Luxury department store Selfridges has pledged that half of its interactions with customers will be based on resale, repair, rental or refills by 2030, responding to sustainable shopping trends.
As part of its Project Earth strategy, launched in 2020, the retailer said 45% of transactions will come from circular products and services by 2030.
It aims to step up action after increasing sales of second-hand items by 240% to 17,771 pieces last year. It also facilitated 28,000 repairs, more than a third of which were pairs of trainers, in its effort to operate in a more environmentally sustainable way.
Furthermore, Selfridges will now offer repair services outside of London at Birmingham and Manchester stores. It said such repairs will be easier to book online.
More than 2,000 items were rented out to Selfridges customers in a year and it plans to expand this service to include childrenswear, accessories, fine jewellery and menswear. While, the retailer reported more than 8,000 refills had been sold so far, with the service to be made more prominent.
Andrew Keith, Selfridges managing director, said: “In creating our store of tomorrow we must commit to a fundamental shift in the way that we do business and use the Selfridges platform for change. Our vision is to reinvent retail and create a more sustainable future, and Project Earth and our new targets underpin this.
“We recognise that we need to challenge ourselves to accelerate change and our ambitious circular and materials targets do just that. We don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to finding solutions, through a continued imaginative approach to retail innovation. The scale of our ambitions cannot be underestimated but we are inspired by what lies ahead and how we bring this to life for our customers.”
Last year, Selfridges also pledged to accelerate its net-zero carbon commitment by 10 years, to be achieved by 2040.
