Mindful Masterclass: Products - AnotherTomorrow
Introducing the second addition to our Mindful Masterclass series – articles which highlight the brands going above and beyond when it comes to delivering a truly sustainable ecommerce experience.
In these pieces, we take a brand that we believe exemplifies one of the pillars in our Sustainability Guide. We’ll assess how the business is positioned to resonate with the modern conscious consumer, dig into their tech stack to see how they approach their digital footprint, and shine a light on a few key takeaways that we believe many other brands could learn from.
Meet AnotherTomorrow
AnotherTomorrow is a high-end apparel retailer with a laser-focus on providing access to more sustainable and compassionate fashion. The brand was founded in 2019 by Vanessa Barboni Hallik, whose career pathway had led her to explore the world of sustainable finance. As she learnt more about the issues facing our planet, her eyes were opened to the devastating environmental impact of the fashion industry. AnotherTomorrow was founded as a stand against (and solution to) this. The brand offers classic tailoring and high quality essentials, created around a value system focused on three core pillars – human, animal and environmental welfare. As the brand’s name suggests, their key mission is centred around providing for the needs of today, while laying the foundations for another tomorrow.
There’s a heavy emphasis on provenance of garments, with deep dives into the environmental impact of the materials used to create their collection, from ethically produced merino through to organic linen and recycled cashmere.
Mindful Product: What are AnotherTomorrow Doing Right?
In addition to offering an authenticated resale section as part of their ecommerce store (where preloved items can be purchased), AnotherTomorrow also offers something we’ve never seen before here at MindfulCommerce – a Size Exchange promise. This scheme allows customers who have made a purchase from a core central collection of tailoring pieces to exchange for another size within a year of purchase to swap the item for another larger or smaller piece, as bodies change over time.
In the words of AnotherTomorrow - “Our collection is designed to be treasured for a lifetime and pieces returned to us via this program will enter our circular resale program for a second life. As we learn from you and your needs, the program will further adapt and grow, along with the range of extended sizes we offer.”
This is such a smart way of approaching the circular economy – extending the wearable lives of garments created, and ensuring that no piece goes to waste at the back of a wardrobe due to no longer being a great fit for its owner. Knowing that this flexibility is built into the purchase of your item of clothing helps make the investment in a more sustainable but costly choice much more appealing. Having an established resale channel already running on their online store makes the recirculation of exchanged pieces easy and efficient. Additionally, AnotherTomorrow are able to use this return-and-exchange process as a source of data – learning more about their customers and the sizes and tailoring cuts that they require, so their future collections are constantly improving and leading to less wastage.
Tech Teardown
AnotherTomorrow appears to be a headless build, running on the Contentful CMS (The MindfulCommerce website uses the same CMS tool). This suggests – as you’d expect from a modern, industry-savvy apparel brand – a desire to achieve a powerful omnichannel presence, and the need to be able to develop and publish rapidly to capitalise on emerging opportunities.
A good understanding of their customer base is clearly important, with personalisation from JustUno, customer data management from Segment and tracking from Mouseflow, Amplitude and Skai. Additionally, AnotherTomorrow leverage Klaviyo for their marketing automation, and lean on the power of social proof, with user generated content curated via FourSixty (which has a powerful integration with Klaviyo…)
Digital Carbon Footprint
When we ran AnotherTomorrow’s web store through Digital Beacon, it returned a poor score, despite being hosted using renewable energy or carbon offsets. With an initial visit coming in at just under 10g of C02, the calculator ranked the store as “Bad” – the lowest category on its sliding scale.
Interestingly, Digital Beacon suggested that the site had been previously tested, back in February 2022. At this point, the store was much lighter - 2.47 MB vs today’s 11.87 MB. Clearly, things have grown since earlier in the year, and it seems as though there’s some room for improvement in this area. In particular, the large network payload could be reduced, and lazy loading of offscreen and hidden images might also be worth exploring.
The dual benefit of improvements of this nature, beyond the reduction in carbon footprint, is speedier load times and a better customer experience. Everyone wins when brands commit to improving their digital carbon footprint via an improved Digital Beacon score.
Takeaways from AnotherTomorrow
Consider combining a Size Exchange promise with a resale scheme (we recommend checking out certified Mindful Commerce experts Recurate for this!) to establish a circular economy within your product offering.
Use your website to give a deep dive into your product’s backstory, especially when it comes to provenance and materials used. AnotherTomorrow shows real care in detailing the way that their products are constructed.
Use your products as an opportunity to educate and spread awareness within your product’s market. AnotherTomorrow has pages covering the materials they use, but also the materials they don’t use - it’s powerful stuff.
If your tech stack doesn’t already factor in UGC (user generated content), consider adding the capacity to collect and display this powerfully persuasive flavour of content to your channels. Seeing how real customer use, style and enjoy your products is more relatable and authentic than any marketing campaign – just be sure to work with a credible provider, such as FourSixty, to ensure you’re fully covered when it comes to permissions and copyright.
When it comes to your digital carbon footprint, keep actively checking to see what impact changes made to your sight are having – for better or worse. Open up your calendar now and add in a recurring monthly reminder to run a Digital Beacon scan!