SWOT Analysis

Who influences the target market? Social media, people around her in the city, reading customer reviews or comments (Acorn, 2021), directly from the retailers, 44% of Gen Z say they get inspiration from social media influencers, 47% of Gen Z report getting fashion inspiration from TikTok in the last year, celebrities, models, current trends, fashion advertisements (Drapers, 2021).

What drives your consumer and matters to them? Price, quality and aesthetic, good reviews, fast delivery, currently on trend are most important when purchasing a product (Drapers, 2021).

Consumer Loyalty From primary research, 16–24-year-olds mostly shop on fast fashion brands weekly and shop on Missguided monthly. In the journal, “Consumer Advocacy for Luxury Brands” it discusses the loyalty that customers have for luxury brands. As luxury brands are a well thought out investment for most people customers tend to feel a stronger connection with the brand and their values compared to a fast fashion brand like Missguided (Shimul and Phau, 2018). A lot of fast fashion brands follow the same fashion trends therefore sell very similar products and garments. Consumers look for the cheapest price with the most amount of discount for the quality they are receiving which shows the lack of loyalty for the brand (Drapers, 2021). See Appendix B

Consumer Trends

Sustainability is a large talking point within today’s society and seems to be led by Generation Z (Drapers, 2021). Although brands are responding to the sustainability movement, it is discussed in the article ‘Sustainability accounting and reporting: fad or trend?’ that may be seen as a consumer trend. Sustainability within the fashion industry is a topic that is important to some consumers and mostly those who do shop sustainably through sustainable brands and the use of charity shops, never choosing to purchase from a fast fashion brand. As the topic of sustainability has been advocated in the media so highly other consumers want to follow this trend of becoming sustainable too. In response, many fashion brands have created a sustainable range or promoted sustainability through their channels, although this had led to accusations of greenwashing (Burritt and Schaltegger, 2010). For the consumers following the sustainability trend, the response from their favourite fast fashion brands was very positive for them as they felt like they could continue to shop at these brands as they are now ‘sustainable’, and they have released ‘sustainable ranges’. Alternatively, the customer trend of being sustainable could be a genuine effort to help the environment but the lack of knowledge has led the consumer to still shop unsustainably and fall for the brands greenwashing. However, in the article “The influence of ‘woke’ consumers on fashion”, Amed et al., (2021) argues that the ‘Younger consumers are seriously concerned with social and environmental causes, which many regard as being the defining issues of our time.’ In the article they then go on to discuss that “they increasingly back their beliefs with their shopping habits, favouring brands that are aligned with their values and avoiding those that don’t.” This doesn’t support this incline in sales that fast fashion brands, with a lack of sustainability, have experienced in recent years as the importance of sustainability has arisen in the media. Therefore, this shows that sustainability is a trend and even though consumers say they are supporting sustainability they will still shop unsustainably. See Appendix C