an obvious choice: “One of the first projects that I undertook when I started at Otrium was partnering with Good On You to display brand ratings to consumers,” Marlot recalls. That meant her team could rely on independent experts to assess brands and translate that into accessible information consumers can act on, as Good On You had already done that at scale. 

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Plug-and-play solution for engaging user experiences

Developed for enterprise partners’ distinct needs, Good On You’s dashboard immediately gave the Otrium team the intel they needed to choose what brands to spotlight. The next challenge was figuring out how to create engaging user experiences. Good On You’s API helped solve that by giving product designers and developers the flexibility to display accurate and up-to-date ratings data in a way that helps shoppers easily discover higher rated brands. This back-end has enabled the product teams to iterate over the years, as they’ve evolved the experience to better meet consumers’ needs, and keep up with emerging regulation. 

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Engaging consumers through the user journey

Otrium surfaces Good On You’s brand ratings directly into the user journey through its Ethical Brand Ratings features. Firstly, a handy search filter lets users quickly identify hundreds of products from brands that have been rated “It’s a Start” (3/5) and above on Good On You’s five-point rating scale. Next, when a consumer lands on a product page, Otrium provides more nuanced information about each brand’s ratings. For example, if vegan consumers are looking for brands that avoid harm to animals, Otrium surfaces contextual information on the product page so they can learn more about the brand’s actions in this area. Elsewhere, detailed pages break down how Good On You’s ratings work, helping consumers make more informed decisions.

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Result: Meeting consumer demand with confidence

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Future-proofing filters amid emerging regulation

Regulation is top of mind for many e-commerce platforms affected by emerging rules aimed at curbing greenwashing. “There’s a lot written about what not to do, but not so much on what you can actually do,” Marlot says. Good On You is at the forefront of these conversations and supported Otrium as it sought to confidently meet growing consumer demand for reliable information while staying aware of emerging rules within the European Union’s Green Claims Directive. 

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Good On You supports Otrium in evolving its UX

In June 2024, Otrium announced a series of improvements to how Good On You ratings appear in its platform. With Good On You’s support, it worked to integrate more information about how the ratings system works throughout its platform—linking to deeper resources for consumers who want to know more. Otrium increased the amount of information it displays about each rating on brand and product pages, too. And it rebranded the filter to the more specific “Ethically rated brand.”

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“Good On You is instrumental in helping us work in line with regulations like the Green Claims Directive, while still boosting brands truly making an effort.”

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Demonstrated demand for higher rated brands

Otrium has observed there’s commercial incentive for brands that are thoughtfully going the extra mile with the actions they’re taking and transparently disclosing to consumers. And that demonstrates how consumers have the power to drive the industry to do better. After integrating Good On You ratings, revenue from highly rated ethical brands jumped from 16.5% in 2022 to more than 26% in 2023 of Otrium's total sales year-on-year. Additionally, the platform observes that more conscious consumers support other goals, as well. For example, orders containing an item from Otrium’s “Ethically rated brands” filter saw 2% fewer returns and a €40 higher average order value. That reduces emissions from returns and demonstrates consumers will pay more when presented with sustainable options. 

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