What’s Good? Shopping in the Age of Enshittification
There’s a lot of discussion lately around the enshittification of the internet, or Patagonia’s shitthropocene of fashion. Beyond the Big 7 boardrooms, things aren’t looking much better on the e-Com side of things either, as BoF’s Malique Morris notes:“Global e-commerce sales growth could drop to as low as 7.4 percent by 2027 as consumers grow tired of the standard grid-like online shopping experience.” It’s fairly bleak but not hard to see that indeed, everything might just be going to shit.
There’s a bright side to all this: if everyone is threatened by enshittification, then everyone has a stake in disenshittification…the potential anti-enshittification coalition is massive. It’s unstoppable.
Hear that? Cory Doctorow says we’re unstoppable. I’m not going to dive into the details of enshittificationhere (many others have already done a way better job than I can) but instead I want to focus on what we can control and where we have agency: disenshittification. So without further rambling, here’s four e-commerce sites that are getting it right—proving we can have efficient, conversion-friendly design without sacrificing fun.
One word take-away: World-building (is that two?)
What are they getting right? More of a a backwards, triple somersault pike off the diving board of Miami’s Fontainebleau into nostalgia than just a simple nod and a wink. I double dare you to boot up Poolsuite FM and not feel in an immediately sunnier disposition. Why am I sipping Daquiri’s at 9am and is that Tom Selleck on a jet ski in the distance? Ultimate pros in universe building, the Poolsuite team additionally launched Vacation Inc., Grand Leisure and their inimitable weekly substack The Palm Report to name only a few of their creative babies.
And yes, you can buy yourself into the nostalgiaverse courtesy of those products. Genius.
One word take-away: Dynamic
What are they getting right? The perfect balance of static and motion. What’s this? Text I actually want to read? It’s a sad realisation that playful typography is a rarity in fashion e-com these days, so thank god for OMNES making light work of that opportunity. Now let’s talk about the merchandising: OMNES clearly gets what their customer actually wants to shop right now with curated entry points not only to New Arrivals but also ‘Scene-stealing fits’, Workwear, Better Basics and Day Dressing i.e. this isn’t about pushing ‘must-buy’ nano trends down our throats, but being present with the relevant assortment as we navigate key life events.
Threaded throughout the experience is their brand narrative: fashion that doesn’t cost the earth. Gentle reminders of their sustainability cred interwoven with fashionable-yet-attainable imagery. At no point of the experience are we scrolling an in-house ad dump or being shamed for our unsustainable shopping agenda. Pure fun only here. See also: Reformation.
One word take-away: Aesthetic.
What are they getting right? Playful (it’s a common thread, right?) not formulaic in how they execute their aesthetic. It’s not just that they clearly understand their customer inside and out. It’s that they are their customer. How is that obvious? Raven Smith advocating their new definition of luxury that can be fixed. While I’ll concede that the overall experience is for sure still very much grid-esque, how MIISTA separate themselves is again, viewing that grid through a uniquely MIISTA lens.
Now let’s discuss Editorial: their editorials really stand out for me in that they highlight people who (in their own words) ‘make us think and take risks’. How refreshing. How necessary for anti-enshittification. You won’t find reference-thirsty titles here, instead a deep dive conversation into fashion, which is bizarrely rare to find on fashion e-coms these days as everyone heads off into the lifestyle horizon.
One word take-away: Relevance
What are they getting right? BETTTER wins the World Series in how to address the distressing data surrounding fashion waste in a way that is - dare I say it - fashionably appropriate. In basic terms, the narrative flows as so: Here is the data, the problem. Here is how it looks to potentially solve the problem. It’s aspirational and sexy, and you want it, don’t you?
A mistake I see all too often from well-meaning sustainable fashion brands is executing on an idea that simply educating customers on doom and gloom data of the status quo, will instantly result in reformed consumer behaviour.
The way I see it, that’s why we’re still stuck in our intent to action gap. If we really want people to buy better, we need to sell them on how good that looks, we need to make the sustainable option more desirable AKA lean into those marketable benefits. Organic cotton is not a marketable benefit. See also: GANNI.
Extra bonus BETTTER content below because it’s just a chefs-kiss-masterclass in selling a world-saving agenda to an aesthetically-oriented fashion audience:
Spot the Difference
There’s a common thread, right? Brands with a distinctly clear perspective, world-building identity and zero backsliding in creative quality at every touchpoint (yes, that includes product imagery too). These brands aren’t trying to be everything to everyone, everywhere, they understand their audience and they double down on anticipating what their customer might be pleasantly surprised to experience. That’s just great customer service 101. It’s about play, purpose and relevance. Are they obsessively chasing nano trends? Blasting raigebait content? Growth hacking?? No, no and yeah…just no.
So there we have it: according to me (someone who’s been shopping online since dial-up broadband and splash plastic cards were a thing), creative people are already out there disenshittifying the fashion and e-commerce world.
May you know them, may you be(come) them.