Innovation

Shift To Nature is an e-commerce website that brings together retailers and producers who produce clothes using only organic and non-toxic garments. There are a number of innovations occurring with Shift to Nature beginning with the development of the e-commerce website www.shifttonature.com.au. Today, there are a number of websites offering products that are ethical and organic; but Shift To Nature began in 2012 when there was no single website in Australia offering a range of these items here. In that period of time, that was an innovation itself.

As they developed, they understood which products sold well and what their customers were looking for. But they wanted to further their business, instead of just being an e-tailer of other companies. "We developed relationships with freelance clothing designers and manufacturers who source the organic and non-toxic materials. This way of creating new products is also sustainable in our opinion," Sonja said. "As I can speak with a designer in France or London from Australia and through email and skype we can together create products without needing to get on a plane. Freelancers may work in their preferred way, so we support positive working-from-home culture (helpful particularly for women in their other roles such as caring for children)" Sonja added.

In fact, they choose manufacturers who adhere to global certifications such as GOTS: Global Organic Textile Standard – which covers the farming, manufacturing, and production of garments with Organic Cotton. Shift To Nature also screens manufacturers for their ethical employment practices. While these factors increase the cost of production and the cost of the final product, Shift To Nature remains committed to doing this.

Shift To Nature tries to continue to stay close to its sustainability and ethical principles by developing product lines that are organic, non-toxic and ethical such as in women’s makeup and other products. This has its challenges but Sonja hopes that customers will have more choices to shop by their own ethics if Shift To Nature’s products become available over cheaper but toxic and non-sustainable mass produced products.

Inspiration

The website came about from Sonja and her friend realizing that other countries like Germany and the UK had stronger markets in developing and selling organic textile products with a focus on sustainability and ethics. But more importantly, results of this start-up was incredible.

As Sonja said "A high point or peak moment probably for any business owner is when people start purchasing from the business. The same is true about Shift To Nature, this was exciting, but more than this, for an e-commerce website owner, when the purchases were not returned and they received excellent reviews. This was the best inspiration for me to continue and improve our idea."

This has a lot of layers of meaning beyond customer satisfaction. According to Sonja, it means increasing the possibility of those first customers becoming return customers. It also means that people have enjoyed their purchasing experience through the website and have received a good service. It was surprising and inspiring for Sonja that people have purchased from Shift to Nature because they share the same ethics of moving toward a sustainable lifestyle and people find a great deal of value in choosing sustainable natural fabrics and ethical ways of living.

Overall impact

Shift To Nature creates a marketplace for consumers’ wishing to make an ethical shift in their purchases. It is a place where these consumers can find interesting ethical products rather than consuming more fast fashion products.

Business benefit

At the beginning, Sonja was not sure they could make any profit by their innovation. However, not only have no purchases been returned but also many of Shift to Nature's first customers have turned into returning customers. Nowadays, their sales are as widespread as Australia, Estonia, UK, Bali, Denmark, India, and America.

Social and environmental benefit

A hundred years ago, clothing was made of natural fibers like cotton, flax, wool, and silk. In the early 1900s, synthetics were developed. Today’s clothing industry is a seven trillion dollar a year industry that uses an astounding 8,000 synthetic chemicals.

Shift To Nature is a good movement to replace harmful chemicals by organic and sustainable textile which is not only good in the world but also produces cotton soft on the skin. Human’s skin is the largest organ of elimination and absorption — what goes ON the skin goes IN the body.

The website opened in 2012 and has become a Social Enterprise in partnership with the Service to Youth Council Australia providing entrepreneurship and business learning opportunities to young people.

Therefore, respecting UN Global Goals, Shift To Nature focuses on health and also education.

Interview

Sonja Bar-Am, Creative Director of Shift To Nature