Eco-fashion’s impact on young consumers’ attitudes and perceptions of the fast-fashion brands

The purpose of this study is to critically examine, in the context of the Fast-Fashion industry, the relevance of Eco-fashion on young consumers’ attitudes and perceptions of the brands, in order to disclose the relationships between Eco-fashion strategies and customers’ brand loyalty - or consumers’ purchase intentions. The research design reckons on a mono method, based on a quantitative online survey conducted among 216-targeted respondents from four age groups and two different countries (China – UK). The findings reveal that, although fast-fashion consumers still lack of knowledge about the negative impacts of this industry, Eco-fashion strategies are playing an increasingly important role in fast-fashion consumption. Besides, the growing significance of sustainability in the fast-fashion industry has impacted consumers’ attitudes towards the brands, thus influencing their customers’ loyalty and purchase decision-making. Academically, the value and originality of the research relies on the newness of the thematic, since so far only few studies have focused on exploring the relationship between Eco-fashion and the fast-fashion consumers’ perspectives of the brands. On the contrary, in the business field, fast fashion retailers - in order to earn long-term profit – have realized the importance of developing and implementing strategies aimed at exploiting the potentialities of the above-mentioned relationship. Therefore, this study has relevance also in terms of managerial implications for fast fashion retailers, since it gives some suggestions that can help the latters to achieve economic profit.