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Rental clothing box subscription: The importance of sustainable fashion labels
Abstract
Renting fashion using clothing box subscription is a growing trend in the textile industry. The element of surprise varies according to the box type chosen by the customer: the self-assembled or the curated surprise box. Our study focuses on the effects of consumer characteristics, box type and other attributes on the intention to subscribe. We collected data from 364 German respondents and used choice-based conjoint analysis to estimate these effects. A between-subject design helps to compare the self-assembled versus the curated surprise box type. Price has the highest relative importance in the curated surprise box subscription model. In both subscription models, consumers preferred to rent four fashion pieces rather than two. Sustainable fashion labels increase the willingness to pay in the case of the self-assembled box model. Most consumers still prefer new fashion items over second-hand or upcycled ones, leaving considerable room for circular communication strategies.
This chapter examines the dynamics of online fashion rental as a sustainable shopping alternative. It delves into the environmental, economic, and social implications of this model, highlighting its potential to mitigate the adverse impacts of fast fashion. The chapter identifies key drivers motivating consumers to adopt this approach, including cost-effectiveness, sustainability, social status, and access to diverse styles. Simultaneously, it explores barriers such as hygiene concerns, lack of ownership, and logistical challenges. The chapter further proposes future research directions, emphasizing the need to study environmental impact, technological innovations, and psychological dimensions. It offers practical implications for policymakers and industry leaders to foster wider acceptance of online fashion rentals. By bridging theoretical insights with actionable strategies, the chapter positions online fashion rental as a pivotal step toward sustainable consumption and circular economy principles.
Since literature revealed limited information among consumers as one of the main drivers for the intention-behavior-gap, this article focuses on how information can be communicated in a more effective manner. To overcome previous shortcomings (reliance on (online) surveys) for investigating this gap and increase closeness to reality (enabling touching textiles; try-ons), two laboratory experiments with between-subjects designs are conducted. It is examined if displaying textiles' sustainability information through (i) QR codes linking to videos (n = 114) and/or (ii) Augmented Reality (AR; n = 124) enables informing consumers better than through conventional, textual hangtags. While QR codes linking to video improve product evaluation (p < 0.001) compared to textual hangtags, this effect could not be proven for AR (p = 0.058). Purchase intention increased in both studies when using digitalized information. Additionally, the intention-behavior gap can be narrowed using AR, since consumers who will actually buy the exhibited textiles make higher bids regarding willingness-to-pay.
Fashion, acknowledged as among the most polluting industries, is responsible for excessive production and consumption, necessitating a reevaluation and transformation of current strategies by adopting more sustainable ones. The emergence of fashion subscription services (FSSs) has the potential to mitigate the industry's unsustainability. However, it is empirically unknown whether FSSs contribute to sustainable consumption and, if so, how their slow adoption can be addressed. This research: (a) examined whether consumers who already use FSSs are more engaged in pro‐environmental behaviors (Study 1), and (b) developed and tested an adoption model with a strong underscore on the mediating role of psychological ownership (Study 2). The results revealed that those who subscribe to such services display sustainable consumption behaviors, and psychological ownership acted as a critical mediator facilitating service adoption intentions. This research offers empirical evidence to support the theoretical premise of the service's positive impact on environmental sustainability and a strategic direction to accelerate its market penetration.
Choice-based conjoint (CBC) analysis features prominently in market research to predict consumer purchases. This study focuses on two principles that seek to enhance CBC: incentive alignment and adaptive choice-based conjoint (ACBC) analysis. While these principles have individually demonstrated their ability to improve the forecasting accuracy of CBC, no research has yet evaluated both simultaneously. The present study fills this gap by drawing on two lab and two online experiments. On the one hand, results reveal that incentive-aligned CBC and hypothetical ACBC predict comparatively well. On the other hand, ACBC offers a more efficient cost-per-information ratio in studies with a high sample size. Moreover, the newly introduced incentive-aligned ACBC achieves the best predictions but has the longest interview time. Based on our studies, we help market researchers decide whether to apply incentive alignment, ACBC, or both. Finally, we provide a tutorial to analyze ACBC datasets using open-source software (R/Stan).
The textile industry is responsible for a significant amount of global CO2 emissions, exceeding those from several other sectors such as international aviation and shipping. This article outlines the reasons for the textile industry’s contribution to climate change along with an overview of current trends. Finally, it outlines several measures to reduce its carbon footprint.
The textiles production and consumption system is a priority product-value chain for the European Commission in its 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan. The Action Plan foresees a European Union strategy for sustainable textiles in a circular economy with the aim of creating markets for sustainable and circular textile products, services, and business models. The European Environment Agency (EEA) and its Topic Center on Waste and Materials in a Green Economy (ETC/WMGE) have shown that consumption of clothing, footwear, and household textiles in Europe is on average the fourth highest category of environmental and climate impacts from a consumption perspective and from a vantage point that considers the entire life cycle. The fashion industry is responsible for more than 60% of total textiles used and clothing is expected to remain the largest application of textiles in the future. To enable a sustainable and circular textiles system, a transformation of fashion production and consumption is needed. This transformation requires innovation in business-model design, technology, and social practices through the adoption of specific policy making, education, and behavioral change enablers. In this Brief Report, we present a framework to map and advance the implementation and scaling of circular business models. This is illustrated by exploring four different circular business-model approaches for fashion and textiles, including models based on product durability; access models based on renting, leasing, and sharing; garment collection and resale; and recycling and reuse of materials. For each business-model type, we discuss enablers based on technical and social innovations and policy, behavioral change, and education.
We analyze the business models of online business-to-consumer (B2C) fashion rental and share challenges and lessons learned from an in-depth case study of a former German fashion-rental company. The firm focused on renting everyday, rather than special occasion, clothing, thus increasing the potential sustainability impact of its offer significantly. We also examine drivers and barriers of both an everyday children’s wear and a women’s wear rental model by incorporating both retailer and consumer perspectives through business data, manager interviews, and consumer surveys with customer and target groups. All data were merged into a single, in-depth analysis of the business models. By combining the complementary viewpoints of retailer and consumers, we were able to more precisely pinpoint the locations of the difficulties in the business models. The main barriers to success were the worsening quality of the company’s inventory and its difficulty acquiring and retaining customers, due both to a lack of familiarity with the concept of fashion rental and the poorly perceived price-performance ratio of fashion rental. These issues suggest that online-fashion rental should begin by focusing on special occasion rentals with more high-end fashion options and should plan a sizeable budget for marketing to raise consumer awareness of alternatives to traditional retail models and alleviate customer concerns. If such a rental model is successful and establishes a stable customer base, everyday fashion-rental options could be explored as a supplement. The article demonstrates the importance of integrating different data sources to obtain a comprehensive understanding of why online-rental models fail or succeed.
Increasing population and improving living standards have continued to amplify the consumption of textiles and apparel, which has created challenges in resource management and sustainable development. In this context, renting-based collaborative consumption business models (CCBMs) have received considerable attention in recent times. Consumption through renting allows the replacement of ‘ownership’ of a product to ‘usership’ which creates new opportunities for the companies as well as for the customers. For the development of renting-based CCBMs or decision making in rental activities by the companies, one of the fundamental requirements is the baseline characterization of consumers’ renting pattern – which includes general rent duration, renting frequency, inventory management, rental product movement, etc. – that acts as input from the operational aspect of a rental business. In this context, the paper aims at investigating the general renting characteristics for workwear garments through data analysis of about 5.4 million garment-rents to multiple business customers over 6 years. Further, the implications of the renting characteristics are investigated through discrete event simulations under various scenarios of inventory management by the customers. The findings from the study are anticipated to help the rental companies in operational and strategic decision-making.
Food, shelter and clothing are three basic necessities of life. Textiles are necessary for human beings to cover and protect the body from different weather conditions. In the household, textiles are used in carpeting, furnishing, window shades, towels, table covers, bed sheets, handkerchiefs, cleaning devices and in art. In the workplace, they are used in industrial and scientific processes such as tents, flags, nets, kites, sails, parachutes and filtering. Technical textiles are used for industrial purposes – for automotive applications, medical textiles (e.g. implants, personal protective equipment and clothing, wound care and compression), geotextiles (stabilisation; reinforcement of embankments), agrotextiles, protective clothing (e.g. against heat and radiation for fire-retardant clothing, against molten metals for welders, stab protection, and bullet proof vests), packaging and for making advanced materials like composites. In the case of apparel, ‘fast fashion’ has led to increased consumption of textiles and thereby increased textile waste, which poses a great challenge to today’s world in terms of unsustainable disposal. Textile waste has also become a greater threat to modern society mainly because of constant growth in the production and consumption of non-biodegradable synthetic fibres. Unless adequately treated, textile wastes from hospitals may carry hazardous pathogens whilst many fashion clothing items contain non-bio-degradable chemicals which can create havoc in the environment following their disposal, so the recycling of waste textiles has grown in importance. Many studies have shown that much of what would otherwise become waste textiles could be successfully upcycled to produce value-added products. However, the true potential of waste textiles is not yet realized due to many reasons, such as the lack of an adequate textile waste management system, the complexity of the required treatment of some types of textile materials (fibre blends or mixed-fibre textiles) and poor organisation and control over supply chains. This issue of Textile Progress reports on research into the generation of textile waste, its detailed classification, the global textile market, and the environmental impacts of waste textiles. The various challenges in textile waste management and the application of techniques of upcycling waste textiles are critically examined and ways of utilising waste textiles to produce upcycled products are explored.
For the textile industry to become sustainable, knowledge of the origin and production of resources is an important theme. It is expected that recycled feedstock will form a significant part of future resources to be used. Textile recycling (especially post-consumer waste) is still in its infancy and will be a major challenge in the coming years. Three fundamental problems hamper a better understanding of the developments on textile recycling: the current classification of textile fibres (natural or manufactured) does not support textile recycling, there is no standard definition of textile recycling technologies, and there is a lack of clear communication about the technological progress (by industry and brands) and benefits of textile recycling from a consumer perspective. This may hamper the much-needed further development of textile recycling. This paper presents a new fibre classification based on chemical groups and bonds that form the backbone of the polymers of which the fibres are made and that impart characteristic properties to the fibres. In addition, a new classification of textile recycling was designed based on the polymer structure of the fibres. These methods make it possible to unravel the logic and preferred recycling routes for different fibres, thereby facilitating communication on recycling. We concluded that there are good recycling options for mono-material streams within the cellulose, polyamide and polyester groups. For blended textiles, the perspective is promising for fibre blends within a single polymer group, while combinations of different polymers may pose problems in recycling.
Apparel rental, also known as collaborative apparel consumption, has created an innovative and popular business model, providing consumers with the ability to focus on using their products instead of ownership. Recent surveys show that sustainability is driving demand and customer loyalty in the US. Among all generations, Gen Z consumers lead the way. To better understand the emerging popularity of apparel rental services among Gen Z consumers who are becoming a major driving force for retail growth and the sustainability movement, this study aimed to identify the factors significantly influencing Gen Z consumers’ intention to use apparel rental services; 362 eligible responses were gathered via a questionnaire survey. The psychometric properties of the proposed model were examined, and the multiple regression method was applied to test the hypotheses. Attitude, subject norms, perceived consumer effectiveness, past environmental behavior, and fashion leadership significantly affected Gen Z consumers’ intentions to use apparel rental services. Attitude plays a mediating role between Gen Z consumers’ environmental knowledge, fashion leadership, need for uniqueness, and their intention to use apparel rental services. The proposed research model exhibited good explanatory power, accounting for 58.6% of the variance in Gen Z consumers’ use intention toward apparel rental services.
Access‐based product‐service systems (AB‐PSS) are business models that can potentially decouple the satisfaction of consumer needs from environmental impacts. Hence, they have been promoted for the circular economy. Their sustainability potential has not yet been realised because consumer adoption is lagging. Although this challenge has been studied for two decades, knowledge to identify and address AB‐PSS adoption barriers that matter to consumers is lacking. We hypothesise that the duration of use, the time a consumer obtains exclusive access to a specific product (short‐term vs. long‐term) and the type of product (bicycles vs. clothing) moderate the importance of AB‐PSS adoption barriers to consumers. We compared several adoption barriers across four AB‐PSS and found that the duration of use and the type of product significantly moderated the importance of some AB‐PSS adoption barriers. More specifically, the Effort to access has a higher influence on consumer preference for short‐term AB‐PSS, whereas Product quality has a higher influence on consumer preference for long‐term AB‐PSS. We also found that Effort to access and Product characteristics were more important for bicycle AB‐PSS, whereas Contamination and Product quality were more important for clothing AB‐PSS. These insights help companies to identify and design out key AB‐PSS consumer adoption barriers.
The subscription box e-commerce industry has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years. Given the growing size of the industry, this business model warrants direction for firms currently offering subscription services as well as companies considering entering this industry. This paper presents a detailed overview of the subscription box industry and proposes a framework for understanding subscription offerings (the 4 C’s). Second, it identifies challenges and opportunities facing this industry. Lastly, it provides managers with guidance in the form of five tenets on how to navigate the subscription box economy.
Despite the exponential growth of collaborative consumption practices, online fashion renting, an important type of collaborative fashion consumption, is still underexplored. Drawing on the theories of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Innovation Diffusion, we developed a holistic research framework to explore the motives for online fashion renting. By analyzing a total of 300 usable responses collected by a research market company using structure equation modeling (SEM), we found that attitudes and subjective norms positively influenced consumers’ intentions to engage with online fashion rental services. Moreover, we found that environmental awareness also had a significant influence on attitudes toward fashion renting through online platforms, and that relative advantage, amplified by personal innovativeness and fashion consciousness, also positively influenced consumers’ attitudes toward online fashion renting. Interestingly, price consciousness did not contribute to relative advantage.
While existing research has probed consumer responses to products of different recirculation pathways (recycling, reuse, refurbishment, etc), little work has examined consumer responses to an explicit “circular economy” product label or how willingness to pay is influenced by a continuum of circularity levels. This paper reports on the results of an online survey experiment that tests whether customers are willing to pay more for products with a theoretical multi-level Circular Economy score. Conjoint analysis was used on 800 respondents in the United Kingdom to test their willingness to pay for mobile phones and robot vacuum cleaners at different levels of circularity alongside other product attribute combinations. Results indicate that the average customer almost always prefers a more “circular” product when compared to products with otherwise identical attributes, and that customers are consistently willing to pay more for products with low or moderate levels of circular content. However, analysis suggests that willingness to pay more for products disappears, and in some cases declines, as the proportion of recirculated content increases. Results offer evidence that applying a numerical circular economy label at low levels of a recirculated content could be a profitable strategy for producers of mobile phones and robot vacuum cleaners. Such a strategy is less certain for heavily refurbished, fully reused products, or other product types.
With the textile industry satisfying steadily increasing consumption levels, excessive usage of valuable natural resources provokes a major environmental footprint: 118 billion cubic meters of water are expected to be utilized for global clothing production in 2030. Therefore, consumers' clothing consumption behavior needs to be shifted towards a more sustainable one. While green purchase behavior in general is well understood, research still lacks a comprehensive approach to explain consumers' purchase behavior of sustainable clothing. To provide a holistic framework which determines the main antecedents of purchase behavior of sustainable clothing and further, to shed light on the gap between purchase intention and subsequent purchase behavior of such clothes, we extended the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) approach with well-established constructs from green literature (i.e., perceived environmental knowledge and environmental concerns) and novel constructs derived from prior exploratory findings (i.e., greenwashing concerns, perceived economic risk, and perceived aesthetic risk). Four hundred sixty-four participants were inquired to assess these constructs in the context of sustainable clothing. Our findings indicate that attitude towards sustainable clothing has the highest impact on purchase intention. However, this relation is negatively influenced by consumers' greenwashing concerns. Moreover, we find evidence that consumers’ perceived aesthetic risk negatively impacts the intention-behavior relation, whereas perceived economic risk has no significant effect on this relation.
Environmental and social challenges require new sustainable business models, like sharing platforms. However, sharing platforms differ widely in their contribution to a more sustainable society. Whereas idealistic sharing platforms have dominant social goals, other sharing platforms are, or became, commercial. We explore the attractiveness of the typical organizational characteristics of idealistic sharing platforms in the fashion industry context, an industry with negative environmental and social impacts. Based on a literature review and exploratory focus groups, we conduct an online survey using conjoint analysis, completed by 1,512 respondents. Our results reveal that potential users prefer clothes sharing platforms to be small, to not partner with large clothing retailers, to have the possibility to participate in decision‐making, but to not require shareholding.
The fashion industry is the second largest industrial polluter after aviation, accounting for up to 10% of global pollution. Despite the widely publicized environmental impacts, however, the industry continues to grow, in part due to the rise of fast fashion, which relies on cheap manufacturing, frequent consumption and short-lived garment use. In this Review, we identify the environmental impacts at critical points in the textile and fashion value chain, from production to consumption, focusing on water use, chemical pollution, CO2 emissions and textile waste. Impacts from the fashion industry include over 92 million tonnes of waste produced per year and 1.5 trillion litres of water consumed. On the basis of these environmental impacts, we outline the need for fundamental changes in the fashion business model, including a deceleration of manufacturing and the introduction of sustainable practices throughout the supply chain, as well a shift in consumer behaviour — namely, decreasing clothing purchases and increasing garment lifetimes. These changes stress the need for an urgent transition back to ‘slow’ fashion, minimizing and mitigating the detrimental environmental impacts, so as to improve the long-term sustainability of the fashion supply chain.
Subscription models have become a popular new way for consumers to do their shopping. This paper presents a taxonomy of the three main archetypes of subscription models and develops a classification scheme with type-specific features relevant to their successful management.
An implementation framework offers managers a guideline to introduce subscription models of their own.
Drivers of and barriers to consumer adoption of product‐service systems (PSS) deviating strongly from the current consumption paradigm remain unidentified. This study quantitatively investigates purchase intentions of a hypothetical branded fashion subscription service. This service features use‐ and result‐oriented PSS attributes in a lack of ownership, newness, and choice, and is investigated from a Prospect Theory perspective using a mixed method design combining an experiment with a survey (n = 524). Results show that even if the PSS provider is highly trusted by consumers, this only mitigates some of the worries consumers have about wearing used clothing and being held financially liable for product damage. The only driver of adoption is the opportunity to save money. Additional specific product information is also explored and shows that PSS providers have scope to change consumer perceptions. Overall, it appears that fashion ownership and choice are lesser issues than the literature suggests, although financial incentives are important. Furthermore, having a trusted brand allows a potential PSS provider to alleviate only some of the concerns consumers have. The contribution of this paper lies in its empirical findings as well as in its validation of Prospect Theory as a valid approach to enquiring into reasons for or against consumer adoption of complex PSS such as subscription services.
The purpose of this study was to explore key attributes that may influence customers’ behavioral intentions toward beauty subscription box retail services (SBRS). The Stimulus‐Organism‐Response paradigm was used as a conceptual framework for examining the relationships among variables, such as product‐related attributes (Stimuli), attitude (Organism), Word of Mouth (WOM), and repurchase intention (Response). A total of 357 useable responses were collected through an online survey, administered on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model and hypothesized relationships. Results suggested that product quality, product assortment, and product uniqueness were significant predictors of customers’ attitude toward SBRS. Furthermore, customer attitude toward SBRS had a significant positive influence on WOM and repurchase intention. This study provides insight for retailers to influence WOM and purchase intentions toward beauty SBRS.
Subscription commerce emerged as an up-and-coming phenomenon in retailing that enables shoppers to automatically receive recurring deliveries of consumer goods. One important dimension along which subscription services differ is the degree to which the content of each delivery is surprising. This paper focuses on two archetypes at opposite ends of this dimension, namely predefined and curated surprise subscriptions, and juxtaposes them to conceptualize surprise as a retail mechanism. It is hypothesized that curated surprise subscriptions carry an inherent risk to receive unappealing products, as consumers outsource the decision-making process to the subscription provider, which can influence consumers’ choices and attitudes. Three studies explore the role of risk perception in consumers’ evaluation of consumer goods subscriptions. First, it was found that consumers prefer shorter delivery intervals for predefined subscriptions and longer delivery intervals for curated surprise subscriptions, in line with Prospect Theory. Second, empirical evidence for perceived risk as a mediating variable in this relation is provided. Finally, it is shown how retailers can manipulate associated risk through the introduction of a free-return option. The article is concluded by introducing a new typology of subscription services and discussing implications for managerial practice as well as avenues for future research.
Fashionable clothes resource suppliers are directly linked with resource consumers through the Internet, thus replacing the traditional model. With fashionable clothes as the products for renting, this study helps relevant enterprises understand the factors influencing consumers’ adoption of renting and their attitude and behavioral intention towards clothes renting. Taking the theory of planned behavior as the theoretical foundation, this study thus adopts the technology acceptance model (TAM), the innovation diffusion theory (IDT), the structural equation model (SEM), and the collected information to develop a research methodology that is both theoretical and practical. According to the research results, compatibility matters the most in driving consumers to have a positive assessment and perception of online clothes renting in terms of behavior and attitude. Additionally, personal innovativeness has significant effects and can help relevant enterprises find their target markets. In terms of subjective norm, interpersonal relationship also has a significant influence, showing that consumers today pay much more attention to friends’ information sources. The self-efficacy of the perceived behavioral control also has a noticeable impact. Therefore, relevant enterprises need to consider the operability of online clothes renting to prevent consumers from feeling frustrated in their ability to use it, thus reducing their use intention.
Access-based consumption, a growing trend in today’s society, provides the consumer with an opportunity to have access to new and diverse products without the burden of ownership. As one form of access-based consumption in the fashion industry, fashion renting still lacks development and popularity. The purpose of this study is to identify how perceived risks and frugal shopping affect the attitudes, perceived enjoyment and further behavioral intention toward the adoption of fashion renting. An online survey was conducted with 452 participants in the United States. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results confirmed the negative influences of three perceived risks (financial risk, performance risk, psychological risk) and the positive influences of frugal shopping on attitude toward and perceived enjoyment of fashion renting. Additionally, perceived enjoyment and attitudes were both found having positive influences on consumers’ intention toward fashion renting. This study contributes to existing literature by discovering the effects of perceived risks on attitude and perceived enjoyment of fashion renting and further fashion renting intentions. Managerial suggestions are also provided to promote fashion renting in the future.
This study examined one of the new consumption styles of modern consumers, subscription-based online services (SOS), which is often called as box retailing. The purpose of this study was to empirically test six antecedents—utilitarian motivations, hedonic motivations, fashion consciousness, consumer innovativeness, desire for unique products, and online transaction self-efficacy—as predictors of consumers’ attitude toward and intention to use fashion/beauty SOS. The theory of reasoned action was used as a theoretical foundation. With responses from 385 American consumers on an online survey, the theoretical model was tested in the fashion/beauty SOS context using structural equation modeling on LISREL. Results indicated that utilitarian and hedonic motivations, fashion consciousness, and online transaction self-efficacy indirectly influence intention to use fashion/beauty SOS, mediated by attitude towards fashion/beauty SOS. Instead of being mediated by attitude towards fashion/beauty SOS, consumer innovativeness and desire for unique products directly influence intention to use fashion/beauty SOS. Subjective norm positively influences intention to use fashion/beauty SOS. By identifying the factors that can predict consumers’ attitude towards and intention to use this new type of fashion/beauty consumption, this study addresses an evolving trend in home-based shopping behavior. Theoretically, as one of the earliest studies in this phenomenon, this study lays the theoretical groundwork paving way for further exploration in this area. Managers of fashion and beauty SOSs also can utilize these findings to more accurately target the appropriate consumer segment and streamline their marketing messages in accordance.
This paper explores the implications of contemporary sharing—a central cultural activity in the twenty-first century related to social media, the shared economy and ways of communication—on fashion. First, it maps the connection between fashion, body and personality. Later, following a theoretical model presented by John, it argues that sharing and fashion are internally connected and that sharing is the driving force behind the appearance of new consumer concepts such rental services and digital collections. Finally, the article analyzes these services to demonstrate how they disrupt the historical relationship between subjects and fashion objects in terms of ownership, physical connection and speed of circulation. It arises from this that in fashion, where the object used to be owned or literally attached to the body, and is part of a constructed personality, sharing is motivating a radical shift in the bond connecting subjects and clothes.
Refurbishment is an effective strategy to extend product lifetimes in a circular economy. However, consumers believe that refurbished products are contaminated with traces of prior use, which can be indicated by the appearance (e.g., scratches) or functionality (e.g., lower battery capacity) of refurbished products. This research explores strategies to improve consumer adoption of refurbished products by reducing contamination. In a choice-based conjoint analysis, 785 participants were exposed to refurbished headphones varying in features related to contamination, warranty, and price. We tested three contamination-reducing strategies, including (1). Communication about the clean object state, (2). Eliminating signs of use (aesthetic and functional wear-and-tear) and (3). Renewing parts that touch the skin (e.g., ear-cushions). Additionally, we analysed whether different consumer groups are driven by different attributes of refurbished products. Results showed that most consumers value refurbished products that show no signs of wear-and-tear and that have parts touching the skin renewed during the refurbishment process. These attributes are even more important than the reduced price or warranty, even though these are frequently used to market refurbished products. Depending on the consumer group, other contamination-reducing strategies were of great influence. While some consumer groups highly valued that signs of prior use are eliminated through an as-new appearance, others preferred refurbished products without functional wear-and-tear. In conclusion, four design strategies to deal with contamination during multiple life cycles of refurbished products are discussed.
Recently, there has been a surge in fashion companies providing a subscription model of shopping whereby consumers can get a curated box of fashion items delivered to them regularly. Despite the popularity, there is a lack of research on this topic. This study employed a qualitative approach to examine the motivations and benefits consumers associate with fashion subscription. Using in-depth interviews, data collected from 14 participants was analyzed to uncover six major themes. These themes arepersonalization via stylist and/or algorithm; adapting to the lifestyle: finding convenience and value; something old, something new, and something different: variety and experimentation; excitement of the surprise: searching for adventure; a gift for me: self-gratification; sharing the experience: shopping with friends and family. Themes uncovered from research with actual fashion subscribers have high external validity. Findings from this research advance our understanding on fashion subscription and provide insights for companies in this industry.
Although there is a shift in consumers' consumption behavior towards more sustainable patterns across a variety of different contexts, sustainable apparel has still not become a mainstream trend despite the textile industry's excessive usage of valuable resources. Albeit extant research found different potential barriers elucidating why consumers hesitate to purchase such apparel, it remains unclear whether sustainability really matters to consumers in a clothing context and further, which aspects are of relevance during consumers' purchase decision. We thus conducted two studies with four best-worst scaling experiments in which 4,350 online shoppers assessed the importance of both conventional and sustainable apparel attributes, as well as sustainable apparel attributes only, and the willingness to pay for sustainable product attributes. We further inquired the importance of conventional as well as sustainable online shop attributes. Our findings indicate that conventional apparel attributes such as fit and comfort, price-performance ratio, and quality are of higher relevance to consumers than sustainable attributes. The most important sustainable apparel attributes are the garment's durability, fair wages and working conditions, as well as an environmentally friendly production process. Consumers also indicated to prefer the latter three attributes to a 20% discount. Moreover, consumers demand less as well as sustainable packaging, free returns, and discount campaigns. Our findings reveal a gender gap regarding green consumerism with female respondents assessing most sustainable attributes as more important than male respondents do.
This research evaluates the interplay of emotion, cognition, and individual differences such as productivity orientation. Two experimental design studies using Mturk participants test the proposed effects of curiosity evoked by advertising stimuli with mystery on positive affect and preference for curated subscription boxes. The results show that advertising stimuli with mystery can have a negative influence on positive affect unless people feel high curiosity. We further demonstrate that people with high productivity orientation are more likely to experience high positive affect and to prefer “curated for you” items compared to low productivity-oriented people, after viewing advertising stimuli with mystery.
Purpose
Digital innovation and circular business model innovation are two critical enablers of a circular economy. A wide variety of digital technologies such as blockchain, 3D printing, cyber-physical systems, or big data also diverges the applications of digital technologies in circular business models. Given heterogeneous attributes of circular business models and digital technologies, the selections of digital technologies and circular business models might be highly distinctive within and between sectorial contexts. This paper examines digital circular business models in the context of the fashion industry and its multiple actors. This industry as the world’s second polluting industry requires an urgent circular economy (CE) transition with less resource consumption, lower waste emissions and a more stable economy.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive, exploratory multiple-case study method is employed to investigate the ten cases of different sized fashion companies (i.e. large, small medium-sized firm (SME) and startup firms). The comparison across cases is conducted to understand fashion firms' distinct behaviours in adopting various digital circular economy strategies.
Findings
The paper presents three archetypes of digital-based circular business models in the fashion industry: the blockchain-based supply chain model, the service-based model and the pull demand-driven model. Besides incremental innovations, the radical business model and digital innovations as presented in the pull demand-driven model may be crucial to the fashion circular economy transition. The pull demand–driven model may shift the economy from scales to scopes, change the whole process of how the fashion items are forecasted, produced, and used, and reform consumer behaviours. The paths of adopting digital fashion circular business models are also different among large, SMEs and startup fashion firms.
Practical implications
The study provides business managers with empirical insights on how circular business models (CBMs) should be chosen according to intrinsic business capacities, technological competences and CE strategies. The emerging trends of new fashion markets (e.g. rental, subscription) and consumers' sustainable awareness should be not be neglected. Moreover, besides adopting recycling and reuse strategies, large fashion incumbents consider collaborating with other technology suppliers and startup companies to incubate more radical innovations.
Social implications
Appropriate policies and regulations should be enacted to enable the digital CE transition. Market patterns and consumer acceptances are considered highly challenging to these digital fashion models. A balanced policy on both the demand and supply sides are suggested. The one-side policy may fail CBMs that entail an upside-down collaboration of both producers and consumers. Moreover, it is perhaps time to rethink how to reduce unnecessary new demand rather than repeatedly producing and recycling.
Originality/value
The pace of CE research is lagging far behind the accelerating environmental contamination by the fashion industry. The study aims to narrow the gap between theory and practice to harmonise fashion firms' orchestration and accelerate the transition of the fashion industry towards the CE. This study examines diverse types of digital technologies in different circular business models in a homogeneous context of the fashion industry with heterogeneous firm types.
Aufgrund erkannter Limitationen und Probleme der Choice-Based Conjointanalyse (CBC) sowie mit dem Anspruch, diesen zu begegnen, wurde als Variante der CBC die so genannte Adaptive Choice-Based Conjointanalyse (ACBC) entwickelt und 2007 zusammen mit einem neuen Modul von Sawtooth Software auch in die kommerzielle Anwendung eingeführt. Ähnlich wie bei der Adaptiven Conjointanalyse (ACA) wird bei der ACBC ein kompositioneller Erhebungsteil mit einem dekompositionellen Erhebungs- und Auswertungsteil kombiniert. In diesem Kapitel werden die einzelnen Ablaufschritte einer ACBC vorgestellt und deren Vor- und Nachteile gegenüber einer CBC diskutiert. Es folgen typische Anwendungsfelder sowie eine Anwendung der ACBC am Beispiel der Gestaltung und Preisfindung einer neuartigen Sportjacke aus nachhaltigen Materialien.
This paper explores the implications of contemporary sharing—a central cultural activity in the twenty-first century related to social media, the shared economy and ways of communication—on fashion. First, it maps the connection between fashion, body and personality. Later, following a theoretical model presented by John, it argues that sharing and fashion are internally connected and that sharing is the driving force behind the appearance of new consumer concepts such rental services and digital collections. Finally, the article analyzes these services to demonstrate how they disrupt the historical relationship between subjects and fashion objects in terms of ownership, physical connection and speed of circulation. It arises from this that in fashion, where the object used to be owned or literally attached to the body, and is part of a constructed personality, sharing is motivating a radical shift in the bond connecting subjects and clothes.
Purpose
To address the volatile nature of the retail industry, retailers have adopted clothing subscription services (CSS) to meet the demanding needs of consumers. This study provides insight into different types of CSS, as well as a process by which behavioural intentions are influenced by CSS type through cognitive dissonance (wisdom of purchase and emotional dissonance) and attitude towards the CSS.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental design manipulating the CSS type (full/partial/none) was conducted among 358 US consumers to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Hayes PROCESS macro model results demonstrated that consumers did not experience more cognitive dissonance towards a partially, fully curated or non-curated CSS. However, a significant interaction effect further uncovered that consumers with high aesthetic perception experience more negative wisdom of purchase towards a fully compared to a partially curated CSS, thereby impacting attitude and behavioural intention towards CSS.
Practical implications
Due to today's rapidly evolving retail industry, retailers endeavouring to engage in this business model should come up with strategies to turn a visitor into a subscriber and decrease hesitation in novice consumers. Moreover, retailers should ascertain consumers’ level of aesthetic perception as it plays an important role in CSS adoption.
Originality/value
We introduced a unique operationalization of CSS types by differentiating between fully, partially and non-curated subscriptions, which are commonly employed in the subscription-box marketplace. The previous literature rarely makes distinctions between these types, although our findings show that consumers perceive them differently.
Minimalistic consumption has received increased attention during the last few years with a substantial segment of consumers having adopted this notion. Minimalism highlights subjective well-being, happiness, and increased quality of life. Despite minimalism gaining significance, we know little about minimalistic consumption, its various forms, its antecedents, and its impact on consumer behavior. Extant literature does not offer a clear or concise conceptualization of minimalism in consumption or the potential strategies to identify, target, and engage minimalistic consumers. This has been a major deterrent in advancing research on minimalistic consumption. This article provides a conceptualization of minimalism and offers a typology of consumers that engage in minimalistic consumption based on two dimensions: the conditional susceptibility and goal orientation of consumers. It presents a framework of brand engagement strategies for each type of consumer and shows how firms can potentially benefit in terms of sales, profitability, and customer relationships by engaging with minimalistic consumers.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' perceptions of and consumer behaviour towards apparel labels and environmental, sustainable and social apparel.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research was conducted, and empirical data were collected from 399 US consumers.
Findings
Findings indicate that consumers expressed positive sentiments towards apparel sustainability, yet they lacked knowledge about socially and environmental practices within the apparel industry. Overall, it is apparent that the respondents have an interest in environmental and social labelling; but they are not aware of brands that sell these types of garments nor their validity. It was also found that consumers may not have much knowledge regarding environmental, sustainable and social apparel or their meanings.
Originality/value
By surveying the consumers about their perspectives on apparel labels and environmental, sustainable and social apparel, valuable market information was obtained. Sustainably and ethically produced garments are of demand as transparency in the apparel industry grows. Brands looking to become more transparent about their production methods will need to find new ways to reach their target market by accurately labelling products and educating their consumers about these label claims.
Fashion rental service, as a form of collaborative consumption, has gained increasing attention in the fashion industry. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fashion rental businesses need to strategically respond to consumers with heightened contamination concerns. This research aims to understand how diverse consumption values of fashion rental service form attitudes towards the service depending on one’s contamination concerns and predict adoption intentions. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data (N = 270). The findings suggest that functional, economic, and emotional values significantly increase attitudes leading to adoption intentions. Further, contamination concerns moderate the relationships between values and attitudes as well as attitudes and intentions. The findings enrich the literature of collaborative consumption by integrating theories of consumption value and consumer contamination. Furthermore, the results provide managerial implications for strategic communication of FRS to effectively reach consumers depending on their contamination concern.
The apparel manufacturers and retailers throughout the world are searching for innovative solutions to reduce the harmful impact the industry has on the environment. These firms cannot afford to lose the environmentally conscious consumers. Circular fashion is an emerging area that promotes the reuse and recycling of the used clothing. Online renting of the used clothes is an emerging business that supports circular fashion practices leading to environmental and economic sustainability. The present study investigates the antecedents of online second-hand clothing rental platforms that drive the consumer to adopt them. Based on the theoretical underpinning of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and source credibility theory, the study finds that the utility of these platforms, ease of use, attitude, and social pressure drives the behavioral intent of the consumers to use these platforms. The study also identifies that communications from Instagram microcelebrities could positively influence the consumers to adopt these platforms promoting circular fashion and sustainability.
The purpose of this study is to investigate consumers' adoption intention of fashion subscription retailing services by using the Technology Acceptance Model. This study also investigated the moderating effect of two shopping relevant traits: hedonic shopping orientation and experiment with appearance. Data for this study was collection via an online survey. Reliability analysis and multiple regression analyses were employed to analyze the data. There are two main findings from this study. First, consumers’ intention to adopt fashion subscription retailing was significantly influenced by their perceived usefulness, including convenience, economic benefits, and style related benefits, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment. Secondly, consumers' hedonic shopping orientation and experiment with appearance exerted moderating effects on consumers' adoption intention. This study not only contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on consumer behaviour toward fashion subscription retailing, but also provides managerial insights to the practitioners in their marketing and segmentation efforts.
Over the past few decades, sustainable supply chain management practices have been developed to incorporate ecological issues into business by decreasing unintentional destructive effects on the environment in the process of manufacturing and purchasing. At the same time, circular economies push the boundaries of environmental sustainability by highlighting the notion of innovative goods, creating a viable relationship between ecosystems and economic growth. Through a systematic literature review, this paper identifies four themes—drivers, barriers, practices, and indicators of sustainable performance when applying a circular economy in the textile and apparel industry. We establish a conceptual model based on these four themes, which illustrates the relationship between them. We highlight two main challenges in circular economy implementation and provide some suggestions for managers in the textile and apparel industry. We conclude by suggesting several future research directions.
The purpose of this study was to understand the phenomenon of collaborative apparel consumption (CAC) by discovering the consumer motivations for engaging in collaborative consumption and comparing motivations across different modes of CAC. This study focused on the two types of online platforms for CAC that are most relevant to the current apparel industry including online apparel renting and resale sites. Using the grounded theory approach, 38 users of CAC platforms were interviewed. A variety of themes concerning consumer motivations for engaging in CAC emerged from the data. The final eight themes for renting and six themes for resale were categorized into five basic consumer motivations: saving money, saving time, finding desirable product assortment, utility, and no burden of ownership. Specific theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the influences of perceived enjoyment, perceived risks and attitude on the intention to rent fashion products for both Chinese and American consumers. Furthermore, this study is expected to empirically identify the differences between American and Chinese consumers in terms of motivations for and barriers to fashion renting.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through online surveys in both the USA and China. Data cleaning generated 412 usable samples in the USA and 301 usable responses in China. A series of t -test analyses and structural equation modeling were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Statistical results confirmed the positive influences of perceived enjoyment and attitude on fashion renting intention. In addition, the negative influences of perceived performance risk and social risk on attitude were also affirmed. Moreover, the results indicated that significant differences exist between American and Chinese consumers in terms of perceived risks and enjoyment of fashion renting, as well as attitude toward renting. Further, group comparison testing results discovered that differences existed in the factors influencing the intention to rent fashion products between American and Chinese consumers.
Originality/value
This study initiates the attempt to investigate the motivations and obstacles for fashion renting intention for both American and Chinese consumers. The cultural comparison between Chinese and American consumers also delivers a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and obstacles behind the intention of fashion renting.
Clothing overconsumption is a growing global phenomenon with serious effects on the environment and society. Huge amounts of textile waste are ending up U.S. landfills due to unsustainable clothing consumption patterns. With the conceptual underpinnings of Behavioral Reasoning Theory, the purpose of this study was to explore sustainable clothing consumption behaviors (SCCBs) that young consumers were most and least likely to engage in and to understand specific reasons for their decisions to engage in a variety of SCCBs. The study used qualitative method of inquiry and conducted six focus groups with forty-one young adult consumers. Data was transcribed and analyzed to develop specific reasons that the participants attached to engage or not engage in SCCBs. Qualitative analyses revealed that participants’ reasons for engaging in SCCBs included perceived value, sustainability commitment, uniqueness, acquisition from known sources and lifestyle changes. Specific reasons for not engaging in SCCBs included perceived lack of variety/style, budget constraints, skepticism, lack of knowledge/skills, emotions attached to consumption, perceived lack of availability and consumers’ self-indulgent behavior. The findings of this study provide important implications for public policy makers and businesses to integrate and promote circularity in the fashion industry. The study also emphasizes the important role consumers’ play in extending clothing lifecycle.
Important conceptual-definitional and empirical issues previously have been raised with regard to information overload in the consumer context. The primary purpose of this rejoinder is to highlight points of agreement and disagreement and thus bring closer a resolution of the issues.
This article examines the contextual 'reasons for' and 'reasons against' the adoption of beauty box subscription-based online services (BxSOS) in a developing country like India using the behavioral reasoning theory (BRT). This study surveys the female consumers in India to understand the adoption of BxSOS using the unique model of behavioral reasoning theory (BRT). After data collection, the analysis was done using the PLS-SEM technique. The 'reasons for' BxSOS adoption are convenience, ubiquitous, hedonic shopping motivation, social influence and price consciousness and the 'reasons against' are traditional barrier, relative advantage, choice/variety and perceived risk. It is also found that value of "openness to change" significantly influences the 'reasons for' adoption and attitude towards BxSOS whereas it has no impact on the 'reasons against' adoption of BxSOS. This crosssectional study was conducted with target respondents as female consumers in the Indian context and future research can be conducted in other countries with different cultures and both the genders to generalize the results.
The circular economy (CE) has gained traction as a pathway towards more sustainable economic growth. The main actions leading towards a CE have been identified as the 3R principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle. However, understanding is lacking regarding how the adoption of CE using the 3R principles generates value and revenue in a business context. Thus, this study structurally examines business models used by CE-driven firms utilizing the fundamental business model components of value proposition, value creation/delivery, and value capture. By developing a detailed framework of business model components, acknowledging the particular features of CE implementation, and conducting a multiple-case study combining the business model approach with the 3R principles, this study analyzes feasible CE business models from multiple industries in Europe, the US, and China. The following five research propositions are derived from the findings of the explorative case analysis: 1) the cost-efficiency of circular operations is the key proponent to successful CE business, 2) take-back services enable the acquisition of particular wastes as resources, but they need to be incentivized through reductions in customers’ total waste management costs, 3) circular business models require the focal firm to separately manage multiple positions in the value chain, 4) the take-back system for gaining value through CE can be implemented successfully in multiple ways, and 5) recycling is easier to implement than reducing or reusing due to a smaller impact on the business. These propositions contribute to the circular business model literature by showing how economic value is generated by CE initiatives and providing foundations for theory-testing future research. The propositions also provide guidance for policymakers and managers on supporting and implementing circular business.
Purpose
Fashion subscription service is a newly emerged retailing model that provides an innovative way of shopping to meet consumers’ fashion needs. From the perspective of innovation adoption, the purpose of this paper is to provide an insight of consumers’ perceptions as well as adoption intention of this innovative retailing format.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is qualitative in nature, utilizing focus group study approach. In this paper, content analysis was applied to analyze the data.
Findings
While possessing varying degrees of knowledge about fashion subscription retailing, the participants shared the following perceptions of relative advantages, including convenience, personalization, consumer excitement, opportunities to try new styles, and opportunity to better manage their apparel budget. Concerns mainly focused on missing social shopping experiences and the hassle in the cancellation process. The overall adoption intention was high.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the nature of this research, the sample size was limited and results may not be generalized. This research paid less attention to individual differences, in terms of demographic and psychographic characteristics.
Practical implications
Future marketing could focus more on educating consumers about the attributes of the services they provide. Retailers can strategically leverage the positively perceived advantages in their marketing communications to enhance consumers’ adoption intention of their services.
Originality/value
The paper fills a gap in the literature on consumer behavior toward fashion subscription retailing and sheds light for companies in their endeavors to excel in this new retailing venue.