Environmental information in e-commerce. Example of fashion chains

The fashion industry is one of the most rapidly growing branches of e-commerce. However, this growth comes at the price of a high level of negative environmental impact. This is due to the physical impact of apparel production on the environment, but also the consumer behavior that has developed based on the specifics of this industry. These premises prompted the authors to undertake a study of the availability of environmental information accompanying the sale of these products. The purpose of the study was to assess the availability of environmental information in fashion e-shops. The study was conducted on six e-stores involved in the sale of apparel and footwear products. These entities were identified as the most popular in terms of sales volume on the Polish market. A heuristic method was used in the study. The results obtained show a very low level of access to and lack of presentation of environmental information. In half of the surveyed e-stores, consumers were not able to read environmental information on the environmental impact of individual products. In the remaining evaluated entities, there was very residual and difficult-to-access information. The identified state of affairs prompts efforts to create mandatory regulations that would mandate consumer information on the environmental impact of apparel products.