Fashion has always been a sector that leads change. What we see happening in this market often has the potential to set the pace of change across the retail industry. 

The trend towards sustainability is no different, as consumers expand their wish list of demands from traditional value drivers like price and quality to ethical value drivers like trust and transparency.

Yet there’s a strong correlation (48%) between those we consider ‘environmentalists’ and those who like to keep up with the latest fashion trends. In the world of sustainable fashion, we see three key shifts that are stimulating this trend.

Ethical choices

First is the shift from ‘nice to have’ to essential qualifier. More and more, consumers are voting with their feet when it comes to ethical values and the gap between ‘who says’ and ‘who does’ is narrowing.

“Nearly 80% of consumers believe large companies have the biggest responsibility for addressing the environmental problems in the world”

Therefore, the availability of ranges that speak to these values can be the difference between whether or not a shopper buys into your brand in the first place.

Research conducted by Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation practice indicates that nearly 80% of consumers believe large companies have the biggest responsibility for addressing the environmental problems in the world.

Moreover, 84% of global consumers are making an effort to buy products from companies that support causes they care about.

Broad appeal

Second, the shift from sustainable fashion’s premium positioning to an expectation at all levels of the market. What began as a fashion trend that seemed exclusive and spenny is now being delivered by the likes of Primark in its pyjama range.

While consumers are exhibiting a willingness to spend a little more on products and brands they believe to be more sustainable, there is a higher propensity to shop with brands that make the experience of product discovery and selection easier.

By having a larger assortment of sustainable goods, whether you’re a value retailer or a luxury label, you increase your mental availability to the sustainable shopper by reducing the work they must do to figure out how well your offer measures up.

Service-led

Finally, we’re seeing the shift from sustainable fashion as a product to an offer that is service-led. This is to be expected in a context when experiences and services are gradually being prioritised in the physical sphere, with dead retail space being redeployed to meet these new needs.

With the list of demands extending faster than retailers can adapt, partnerships are becoming essential to delivering on expectations.

These enable retailers to quickly embed new services into their business model, while benefiting from the expertise of third parties already operating in this space, allowing both parties to scale faster and more efficiently.

As a result, partnerships between companies like Liberty and My Wardrobe or Depop and Selfridges, which bring rental and resale services closer into the retail environment, are helping to accelerate the trend towards sustainability. Partnerships like this put pressure on rivals to follow suit and normalise notions of value-oriented models.

There are some drawbacks; this is a fast-changing and largely unmoderated space. Those seeking to participate in a sustainable sharing economy also need to consider elements like product insurance, garment care and cleaning, transportation and hygiene. The infrastructure required to make this ecosystem still requires investment and regulation.

“Partnerships between companies like Liberty and My Wardrobe or Depop and Selfridges are helping to accelerate the trend towards sustainability”

Yet it’s an important consideration for not only growth, but also competition. We are already seeing peer-to-peer services like By Rotation and Our Closet emerging, which create a C2C sustainability-oriented community independent of the retail ecosystem. Therefore, unless brands adapt to this change, they risk being cut out of the ecosystem altogether.

There are numerous benefits to participating in the rental and resale economy that go far beyond the feel-good factor of doing something good for the planet.

One is that retailers can boost buy-in to brands that might normally be prohibitive at full RRP to aspirational shoppers. For luxury department stores like Selfridges and Liberty, these schemes can play an important role in making luxury fashion accessible, with the potential to convert these consumers to full-price sales as their disposable incomes rise.

Moreover, by treating this system as part of an elevated host of services, from styling and personal shopping to repairs and adjustments, the ability to say to a shopper: “We can help you find the perfect outfit for that once-in-a-lifetime event that we know you won’t wear again, so won’t cost you an arm and a leg” is a much more powerful and emotive statement of service than “We can help you reduce your carbon footprint”.

Fashion is, after all, an emotional category, and shoppers often remember how they feel when that need is satisfied as much as they remember the product itself.

Ultimately, this shift is not just about doing better for the planet.

It’s a matter of human-centric transformation that not only enables you to have a conversation with the consumer about the values you care about as a business, but positions you front of mind in the conversation consumers are having with each other about the things that matter to them.