Sustainable practices in slow and fast fashion stores: What does the customer perceive?

Abstract

The fashion industry is the second largest polluter of the environment. The fast fashion segment aims at a fast production and disposal of clothing, slow fashion seeks timeless and durable garments. Both fast and slow fashion stores are using different strategies of communicating their sustainability practices in order to attract consumer attention. The present study aims to compare the customers’ perception regarding sustainability practices of two different stores – one of slow fashion and the other of fast fashion. Both are in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. The comparative analysis was carried on with a documental analysis of the declared practices and also a survey with customers, in 2018 and 2017, respectively, for slow (118 costumers) and fast fashion stores (400 costumers). Statistical tests were made - Qui-square hypothesis test to identify preferences and proportion test to compare the answers. It was noticed that customers in general do not have knowledge about the sustainability practices adopted by the companies. However, for 78% of the fast fashion and for 91% of the slow fashion customers, the perception of the companies has changed positively after they know about the sustainability practices of the companies. The profile of the respondents was also compared to the general profile of the conscious consumer in Brazil. It was found that regardless the consumer says he/she is conscious, they do not agree to pay more for a greener product, even though they believe that an organization should have sustainable practices. The results suggest that there is still a lot to be done in order to transform sustainability practices into competitive for consumer.

Keywords

• Conscious consumption
• Sustainable practices
• Slow fashion
• Fast fashion