Our latest Certilogo consumer survey reveals that consumers expect experiences and services that will actively help them contribute to a more sustainable relationship with fashion. Throw-away culture is falling out of fashion, as consumers look to extend the useful life of their products.
Last month we surveyed over 1.000 consumers who used Certilogo to authenticate their products, regarding their attitudes towards the sustainability of their fashion purchases. Their responses underline some significant shifts in consumer behaviour that reaffirm the pivotal role connected products will play as the fashion industry works to reduce its environmental footprint.
Key findings:
- The sustainability of a product influences purchase decisions, and the demand for transparency comes from the consumer as well as the regulators.
- More than 7 in 10 consumers consider the sustainability of their purchases to be important or very important.
- Only 1 in 10 remain unconcerned about a product's environmental impact.
- Millennials are most interested in their purchases being eco-friendly, with 3 in 4 saying they care greatly, compared with 6 in 10 from Gen. Z.
- 93% of consumers find products that offer sustainable services useful, with 1 in 5 finding green certifications as being most useful.
- New regulations as part of the EU Sustainable and Circular Textiles Directive are expected to oblige all fashion brands to equip all of their products with a digital ID and Digital Product Passport able to inform consumers of the impact of their purchase.
- Throw-away fashion culture is falling out of fashion as consumers aspire to become more responsible shoppers and are highly interested in recouping the maximum value of their outlay.
- More than 70% expect to recover value from the product in some form or another, with reselling being the most popular method, as expressed by 35,6% of consumers.
- Gen. Z consumers are most likely to resell their fashion purchases, with 4 in 10 intending to do so, compared with 3 in 10 Millennials.
- Generation Z are twice as likely than Millennials to choose to resell their product rather than swap it or donate it.
- 19,1% of consumers say they will swap the product for a similarly valued article.
- 16,3% declare they will return the product to the brand for recycling, in exchange for a reward of some kind.
- Knowing that a product is authentic and legitimate is fundamental to the consumer. Product authentication is considered the most useful sustainability feature of connected products.
- 70% of consumers regard product authentication as being the most important ‘green’ service.
- Only a certified genuine product can be trusted to make green claims and an unlawfully manufactured counterfeit product’s environmental footprint is unsustainable by definition.
