Zalando has accelerated its sustainability plans as consumer demand for environmentally friendly products has grown exponentially since the beginning of the year.

The German fashion platform has grown its sustainable assortment from 27,000 to 60,000 items as the number of active customers shopping for such products doubled to 40% since January of this year.

Zalando has also launched its own capsule collection “redeZIGN for Circularity”, which is specially designed to be reused or recycled, in partnership with circular.fashion and Fashion for Good.

The collection consists of five pieces as a test for Zalando’s private label Zign.

The retailer debuted its pre-owned category in September, allowing customers to buy and trade their unwanted, pre-owned items.

Customers can also now shop for sustainable beauty products as Zalando has introduced a flag for the category indicating attributes such as organic, natural, less packaging, forest-friendly, biodegradable or kind to animals.

These are just some of the measures Zalando has taken as part of its do.MORE sustainability strategy, announced exactly a year ago.

Co-chief executive Rubin Ritter said: “We have seen extraordinary growth in customer demand for more sustainable fashion since the beginning of the year.

“According to a recent internal survey, 34% of our customers said that in light of the coronavirus pandemic, sustainability has become more important to them.

“With this major shift in mindset, there is a demand and momentum for change, and a need for the fashion industry to transform. Together with our partners, we want to be the engine for this change and enable our customers to make more sustainable choices even more easily.”