Perception of fashion sustainability in online community

The issue of sustainability is crucial in fashion business and has received considerable attentions from the consumers. In this paper, we investigate the change in people’s concerns on sustainable fashion by using secondary data collected from two major online fashion forums from 2004 to 2012. Our analysis is taken by a cross-time approach and the results reflect that forum discussions over sustainable fashion have changed over time. While topics on sustainable production and remanufacturing, green information sharing, and green attitude and education once received heated discussions in the mid-2000s, green marketing has become the main focus lately. Our results imply that provision of green information by fashion retailers is a way to educate consumers and improve their awareness in the importance of sustainability. It is also beneficial to stimulate consumers’ purchase decision of sustainable fashion. The findings provide industry insights for practitioners to better develop and promote sustainable fashion.

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