Report: Consumer Attitude Gap and Sustainable Fashion Trends

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the consumer attitude gap in sustainable fashion. It explores how consumers understand, perceive, and act towards sustainable fashion, addressing the inconsistencies in purchasing behavior influenced by various factors such as age, gender, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The report delves into the awareness of sustainability among younger generations (Gen Z) versus older adults, and investigates the attitude gaps in purchasing sustainable clothing based on age and gender, including their feelings, judgments, opinions, actions, and values. It examines the factors influencing customers to adopt sustainable fashion, such as price, product availability, quality, and trust. Furthermore, it analyzes the shifts in perception and attitudes towards sustainable products following the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis includes relevant academic resources and is structured with Harvard referencing and in-text citations, adhering to the assignment brief's requirements. The report highlights key trends and provides valuable insights into consumer behavior within the sustainable fashion market, offering a detailed overview of the current landscape and future directions.

Consumer Attitude
Gap Towards
Sustainable Fashion
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable fashion refers to the Eco fashion which describes the processes, product, customers
and activities develop on social justice, equality, ecological integrity, and animal welfare. as the
time passes the customers and people of new generations are aware about the sustainability in
fashion and its importance for the welfare of whole society. It includes Swapping, Thrifting,
renting and sharing fashion in order to reduce wastage (Achabou, Dekhili, and Codini, 2020).
The sustainable fashion has been termed as fashion items which are made in such a manner to
reduce the impact of fashion industry on environment. It is very important for every brand to use
recycled or natural material which needed less chemical material, no harmful substance or water
in order to bring sustainability in their product. The consumer attitude gap refers to the change
in action and behaviour of people towards purchasing of fashion item over years.
This report covers what and how a consumers understand, perceive and act towards
sustainable Fashion.
MAINBODY
What is consumer attitude gap
The consumer attitude gap has been determining as inconsistency in purchasing behaviour
or actions of people due to various changes in pattern, trends, technology and others. sometimes
it is positive attitude and sometimes negative which depends on demand, nature, price, income
and various other factors (Brandão, and da Costa, 2021). In recent times awareness in society has
gained more attention as companies and consumer concerns regarding having a favourable
impact on environment have increased. various situational factors which causes consumer
attitude gap are product availability, product quality, attribute and price. These are having great
influence on the consumer behaviour gap and purchasing habit.
Explore the awareness of sustainability among younger generations like Gen Z vs older adults
In recent times, it has been seen that new generation and teenage are aware about the
sustainability as compare to old generation. They are also try to use these product in their regular
life in order to save environment, animal and reduce inequality among the society. it has been
determine that younger people believes that they have the power to do better for society more
than what they recently do along with inspire other to buy sustainable product in order to save
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animal or people lives. old generation is follow various rituals or trends which increase the use of
animal product and discrimination in society (Colasante and D'Adamo 2021). as particular dress
up for particular caste as well as many products which is used for specific purpose. but the Gen Z
generation is more aware about all these issues as they born in digital world and more health
conscious which leads to increase in awareness among them about the social and environment
responsibility. by using digital technology they get easy to know about what going on in the
whole world and how they can reduce the negative impact of old trends by using sustainable
product. early people are not aware about the which product is made with which kinds of
elements such as animal skin, chemical and other that harms the environment, their own or
animal life. moreover, the Gen Z generation develop various innovative ideas to made
sustainable product in order to save the environment or life of animal (Hur and Cassidy, 2019).
Research the attitude gap purchasing and perceiving sustainable clothing in customers by age
The main purpose of this research to determine the attitude gap among the consumers in order to
purchase clothing items. Along with determine the issues and problems in fashion industry
related to the consumption in Australia (Ikram, 2022). It has been seen that the fashion industry
is changing rapidly so the expectation and demand of people who belong to different age is also
changing. Older age group prefers better quality product in less price so some times they find
sustainable product is too costly along with they have trust issues with the quality of clothing
product. they also want to wear traditional dresses which the company of sustainable product is
unable to make so the purchasing behaviour of these age group towards the sustainable product
is less. they seek quality and value in cloths which are prefect with their own ideals. it has been
seen that they are not ready to pay more amount to less quality sustainable product. On the other
hand the new generation people and Zen Z are activity quality conscious and fashion consumer
they want more variety in Clothing in order to meet their social needs. There is differ among the
cat and think of these two generation (Ki, Park and Ha‐Brookshire, 2021). Zen z use social
media and digital platforms which have great influence on the purchasing behaviour as in recent
times they are using online shopping, technology and various social issues reated to fashion
industry. they are willing to pay more amount to sustainable product which are good in quality as
well as contribute towards the betterment of environment and whole world.
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Research the attitude gap purchasing and perceiving sustainable clothing in customers by gender
along with their feelings, judgement, actions, opinions and value
The attitude gap perceiving and purchasing sustainable clothing in customers by gender is
different from male and female. it has been determining that most of the male prefer to buy brand
and high quality product. but the Female wants variety of clothing items to meet their social
needs which shows the huge purchasing gap for sustainable product. half of the Female
population prefers to buy the product which are most fashionable, durable and less expensive as
they want new items daily for their office, party, functions and other. men are most conscious
towards the sustainable product because they are satisfy with less variety of items to meet their
basic needs. there are various factors which define the purchasing and perceptions of people who
belong to different gender are as follows-
Feelings- It has been seen that women are most protective and selective for their clothing items
as compare to men, as they think too much about the quality, price and material of product. In
context to Sustainable fashion product they feel not satisfied with less variety and options as
compare to men. they did not think too much before buy cloths as well as did not give more
focus on colour, variety of items (Orminski, Tandoc and Detenber, 2021). Men have more
knowledge about the environment condition and importance of suitable products so they feel
good to buy these items for future betterment. on the other hand, women have different felling
for sustainable items as they want affordable or beautiful cloths to look graceful. it has been seen
that women are more sensitive towards their clothing than men so they buy product after
examine the price and quality.
Value- The value of Sustainable product is different from men to women as men. Like men want
product which are comfortable or look simple whereas women want beautiful or unique design
product which increase their beauty. But company of sustainable product not produce heavy
dress so women prefers less to buy this product.
Opinion- It has been seen that previously men are not prefer to buy sustainable clothing items
but after increasing the trends of eco friendly branded product they start to buy these items like
branded jeans, shirts and t shirts. but in many countries women want to prefer eco-friendly items
for the betterment of their lifestyle.
Actions and Judgement- Action and judgement are different in fashion industry as the opinion
of men and women which increases consumer attitude gap. During the time of purchasing they
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pass judgement about the quality and price of fashion items. so the company must focus on
quality and effectiveness of items so they change the purchasing habits of people towards
sustainable product (Park and Lin, 2020).
Figure 1Change in perception of gender towards sustainable fashion, 2022
Explore what factors there are influencing customers to adopt sustainable fashion
Price- It is one of the major influencing factor on the purchasing actions of consumers as they
are not ready to pay extra price for the sustainable product. It has been determining that
producing sustainable product also increasing production cost which create problem for
companies to take decision regarding like whether they the consumer sell product at higher price
or bear high production cost and less margin (Salem and Alanadoly, 2020). If they sell product at
higher prices, then the consumer ethical consideration is coming out which maximise attitude
gap. It has been seen that many fashion company found difficulties to convince consumers that
sustainable product are worth the extra cost for buying the product which is effective or durable.
Product Availability-The product availability is a significant determinant of consumer
behaviour towards the sustainable product. Less availability as well as difficulties in measuring
the reliability of sustainable product have negative influence of consumer consumption. it has
been determining that most of the people did not like to give extra time in search of sustainable
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product when they needed it urgently. In fashion industry, many company try to expand their
productivity so the product is available in the market to maximise the sustainable consumption.
Product Quality and Attributes- It is very important for a consumer to have better product
quality as compare to ethical considerations. it has been determine the sustainable fashion
products are low in quality as compare regular items that increase the consumer attitude gap. so
the fashion companies must increase the innovation to increase the quality of sustainable product
in order to deduct the gap. it has been analysing that the consumer is willing to pay more price if
the quality and availability of product is good.
Trust- It is another factor which has great influence on the consumer purchasing behaviour.
there are various fashion company which make sustainable items but did not have brand value
and name in market which leads to increase the trust issues among customers. it has been seen
that many firms sell low quality product at higher price which is another issues to increase the
trust gap for consuming these items.
Has there been a change in perception and attitudes for sustainable products after Covid-19
pandemic what were they and why?
There is huge change in the attitude or perception among customer after COVID for sustainable
product as they are more health and environment conscious which increases the demand among
the fashion industry. as they must use eco-friendly machines in their product function, along with
less chemical substance to make products sustainable in order to reduce pollution or wastage
(Saricam and Okur, 2019). Modern generation prefers to buy better quality sustainable items
which did not include animal skin, chemical substance and other due to make their environment
safer and healthy.
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CONCLUSION
as per above presented report, it has been concluded that there is huge consumer behaviour gap
towards sustainable fashion product due to less availability, higher price, cost and quality. it has
been seen that people from different generation have different perception about the sustainable
fashion product along with they have differ feeling, value and action which increases or decrease
the gap among them for these product. Covid 19 changes their perception as they are more prefer
to purchase those items which are made with natural substance.
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REFERENCES
Books and journal
Achabou, M.A., Dekhili, S. and Codini, A.P., 2020. Consumer preferences towards animal-
friendly fashion products: an application to the Italian market. Journal of Consumer Marketing.
Brandão, A. and da Costa, A.G., 2021. Extending the theory of planned behaviour to understand
the effects of barriers towards sustainable fashion consumption. European Business Review.
Colasante, A. and D'Adamo, I., 2021. The circular economy and bioeconomy in the fashion
sector: emergence of a “sustainability bias”. Journal of Cleaner Production, 329, p.129774.
Hur, E. and Cassidy, T., 2019. Perceptions and attitudes towards sustainable fashion design:
challenges and opportunities for implementing sustainability in fashion. International Journal of
Fashion Design, Technology and Education.
Ikram, M., 2022. Transition toward Green Economy: Technological Innovation’s Role in the
Fashion Industry. Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, p.100657.
Ki, C.W., Park, S. and Ha‐Brookshire, J.E., 2021. Toward a circular economy: Understanding
consumers' moral stance on corporations' and individuals' responsibilities in creating a circular
fashion economy. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(2), pp.1121-1135.
Orminski, J., Tandoc Jr, E.C. and Detenber, B.H., 2021. # sustainablefashion–a conceptual
framework for sustainable fashion discourse on Twitter. Environmental Communication. 15(1).
pp.115-132.
Park, H.J. and Lin, L.M., 2020. Exploring attitude–behavior gap in sustainable consumption:
Comparison of recycled and upcycled fashion products. Journal of Business Research, 117,
pp.623-628.
Salem, S.F. and Alanadoly, A.B., 2020. Personality traits and social media as drivers of word-of-
mouth towards sustainable fashion. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An
International Journal, 25(1), pp.24-44.
Saricam, C. and Okur, N., 2019. Analysing the consumer behavior regarding sustainable fashion
using theory of planned behavior. In Consumer Behaviour and Sustainable Fashion
Consumption (pp. 1-37). Springer, Singapore.
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