Sustainable Enterprises Post COVID-19 Pandemic: The Rise of Sustainable Fashion Enterprises

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world forever. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) started in Wuhan, China by 2019 and then, this disease expanded to over the world so rapidly (Aydın et.al., 2021). This disease was accepted as a pandemic by WHO (World Health Organization) and new normal standards transformed individuals’ and businesses’ usual life (Öncü et.al., 2021; Yıldırım et al., 2021). New normal standards are mostly related with health measures such as wearing a mask, physical distance and hygiene. But, something was really happened in consumption patterns and buying styles since the Covid-19 pandemic. New normal buying behavior is now online buying behavior in the last three years.

Digitalization is a rising trend in business and government model during the 21th century. The Covid-19 pandemic only accelerated digital transformation globally (Yıldırım et.al., 2022; Yıldırım and Bostancı, 2021). While mostly developed countries dominated the digital economy in the pre-covid-19 pandemic period, it was observed that there was a significant increase in the success of developing countries in the digital economy during the covid-19 pandemic. When observing recent news and reports, it can be seen that the cryptocurrency's usage, digital payment tools, e-retailing, e-banking and online buying behavior are all increased. Accordingly, social media tools such as Intagram, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Pinterest etc. are all new communication channel for marketers and brands as promoting brands and products. The influence of social media can’t be ignored in the context of digital marketing strategy. Digital marketing is seems to keep developing in the long time as higher usage of technology and digital tools in marketing elements. While digital economy is developing and global trade channel is keeping on during the Covid-19 pandemic, policy makers also get attention to issues related to sustainable development (Yıldırım and Bostancı, 2022).

The balance between economic development and environmental quality is always a big challenge for the humanity (Esen et al., 2021). Global climate change had already begun when the countries that accelerated their economic development with the industrial revolution realized that they over-consumed natural resources and caused irreversible damage to the natural environment in the 21st century. Unfortunately, global warming and climate change are the first important issues that 21st century people have to deal with. Within the scope of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the necessity of sustainable production and consumption for a sustainable world was emphasized with Goal-12. In the realization of sustainable development goals, people, businesses and governments should work in coordination and everyone should take their responsibilities (Yıldırım et al., 2016; Yildirim, 2020). The Covid-19 pandemic has also negatively affected progress in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Positive developments, especially in areas such as hunger, poverty, food supply chain, energy access, and access to clean water, experienced a reverse turn. On the other hand, there have been significant changes in consumer behavior. Consumption habits carried to the digital market have also created permanent changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors. Incentives for the adoption of sustainable consumption behavior may have slowed down a bit during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, digital transformation seems to have caused consumers to spend more time on social media and highlighted the pretentious consumption attitude.