Testing interest in a fashion resale service

What is shaping fashion

Fashion and apparel brands need to read trends early, get fit and size right and turn browsing into buying across stores and e-commerce.

• Trends travel quickly through social media
• Fit and size issues drive returns
• Online shoppers need confidence before buying

A fashion retailer, working in United Kingdom, France & Germany. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A fashion retailer

Sector

Fashion

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Consumer panel, Quantitative research, Research consultancy

The retailer was under pressure from regulators and customers to reduce textile waste and was considering a take-back and resale service for its own clothing. Leadership was unsure whether customers would bring clothes back, buy second-hand items from a mainstream brand, or what incentives would make the service worthwhile.

• Deliver on the brief: testing interest in a fashion resale service.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of fashion shoppers.
• Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 7 weeks.

The work focused on 3,000 fashion shoppers.

• fashion shoppers3,000

Audiences we typically reach in fashion

Fashion shoppersOnline buyersStore staffStylists and influencersWholesale buyers

Coverage: United Kingdom, France & Germany. Markets: United Kingdom, France and Germany.

• United Kingdom
• France
• Germany

A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Online survey with concept test
3. 3Pricing questions
4. 4Insight

We surveyed fashion shoppers in the UK, France and Germany about their current second-hand buying and selling, attitudes to pre-owned clothing and barriers such as hygiene and quality concerns. Respondents evaluated a concept for the service and chose between rewards such as store credit, cash or charity donations. Questionnaires were in English, French and German.

Consumer panelQuantitative researchResearch consultancy

fashion shoppers

3,000

• Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.

• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.

• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Price and trade-off analysis
• Comparison of concepts, messages or products against each other

• Shoppers were most motivated by store credit, and younger customers were keen to buy pre-owned items if quality was checked.

A reward that brought customers back into stores made resale good for both the planet and the business.

• Build on the core insight: a reward that brought customers back into stores made resale good for both the planet and the business.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: shoppers were most motivated by store credit, and younger customers were keen to buy pre-owned items if quality was checked.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The retailer piloted the service in selected stores with store credit rewards and a quality-graded resale section online, and used early results to plan a wider rollout.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: which trends will customers buy?