Sustainable Development of Slow Fashion Businesses: Customer Value Approach

TLDR

Slow fashion offers a sustainable alternative to fast fashion, but its profitability mechanisms remain unclear. The study tests a structural model linking slow‑fashion attributes to perceived customer value and to consumers’ willingness to pay a premium. Using a customer‑value framework, the authors empirically tested a structural model of slow‑fashion attributes, perceived value, and purchase intention. Analysis of 221 U.S.

Abstract

As an alternative to the prevalent fast fashion model, slow fashion has emerged as a way of enhancing sustainability in the fashion industry, yet how slow fashion can enhance profitability is still largely unknown. Based on a customer value creation framework, this study empirically tested a structural model that specified the slow fashion attributes that contribute to creating perceived customer value, which subsequently increases a consumer’s intention to buy and pay a price premium for slow fashion products. An analysis of 221 U.S. consumer data revealed that delivering exclusive product value is significantly critical in creating customer value for slow fashion, and customer value, in turn, positively affects consumers’ purchase intentions. Further analysis also revealed that different slow fashion attributes distinctively affect customer value. This provides potential strategies on which slow fashion businesses can focus to secure an economically sustainable business model, thereby continuously improving environmental and social sustainability with the slow fashion ideal.