WRAPS – Fair Fashion Online Shops

6 Browserfenster mit folgenden Symbolen: Baum, T-Shirt mit Blatt drauf, Mensch, Schloss, Pulsmonitor und normaler Inhalt einer Webseite.
Posted on (updated: ) by Klaas Ole Jordan

For the second part of my WRAPS series, I reviewed the homepages of various online platforms for fair fashion. While many of the tested providers rely on widely-used eCommerce solutions in the background, the winner stands out with an unconventional implementation.

  1. Results
  2. Criteria
  3. Homepages of the Online Shops
  4. Conclusion

The Result

The evaluation is again based on five criteria. You can find a detailed explanation of these criteria and their weighting here.

The results show that merely deploying a highly optimized eCommerce solution like Shopify isn’t enough to rank highly in this review, especially if wasteful user tracking and self-loading videos are involved. The winner, Fairtragen, scored significantly higher, even though many best practices were ignored. The website is slim enough to cover up these flaws.

#TeamTotalCWVCO2A11yPrivacyContent
1.Fairtragen86.02%100%92%59%80%100%
2.Avocado Store65.12%90%57%41%67%100%
3.Glore64.23%100%66%35%30%100%
4.Greenality62.88%100%54%35%50%100%
5.Honest Basics61.83%100%42%64%33%100%
6.Green Shirts50.26%67%37%53%37%100%
7.WeDressFair43.24%98%0%44%40%100%
8.Everlane41.65%54%32%41%26%100%
9.Jungle Folk40.32%84%0%48%36%100%
10.Made Trade37.25%95%0%38%13%100%

Criteria

Some specific considerations apply to the measurements and results of each criterion.

Core Web Vitals

The homepages generally perform well here, though cumulative layout shift (CLS) during loading remains an issue. Self-loading videos are used on some sites but rarely lead to major score reductions.

CO2 Emissions

In the previous review, the site with the worst CO2 emission rate per page view set the scoring scale for others. This time, however, I used fixed thresholds as scoring standards, making cross-comparisons between this and future reviews possible. Unlike the Core Web Vitals, self-loading videos lead to major point reductions in this category, especially because some were lacking browser caching guidelines.

Accessibility

There’s little variation here. No shop offers options to adjust color, font, or language. This is puzzling, as dark mode can enhance accessibility and improve a website’s success rates.

Privacy

Privacy is once again neglected, with many websites connecting to other servers — Google servers are called without permission in 8 out of 10 cases. Security issues were detected as well. While they are generally unwelcome, it’s particularly concerning on sites requiring personal (account) data.

Content

This category was simpler this time. All websites promote sustainable products and corporate culture on dedicated pages. Point deductions would apply for manipulative patterns , but none were detected, so all sites scored full points in this category. Therefore, I’ll omit this category in the upcoming discussion.

How Shop Results Were Determined

More details on the results are in the PDF file, where you’ll also find the scores in subcategories.

The online presence of Fairtragen from Bremen scores 86% in the review thanks to a slim homepage that avoids third-party resources, allowing it to tolerate several implementation flaws.

100% Core Web Vitals
The homepage loads quickly and without visual shifting. Interaction with the website is smooth. As the majority of the target audience is based in Germany, the lack of a CDN does not negatively impact performance. The outdated HTTP/1.1 protocol also doesn’t reduce the score.
92% Carbon Footprint
560 kB on initial load is an excellent result, even though no modern formats for fonts or images are used. It’s also bearable that no green server is used and that there are no cache-control directives to guide browser caching.
59% Accessibility
The website is available in three languages. In Lighthouse tests, the homepage scores average points for accessibility.
80% Privacy
No connections to third-party servers are made. This is unique among all tested homepages in this series. In this context, it’s also acceptable that no cookie notice is displayed. In terms of security, however, there are negative points due to missing security headers and a vulnerable version of Bootstrap.

There’s not much to criticize about the homepage of the Hamburg-based Avocado Store. The biggest drawback is the 5.8 MB of JavaScript, though it’s at least compressed for network transfer. Their final score is 65%.

90% Core Web Vitals
Here, the abundance of JavaScript negatively impacts interaction time (INP = 293ms). Otherwise, scores are good.
57% Carbon Footprint
Lazy loading and caching were handled well, and a green server is used. However, the amount of JS has been costly in this category.
41% Accessibility
The website leaves much to be desired in terms of accessibility, as there are no options to adjust color, font, or language.
67% Privacy
Not too many external resources are loaded, but it’s frustrating that a Google server is called upon just to load a tiny logo.

Like most competitors, Glore from Nuremberg follows many best practices. However, data privacy is still a concern. Anyway, it’s enough for the third place with a score of 64%.

100% Core Web Vitals
The site scores full marks on all metrics, although it loads slower than the top two competitors.
66% Carbon Footprint
The site performs well in ecological sustainability, thanks to green servers and a low data data budget.
35% Accessibility
Like others, this website does not offer color, font, or language adjustment.
30% Privacy
Google, Amazon, and Cloudflare servers are accessed without permission, though there’s no apparent need for this. Unfortunately, a vulnerable version of the jQuery library is also used.

The Greenality homepage from Stuttgart scores 63%, marginally lower than Glore.

100% Core Web Vitals
Greenality scores full marks but is close to the threshold in the LCP metric.
54% Carbon Footprint
This site also performs well in ecological sustainability and uses green servers, though some images are not web-optimized, lowering the score.
35% Accessibility
As with competitors, there are no options for color, font, or language adjustment.
50% Privacy
This site connects to Google, Facebook, and Microsoft servers without consent, mainly for tracking purposes, which is particularly disappointing.

For Berlin-based Honest Basics, the basics are in place — except for privacy. It all leads to a score of 62%

100% Core Web Vitals
This site also scores full marks, though there’s room for improvement in load time (LCP = 1.86s).
42% Carbon Footprint
The eco balance is not ideal, even though green servers are used. Unfortunately, the largest resource is sent without cache-control headers, impacting reload performance.
64% Accessibility
One of the few websites available in multiple languages, but, as with competitors, font and color adjustments are unavailable.
33% Privacy
The site connects to nine different third-party servers, including Facebook and Google, and scores zero in this category. However, it scores highly for security, with no vulnerabilities detected.

Self-loading videos, lack of green servers, and unstable rendering prevent a higher score than 50% for Green Shirts from Berg near Munich.

67% Core Web Vitals
During loading, users briefly see the page footer before the self-loading video appears. As a result, the CLS category receives zero points.
37% Carbon Footprint
The self-loading video adds nearly 10 MB. Thankfully, cache-control headers are in place, saving points on reload. More points could have been earned with modern image formats or green servers.
53% Accessibility
As with most, there are no options for color, font, or language adjustment.
37% Privacy
Multiple external servers are accessed, though most are based in Europe and comply with the GDPR.

The homepage of this French provider scores zero on the eco balance. Its seventh-place ranking with a score of 43% is largely due to weaker competitors.

98% Core Web Vitals
Almost full points in Core Web Vitals, with minor deductions for load time (LCP).
0% Carbon Footprint
Self-loading videos contribute to a poor eco balance, especially since some are visible only upon scrolling. Additionally, some videos lack cache-control headers, impacting reload data volume.
44% Accessibility
No options for color, font, or language adjustment, as is common among competitors.
40% Privacy
Nine external servers are accessed, including several from Google.

In the U.S., data privacy standards differ from Europe’s, perhaps explaining Everlane’s numerous external server connections. Their final score is 42%.

54% Core Web Vitals
The site is unstable during loading and slow to load, scoring the lowest Core Web Vitals points.
32% Carbon Footprint
A self-loading video was removed during testing, but 400 kB of JavaScript still loads at the start of each session.
41% Accessibility
No color, font, or language adjustments are available for users with disabilities.
26% Privacy
Numerous external servers are accessed, mainly from U.S. companies. The site is, however, secure.

The Swiss provider Jungle Folk’s homepage features several self-loading videos, not all of which are immediately visible. This diminishes the overall score down to 40%.

84% Core Web Vitals
The site is unstable during rendering, with the video (and everything beneath it) repositioning multiple times.
0% Carbon Footprint
Multiple self-loading videos harm the ecological footprint. Due to the videos changing twice during testing, reload performance is also poor.
48% Accessibility
No options for color, font, or language adjustments, as seen in competitors.
36% Privacy
Not as many third-party servers as the American sites, but connections to Google, Meta, and Microsoft are concerning.

Another U.S.-based provider, Made Trade, shares data with numerous third parties, most of which are also U.S.-based. Carbon footprint is bad too, which leads to a final score of only 37%.

95% Core Web Vitals
Scores well in Core Web Vitals, though minor deductions apply for load time (LCP).
0% Carbon Footprint
Data is heavily sourced from third-party servers, often with short caching times, impacting scores more than self-loading videos.
38% Accessibility
Like competitors, the site lacks options for color, font, or language adjustments.
13% Privacy
Numerous third-party connections, mostly U.S.-based, with security weaknesses like a vulnerable jQuery version.

Conclusion

It’s surprising how many issues the winner, Fairtragen, could afford. Its slim site with no tracking can still rank well here despite outdated image and font formats, lacking caching instructions, or a vulnerable version of Bootstrap.

Many shops use the eCommerce giant Shopify, known for its web performance leadership. As a result, most homepages score well in Core Web Vitals. However, this optimization cannot mask the careless handling of data (volume and distribution to third parties).

The two American providers (Everlane and Made Trade) especially stand out for weak data privacy practices, which places them at/near the bottom of the table.

  • Dark patterns are attempts to trick users into actions they may not want or misleading information that influences their behavior . In online shops, this could be things like fictional time limits for discounts. Arrow Up Right
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