Consumers interested in environmental impacts of fashion: Farfetch

After the dramatic occurrences of 2020, a heightened desire has emerged amongst luxury shoppers to both understand the issues of sustainability more clearly and to consume fashion more responsibly, said the London-based online luxury fashion retail platform in its report titled ‘Conscious Luxury Trends’.

Conscious product sales grew 3.4 times faster than the Farfetch marketplace average in 2020 vs 2019. Of those surveyed, 88 per cent of Farfetch customers care about minimising their environmental impact and 50 per cent say they care deeply. Luxury shoppers globally are choosing to act more sustainably in their shopping behaviour.

“As the global platform for the luxury industry, we decided to delve further into how consumers are engaging with sustainable ways of shopping and how brands, boutiques and the luxury sector as a whole are responding. The result is our first annual Conscious Luxury Trends report. We hope the report will help the industry to understand and act on the key drivers of change – empowering everyone to think, act and choose positively. It's all part of our Positively Farfetch mission,” said Thomas Berry, director of sustainable business, Farfetch.

The report stated that luxury fashion brands are initiating new practices that represent a more conscious approach. With rising demand from consumers for better transparency of practice and more sustainable options to buy from, brands and the retailers that sell their collections through Farfetch are now more proactive.

Pre-owned luxury is exploding, growing approximately three times faster than the primary luxury market globally. The Covid-19 effect looks to be accelerating this, as consumers seek to maximise value for money, avoid waste, shop sustainably and leverage the resale market to fund new luxury purchases.

Amongst customers, there is an increasing understanding of the sustainable benefits of extending the life of their fashion items to reduce the number of pieces that end up in landfill. Covid-19 restrictions globally have given people more time to clear out their wardrobes, which has contributed to the growth in use of circular services, noted the report.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KD)