London’s 00.thestore: discovering sustainability in bricks & mortar.
London’s 00.thestore is a pop-up that celebrates Earth Month by bringing together a collection of innovative predominantly online-only sustainable brands into a physical space for customers to discover their products.
This is the third such month-long pop-up opened in the UK capital by Zora Feraji, founder & CEO of 00.thestore, with the objective of highlighting environmentally-focused brands across the areas of fashion, beauty, lifestyle and wellness.
“We’re providing a platform for brands that [mainly] live online to meet customers in real life. The goal is to leave people feeling excited about sustainability and inspired to move closer to a more waste-conscious lifestyle,” she says.
The typical customers the store attracts are sustainability-savvy, which means there is no “heavy lifting” involving the need to explain the basics of the products and the production processes involved. In addition, the brands have all been carefully selected by Feraji for their impact-first philosophy.
“We seek out the brands and for validation we use Compare Ethics because we want to avoid ‘greenwashing’. The products all need to be good on their values. Customers want to see new brands but they also want the added trust that we’ve done our due diligence,” she explains.
In the beauty and wellness category the brands include Mirror.Water, Dead Sea Dream, and Carbon Theory. Within fashion there is Charlotte Dunn, Love Hero, Tummy Ache and We Are We Wear. In the accessories category there is Yogi Bare, Amari Amari, and Frida & Florence. Home & Lifestyle includes Neat Clean, House of Elie and Frizbee Ceramics.
For most of the 70 brands represented Feraji describes them as “pre-retail” whereby they have only sold DTC (Direct to Consumer) on their own websites. Their presence in the store is not only an opportunity to drive sales from new customers but since 00.thestore also attracts buyers from retailers who are looking to discover new sustainable brands there is also the opportunity to gain retail listings.
The brands also benefit from the feedback Feraji gives them based on the experiences of shoppers. This could involve recommendations about their packaging. “The primary benefit for the brands is brand awareness and data gathering. We debrief them on what’s happened in the store. These are new conversations for the brands,” she says.
The 00.thestore is located at 9 Rathbone Place in Central London and will trade for the duration of Earth Month with its doors closing on May 10.
