Earn Trust by Supporting Sustainability

Retailers seen by the public as supporting green practices such as slow fashion can draw greater sales revenues than those not. However, the additional selling may come on items which do not themselves embody the features of slow fashion, including design intended for long-term use and production with minimal impact on the environment and workers’ rights. It could be the firm’s reputation rather than the item’s reality which garners the extra business.
     In studies based at Emerson College and Spain’s Ramon Llull University, American women who had purchased clothing from fast fashion retailers were asked to judge a fast fashion retailer they’d not heard of. Some of the participants were shown an ad which said this retailer was introducing a “sustainable collection” and listed characteristics of this collection associated with slow fashion. The ad shown to the other participants described, instead, the retailer’s offerings of accessories.
     Ratings for the fast fashion retailer selling sustainable items reflected greater trustworthiness, and there was a greater intention to consider purchasing from this retailer. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 73 years, with an average of 35. The relationship between age and rating was not measured, but it might have made a difference. In another study of green practices, those participants aged 38 years and younger were more likely than those older to judge the green-practices retailer to be more trustworthy because of higher expertise.
     That research, from University of Toledo and Marquette University, showed a sample of American men and women one of two versions of an ad for headphones. One version described the headphones as made from sustainably sourced materials in facilities using only renewable energy. The other version spoke instead of the commitment of the manufacturer to superior sound quality. Trust in the company and intentions to buy items from the company because of their expertise were higher from the first group. There were no differences by gender, but the advantage of sustainability claims was especially pronounced among the younger adults.
     Although only part of a retailer’s product assortment needs to be sustainable in order to accrue the benefits, it doesn’t work to have only trivial modifications in an item. People turn against a retailer if they see that what’s offered is greenwashed, not true green. Also, to use sustainability as a marketing point, feature the information early. Otherwise, shoppers will place less value on the claims.

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