Fashion shoppers in the UK ‘want to see sustainability and authenticity from brands’

Newly released data indicates that today’s fashion purchasers in the UK take sustainability and brand authenticity significantly into account when they are making buying decisions. 

A report by the Just-style.com website said that the findings of research from the ecommerce platform Centra showed the product itself was rated as the number one consideration for 50% of customers. 

However, it seems that key brand values, such as the green credentials of a given brand and how true a company is to its brand meaning, are being increasingly considered by many shoppers when they decide whether to buy fashion items. 

What else do we know about the research? 

Many of those working alongside our specialist digital marketing agency for luxury brands will be interested in the findings of the Centra research, which took the form of a survey of more than 2,000 UK shoppers. 

Nearly a third – 29% – of respondents stated that sustainability was a key consideration for them when they came to shop for apparel, saying that in order to convince them to become customers, a brand needed to care about the planet, and not just about profit. This proportion was as high as 36% for those in the 18-to-24-year-old age bracket. 

Meanwhile, an additional 25% of shoppers for fashion in the UK indicated that their buying decision would also be impacted by authenticity, where this is defined as the extent to which the given brand lives up to what it claims to stand for. This rises to 30% of shoppers aged between 25 and 34. 

Customers want fashion brands to back up their stated values with action 

If you are coordinating the marketing or growth strategy for a fashion brand, it might intrigue you to read that some 65% – almost two thirds – of shoppers believe brands in this sector need to ‘hard bake’ sustainability into their brand values. 

Meanwhile, seven in 10 (70%) participants in the survey said that retailers ought to do more to bring their eco-friendly values to life across their sales channels and touchpoints. And a whopping 45% of customers said they would purchase more from fashion brands that are vocal about their green initiatives. 

72% of those quizzed, however, also said it was crucial for sustainability claims to be backed up by meaningful actions by a brand before they would think about altering their purchasing behaviour or switching their loyalty to a retailer. Just over half of respondents, 51%, said that if they perceived a given retailer to be ‘greenwashing’, this would leave them with a negative view of the brand. 

Looking more specifically at the subject of authenticity, some 64% of shoppers now want the online experience of a given brand to align with that brand’s personality and values. Furthermore, 42% of shoppers – more than two fifths – indicated that they would question their purchasing decision in the event of a retailer’s shopping experience failing to embody the values of the brand. 

Are you ready to partner with the agency that can help bring your brand’s values and reality together? 

All of the above should certainly provide ‘food for thought’ for your high-end organisation, underlining the importance of making sure customers are as convinced by the online shopping experience you offer, as they are by your brand’s stated values. 

How can you help ensure that? One major step could be to join forces with Skywire London. Our specialist digital marketing agency for luxury brands has a track record of supporting the growth of fashion retailers online, through the application of wide-ranging expertise; for more information about how we can help your firm realise its ambitions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.