Journal of Global Fashion Marketing

Bridging Fashion and Marketing

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An explorative study and comparison between

companies’ and customers’ perspectives in the
sustainable fashion industry

Henny Puspita & Heeju Chae

To cite this article: Henny Puspita & Heeju Chae (2021) An explorative study and comparison
between companies’ and customers’ perspectives in the sustainable fashion industry, Journal of
Global Fashion Marketing, 12:2, 133-145, DOI: 10.1080/20932685.2020.1853584

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2020.1853584

Published online: 05 Feb 2021.

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JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING
2021, VOL. 12, NO. 2, 133–145
https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2020.1853584

An explorative study and comparison between companies’

and customers’ perspectives in the sustainable fashion
industry
Henny Puspita and Heeju Chae
Department of Fashion Design & Merchandising, Kyungsung University, Korea

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Sustainability has become quite a common discussion topic within the Received 6 March 2020
fashion industry. Many fashion companies started to incorporate sus­ Revised 15 November 2020
tainability aspects into their products since there is an increase of Accepted 17 November 2020
awareness toward this issue, especially in the last decade. However, KEYWORDS
despite the increasing popularity, there is only little improvement in Fashion marketing;
the sustainable fashion market share. Therefore, this study aims to find consumer behavior;
out about each side’s point of view, analyze the gap between them and sustainability; fashion
looking for a solution to overcome this gap. A qualitative method such Company; sustainable
as an in-depth interview is used to gather data from both sides. This fashion
study found that there is a gap of perception in marketing strategy and
attitude towards pricing between companies and customers. This
study-proposed several solutions to lessen this gap such as (1)
approaching customer through emotional-based marketing, (2) create
a new business model such as collaborative fashion consumption, (3)
making a friendlier image of sustainable fashion, and (4) information
exchange regarding sustainable technology development between
companies. This study provides insights and suggestions for sustain­
able fashion companies to gain a bigger market share in the industry
and also provides a reference for future qualitative study for service
quality gap study in the future.

1. Introduction
Does our choice for fashion item plays an important role in saving the environment and
making the world a better place? Russell (2018) revealed that three-fifths of all clothing items
will end up in an incinerator or landfill within a year after being produced. In response to
these issues, people started to shift their interest in sustainable fashion. Sustainable fashion is
part of the slow fashion movement, developed over the past decade, and used interchangeably
with eco-, green-, and ethical-fashion (Carey & Cervellon, 2014). Many fashion companies,
existing or new, starting to incorporate sustainability into their production process as
corporate social responsibility (CSR) and making sure consumers knew about it. CSR is
not a new thing for companies to do. It is a beneficial thing both for company and consumer

CORRESPONDENCE TO Heeju Chae hjchae@ks.ac.kr Department of Fashion Design & Merchandising,

Kyungsung University, Korea
This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see
Correction https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2022.2069837
© 2021 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science
134 H. PUSPITA AND H. CHAE

as (1) consumers are more likely to boycott irresponsible companies (2) companies can
appeal to consumers and meet their business objective while making a contribution to society
(Di Benedetto, 2017; Mohr et al., 2001).
Since sustainable fashion customer behavior is a topic that has been studied by many
(Kim et al., 2018; Lundblad & Davies, 2016), there is a question of whether studying only
from the customer side is enough to create a better strategy to approach sustainable
fashion customer. Therefore, this research aims to identify and reduce the gap that exists
between sustainable fashion companies and their customers. In order to achieve this,
a qualitative study will be used to find out (1) sustainable fashion companies’ point of
view about their marketing strategy, (2) customers’ response toward their marketing, (3)
companies and customers’ perception difference in marketing strategy, and (4) the
causing factor, as well as the solution.

2. Literature review
2.1 Sustainable fashion marketing
Sustainability refers to an ecological system that is designed to maintain the balance
between the environment and humans as the user of its resources (Farley & Hill, 2015).
Meaning that the resources we took should not exceed the number of resources that can be
renewed. Sustainable fashion is predominantly associated with environmental sustainabil­
ity, such as the use of renewable and eco-friendly raw materials, the reduction of the carbon
footprint, durability, and longevity. (Henninger et al., 2016). To respond to consumer
demands for sustainable production, sustainable fashion companies apply the green supply
chain method (GSCM) (Vachon & Klassen, 2007). GSCM is an integrating environmental
thinking into supply-chain management, including product design, material sourcing, and
selection, manufacturing process, delivery of the final product to the consumers as well as
end-of-life management of the product after its useful life (Srivastava, 2007, pp. 54–55)
In the context of marketing, green marketing is not just about doing a socially
responsible action but it also provides a good opportunity for business (Kotler &
Armstrong, 2017). On the opposite side, green de-marketing refers to a marketing
strategy that encourages consumers to reduce consumption for the sake of sustainability
(Armstrong Soule & Reich, 2015). Previous study found that sustainable marketing has
a significant influence on customer equity (Kim et al., 2019) while de-marketing adver­
tising positively influences their attitudes and behavior intentions (S. Kim et al., 2018).
Green marketing has different strategies and positioning with its benefits and disadvan­
tages. Dean and Pacheco (2014) argue that these strategies for environmental positioning
and marketing are divided into five categories, the pure-green play, market green status,
and image, self-functional value, target commercial markets, and the holistic brand.
The Pure-Green Play strategy is considered a traditional approach to green marketing.
They focus more on their environmentally friendly status rather than with little or no
added benefits to the actual product compared to regular ones. Companies that choose
market green status and image strategy will target a customer’s desire for eco-friendly
status or image. Meanwhile, beyond promoting only eco-friendly status, the self-
functional value strategy promotes functional value instead of green status. Besides
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING 135

customers, the company could also target commercial and industrial buyers to sell their
products/services. Commercial market strategy opts for pushing the product’s environ­
mental status for promotion, the holistic brand strategy opts for just soft sell it as added
benefits instead of their main feature.

2.2 Sustainable fashion consumption

Sustainable consumption can be defined as the purchase of goods or services that do not
only fulfill customers’ basic needs but also improve their quality of life quality and at the
same time preserving the environment for future generations. (Roman et al., 2015).
According to Song and Ko (2017), sustainable fashion customers can be classified into
four types of individuals, which are doubtful egoists, single-minded bystanders, wavering
intellects, and opinion leaders. Doubtful egoists think that their self-interests are more
important than the rest. Thus, they think sustainable fashion has little environmental
impact yet gave too much hassle for themselves. Single-minded bystanders are interested
in social issues but perceive that sustainable fashion demands too much travel and
financial costs while delivering insufficient benefits. Wavering intellects are the type of
individuals that thinks sustainable fashion is relevant and has a great impact on protect­
ing the environment and worker rights. They have an interest in social and environ­
mental issues but unfortunately still buy fast fashion products despite the negative effect
of it. For opinion leaders, sustainable fashion is highly relevant, effective, and contributes
to society. They feel responsible for environmental issues and try to recommend
a sustainable lifestyle to their peers.
Joshi and Rahman (2015) stated that there are several factors that can encourage or
discourage them to do sustainable consumption. Two major drivers for consumers are
a high concern for environmental and social issues and the functional and green
attributes of the product itself. Perceived consumer effectiveness and perceived beha­
vioral control also proved to be two additional factors that can affect sustainable
consumption. This indicates that consumers evaluate their purchase on whether their
consumption has an effect on making a difference to nature and society or not.
Meanwhile, there is also a factor that found to be a barrier that defers them for making
sustainable consumption, such as price and limited availability. However, several studies
(Bang et al., 2000; Park & Lin, 2018) found that there is a gap between consumer’s
environmental awareness and their purchase behavior. They found that sustainable
products, especially sustainable fashion are not viable as an alternative to non-
sustainable fashion, price-quality wise. Park and Lin (2018) specifically proposed that it
is critical to improve the utilitarian value and reduce functional risk (concern about
product’s performance) in order to minimize consumer’s intention-behavior gap for
sustainable fashion products.

2.3 Service quality perception gap

Company and customer relationships are formed on service delivery when a customer
receives, they expect to get a certain quality from the company. This quality must
outweigh the cost they pay for them to feel satisfied (Azizi et al., 2014). Customer’s
perceived quality about a product/service/company is their judgment over the excellence
136 H. PUSPITA AND H. CHAE

of it. (Zeithaml, 1988). One of the wide models for company and customer gaps in the
literature is Parasuraman et al. (1985) service quality gap model. This model explains the
relationship between a company’s perception of its service and customer satisfactory
response towards the said service. Four gaps exist between company and customer, which
are knowledge gap, standard gap, delivery gap, and communication gap.
The first gap is the knowledge gap. This gap happens when customer expectations of
a company’s service do not meet company expectations of customer need. The standard
gap reflects customer dissatisfaction towards service quality/procedures/policy. When
employees or technology that the company used delivers poor performance, they failed to
execute the company’s policy and service to customers. The delivery gap is related to
wrong execution that caused customers to cannot receive the full potential of the service
that companies provide. The last gap is the communication gap where communication
made by the company through advertisement/media to customers creates certain expec­
tations that failed to be delivered to customers.

3. Research method
This study used qualitative methods to gather the data from companies' and customers'
sides that are needed for research. As a guidance, this study followed Bäckström and
Johansson (2017)’s study that compares company and consumer’s experience for physi­
cal store experience. The selection of interview candidates for the company side started
from studying their sustainability activity. The sustainability indicator is mainly based on
Hristov and Chirico (2019)’s research with a slight modification to fit this study’s context.
Those indicators are (1) environmental performance (the material used, production
process, waste management, resource consumption), (2) social performance (respect of
human rights, quality of work conditions, social responsibility), (3) brand marketing to
the public (how they positioned themselves to the customer).
One hundred and ninety-two companies from various countries that listed from
their sustainability activity then filtered based on social media following, particularly
Instagram follower count. Instagram was chosen as a benchmark for social media
influence as Instagram is now one of the most popular social networking sites to
help people interacting nationally and globally (Huey & Yazdanifard, 2014). From
this selection method, 20 companies were filtered to be a potential candidates to
represent the company side in this study. An online in-depth interview request was
sent to these companies and four of them agreed to the interview request. Besides these
four companies, three other companies that have the biggest Instagram follower counts
were also selected and the data were collected from their past interview links, press
releases, and official website. A semi-structured interview is conducted with these
companies that include topics based on Joshi and Rahman (2015)’s study about
sustainable consumption attitude – behavior gap factor and Parasuraman et al.
(1985) SERVQUAL model study to fit this study’s purpose. Topics include preferred
marketing strategy, customer service policy, and their perspective towards sustainable
fashion pricing issues.
The research sample for the customer’s side is people who are either had an interest in
a sustainable fashion (potential customer) or someone who had experience purchasing
sustainable fashion products (actual customer). The selection of the customer’s side
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING 137

started from doing an online questionnaire. Before taking the questionnaire, there are
screening questions that filter them based on their interest and experience in
a sustainable fashion. Respondents then were required to fill the questionnaires that
include questions about their perception and behavior towards sustainable fashion. The
result classifies them into four different types of customers based on Song and Ko (2017)
classification. In total, there were 57 respondents from Indonesia. Out of 59 answers, 2
were unusable. About 2–3 people were randomly chosen from each sustainable customer
type. Then, they were interviewed with open-ended questions with the same topics as the
company interview for comparison. Companies and customers’ data then were analyzed
using the deductive analysis method. Keywords are picked from interview answers to
form a common theme which later will be used for comparison for both sides.

4. Result & discussion

4.1 Companies’ side
Seven companies were divided into three categories based on their social media
following: big companies, medium companies, and small companies. Big companies
are Stella McCartney (5.8 million followers) and Patagonia (3.9 million followers).
Medium companies are Muji (1.5 million followers) and Reformation (1.2 million
followers), and Everlane (711.000 followers). The last category is small companies,
such as People Tree (117.000 followers) and Veja (280.000 followers). Companies are
actively doing a combination of pure-green play and self-functional value marketing.
Patagonia is an exception since they use a green de-marketing strategy (example: “do
not buy this jacket” campaign). They lean towards promoting the quality of their
product while also informing customers about their sustainability practice in-
between. For example, Muji whose marketing message tells consumers that their
product quality is high because it has been through the proper manufacturing process
and quality control, not because they carry a certain brand or image or even pre-
imposed adjectives attached to them. The same sentiment also could be found in
Reformation.

“I think we made really great clothes that girls wanted to wear. That’s always been our
guiding light: Just focus on making awesome product, and people will come and want to buy
it.” (Yael Aflalo, Reformation founder).

Transparency in sustainable fashion is something that companies put many efforts into.
They usually inform consumers regarding their production process and labor policy.
Brands like Stella McCartney, Reformation, Everlane, People Tree, and Veja put infor­
mation about the material, production process, and their CSR activity on the official
website. Everlane in particular, has a “radical transparency” policy where they disclose all
of their supply chain information to their consumers.

“At Everlane, we want the right choice to be as easy as putting on a great T-shirt. That’s why
we partner with the best, ethical factories around the world. Source only the finest materials.
And share those stories with you—down to the true cost of every product we make. It’s
a new way of doing things. We call it Radical Transparency.” (Everlane official website)
138 H. PUSPITA AND H. CHAE

According to the findings, besides regular customer service, sustainable fashion companies
add education factor to their consumers. Taking Reformation as an example, they allow
customers to see their production process through factory tours. Patagonia, on the other
hand, introduces the concept of reducing, reuse, and recycle through their customer service.
They offer reparation service for their customer to prolong the sustainability of their product.
“Repairing clothing and keeping gear in play as long as possible has been part of Patagonia’s
business model since the 1970s. Today, Patagonia repairs more than 100,000 items each year
in 72 repair centers globally and in Reno.” (Patagonia press release)

These companies think sustainable fashion has a fair price considering the ethical & eco-
friendly production process. However, they have faith in their customer that they will pay
a premium for good cause. In response to high pricing concerns, there are several
approaches that these companies are doing. Reformation, for example, offers installment
service to buy their products. Meanwhile, Veja managed to cut down their price due to
their “no ads” policy where they do minimal marketing to suppress their cost.
“We believe our customer is one who cares greatly about the environment and about making
informed choices. They care a lot about which companies they support.” (Gemma McLean,
Communications Coordinator of People Tree)

“It costs 5 to 7 times more to make a VEJA, because the raw materials are environmentally
friendly and purchased according to fair trade principles, because the sneakers are produced
in factories with high social standards. Since we’ve eliminated advertising, the sneaker is sold
in stores for the same price as competing big brands.” (official Veja website)

For additional data, this study also did independent data collection of their profits in 2018
from companies’ financial reports and press articles (Blakely, 2018; Cpp Luxury, 2020;
Statista Research Department, 2019). Companies that used to be represented are those
whose profit data are available to the public, which are Stella McCartney, Patagonia, and
Muji. In total, their profits added up to about 4, 7 billion USD. Compared to non-
sustainable fashion brands (in this comparison, this study used Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo),
their profits in total for 2018 were about 7,7 billion USD (Fast Retailing Co., Ltd, 2018;
Hennes & Mauritz Co, 2019; Inditex Ltd, 2019).

4.2 Customers’ side

Below is a summary of respondents demographic and sustainable fashion consumer
types based on Song and Ko (2017) literature, which is (1) doubtful egoist, (2) single-
minded bystander, (3) wavering intellect, and (4) opinion leader as shown in Table 1.
Several respondents view that sustainable fashion has an elitist image due to its high
pricing and branding. In particular, they feel that a sustainable lifestyle is expensive and
only can be achieved by rich people.
“With fast fashion is currently dominating the market, people need a better reasoning (or
dare I say, narrative) to switch from fast fashion to a more responsible choice. A PR wave to
educate, inform, and appeal the people about sustainable fashion could tackle the subtle
“snobbish”, upper class-esque notion that revolves around environmental issues. Secondly,
viral marketing should accompany the PR work to boost its popularity, that ‘it belongs to
everyone.” (Type 4 respondent 2).
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING 139

Table 1. Summary of customer’s demographic information.

Respondent Age Gender Latest Education Major Monthly Income
Type 1 respondent 1 26–30 years old male Bachelor degree Business < $250
Type 2 respondent 1 26–30 years old male Bachelor degree Art $400 – $750
Type 3 respondent 1 20–25 years old female High school graduate Art $400 – $750
Type 3 respondent 2 <20 years old female High school graduate Social Science < $250
Type 3 respondent 3 <20 years old female High school graduate Literature < $250
Type 3 respondent 4 26–30 years old female Masters Degree Business $250 – $400
Type 3 respondent 5 20–25 years old female Bachelor Degree Pharmaceutical Sciences $400 – $750
Type 4 respondent 1 <20 years old female High school graduate English Literature < $250
Type 4 respondent 2 >30 years old female Bachelor degree Art $400 – $750
Type 4 respondent 3 26–30 years old female Masters degree Social Science $250 – $400

They also want to feel like they are a part of something bigger that has a noble cause
(perceived consumer effectiveness). They like the message about them as an individual
has an impact on saving the environment.

“The message that I like from sustainable fashion company advertisement is the impact that
given by just one person who use eco-friendly products can help save the Earth.” (Type 4
respondent 3)

Similar to what companies said, respondents also want to see the product’s feature to be
highlighted in the marketing, not just the sustainability part. Due to the high price, they
tend to seek a second opinion from public figures/social media influencers before they
make a decision to buy the product.

“Style guides/look book to show how to wear or incorporate their products into
everyday life, products promoted by influencers, sale and giveaway.” (Type 3
respondent 5)

Respondents stated that they need to be able to trust sustainable fashion companies and
their sustainable practices. Companies should send a message about how their products
are made with eco-friendly processes and using ethical labor.

“I want to see sustainable fashion brand to demonstrate about how responsible their
fashion product is produced and sold: is the product made from sustainable materials?
Are the makers work in an ethical environment? Etc. Also showing what kind of impact
that the buyers could have by buying the products (such as: profiting local artisans, etc)”
(Type 2 respondent 1)

When they are being asked about their opinion about customer service, most of them
could not give a clear answer. Nonetheless, some of them gave insight into what would
they perceive a good customer service from a sustainable fashion company.

“Customer service might be expected by customers to not only have product knowl­
edge but also understanding of company principle and production process of related
sustainable fashion product and also aftercare of the product usage (for example,
sustainable washing), and finally, product disposable policy (e.g recycling, donation,
etc). So, a complete 360 process knowledge needs to be well equipped among
customer service staff to answer every possible question from customers.” (Type 1
respondent 1).
140 H. PUSPITA AND H. CHAE

Respondents’ opinions are split between two regarding their stance towards sustainable
fashion pricing. Those who side with a high price tag considered it is normal when they
see the material used and the production cost.
“It is, in fact, more expensive to produce these products. When a product needs more cost to
produce with a much smaller market, obviously it becomes more expensive than conven­
tional products.” (Type 4 respondent 2)

On the opposite side, some respondents think that this high price tag could be
a boomerang for sustainable fashion companies and the environment. Not just their
opinion towards price issues in sustainable fashion, they also shared their idea that might
help to make the situation better such as cutting non-essential expenses to reduce
production cost.
“I think quality comes with a price, and with that price tag, it’s a great way to not purchase
more things. But overall I think the whole fashion system should be changed, because if it’s
too expensive, people will run to a faster, cheaper alternative and that would be hurting the
environment.” (Type 4 respondent 3)

Other respondents shared their opinion to help sustainability without purchasing from
sustainable fashion companies, such as thrifting. This method helps them to make their
fashion purchase more sustainable without having to pay a premium for sustainable
fashion products. Not just their opinion towards price issue in sustainable fashion, they
also shared their own idea that might help to make the situation better such as cutting
non-essential expenses to reduce production cost.
“I assume that higher costs can be avoided. We can shop at thrift stores and pay even less
than the discount store price.” (Type 4 respondent 3).

4.3 Discussion
Sustainable fashion has been a popular term yet remains a niche market at the same time.
Responding to this issue, there are many studies that trying to find out sustainable
fashion consumer behavior as well as the barrier to switch into sustainable fashion
consumption (Bly et al., 2015; Lundblad & Davies, 2016; Moon et al., 2015).
Companies appeared to choose to stick to classic marketing strategies based on faith
that the customer’s consciousness alone will drive them to purchase from them.
Although until now they manage to sustain their existence in the fashion industry,
their profit comparison with non-sustainable fashion companies showed that there is
still more room to grow. Based on the findings in this study, two gaps can be identified,
which is the communication gap (marketing message) and the standard gap (pricing
issue).
The findings showed that customers are already familiar with the issues surrounding
apparel production. The previous study found that information about the effectiveness as
well as social knowledge serves as a factor that shapes consumer’s attitudes toward
sustainable fashion products (Kong et al., 2016). However, despite customers’ acknowl­
edgment about the importance of sustainable fashion, they still do not find the end
product justifies the environmental/social-added benefit of the product (Park & Lin,
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING 141

2018). They know that a sustainable lifestyle is a logical thing to do to preserve the earth
for future generations, but people are having psychological barriers such as choice and
information overload and the reluctance to change (status-quo bias) to start practicing it
in their daily life (Wilding, 2015). They prefer a message that appeals through emotional
value, which is rarely talked about in companies’ marketing messages. Pricing issue has
been found in the past as causing factor behind consumer’s attitude-behavior gap (Joshi
& Rahman, 2015). Even though companies side revealed reasons to justify their price tag,
it appeared that they seemed reluctant to do something about it. This phenomenon
probably happened because companies are already in the comfort zone by retaining the
remaining loyal customer. Standards gap also has shown to have side effect besides the
intention-behavior gap. The high price tag gives an exclusive and snobbish image to
customer’s minds which further hindrance them to switch to sustainable fashion
consumption.
Findings from the customers’ side revealed an alternative way to tackle the pricing
issue such as second-hand fashion consumption. This finding showed that there is an
unexplored opportunity to contribute to sustainability besides the existing traditional
business model. Collaborative fashion consumption (second-hand market, clothes rent­
ing/swapping) can be something that companies can consider to further attract existing
and new customers. For a lot of people, shifting into a sustainable lifestyle is a huge
financial commitment and requires a lot of effort. Companies could utilize a collaborative
fashion consumption model in order to attract new customers with less financial com­
mitment. Since high production cost is always a huge barrier for companies to make their
product price to become more affordable, this study proposed for sustainable fashion
companies to exchange information with each other to lessen the burden of investing in
sustainable material development.
Since respondents are from Indonesia (Asia), it is undeniable that the cultural
difference between Asia and western countries (in particular the US and UK) plays
a part in consumer’s behavior. For instance, in Asia, the price factor is a huge motivation
when buying sustainable fashion. Asian consumers are less willing to pay a premium for
sustainable fashion. For western consumers, in general, they have more environmental
awareness compared to Asian consumers. Asian consumers are also more easily influ­
enced by sustainability score/green label while US and UK consumers are more skeptical
towards it. (KPMG China, 2019). Considering this factor, it is important for companies
to adjust their marketing strategies according to local preferences and culture when they
wish to expand their market.
Human behavior is complex and influenced by several factors, either internal or
external. Strong motivation and concern only usually are not enough to trigger people
to do sustainable behavior (Manning, 2009). Using viral marketing methods or
collaborating with influencers can be a good start to shape the customer overconsump­
tion mindset. This is also consistent with the role of social capital on sustainable
fashion purchasing intent (Kim et al., 2018). By taking advantage of trending activity/
challenge on the internet could create an image that everyone can start to live
a sustainable life through little actions. The same ideas also can be found in Harris
et al. (2015)’s research. He discovered that social marketing campaigns or opinion
leaders can shift social norms to make re-wearing and repairing clothes socially
acceptable.
142 H. PUSPITA AND H. CHAE

5. Conclusion
This study found that even though the state of sustainable fashion is gaining momen­
tum, sustainable fashion companies seemed to be stayed in their comfort zone and
reluctant to try a new marketing strategy. On the other side, customers are expecting
something new that could entice them besides the old “save the planet” jargon. Out of
three subjects (marketing strategy, customer service policy, attitude towards sustainable
fashion pricing), there are two gaps between company and customer regarding sustain­
able fashion products, which is marketing strategy and attitudes towards sustainable
fashion pricing.
This study provides several proposed solutions as pointers for companies to do their
homework to lessen the gap between them and their customers such as (1) approach
customer through marketing that touches the emotional aspect of customers, (2) create
a new business model to attract new customers, (3) rebrand sustainable fashion to have
more public-friendly image and (4) information exchange regarding sustainable tech­
nology development between companies.
The findings of this study have similarities with previous literature (Harris et al.,
2015), such as the importance of changing consumer’s mindsets and habits as well as
reducing the cost in order to make sustainable fashion more mainstream. However, while
Harris et al. (2015)’s study found that the design factor mainly caused customers have
a negative-stereotyped view about sustainable fashion, this study found that the price
factor is the cause of the stereotype. Since the study is conducted in 2015, this difference
perhaps is caused by sustainable fashion companies that have improved their product
design to attract more customers. In addition, this study-proposed solution also took
a different approach compared to Harris et al. (2015)’s study. While previous literature
suggested legislative intervention, this study proposed more on a collaborative approach
between companies. There is no simple solution for sustainability issues in the fashion
industry, but both companies and customers can start making baby steps to achieve that
goal together. Companies also need to realize that sustainable fashion business is not just
selling an ethically made clothing, but also creating an emotional connection with
customers.

6. Implication & limitation

This research could be an insight for sustainable fashion companies or marketers in
general to understand the gap that exists between them and customers that may not be
realized before. Not just finding of “why,” this study also provides suggestions on how
companies can minimize that gap as well as revealing new business model opportunity in
the hope of making sustainable fashion becomes more mainstream in the fashion
industry. It is crucial for them to strengthen their standing in the fashion industry to
make sustainable fashion not just sustainable environmental and social wise, but also
economic wise. This study also one of the few studies that includes both consumers and
sellers especially in sustainable fashion subject. This study provides insight into sustain­
able fashion companies to balance the point of view regarding sustainable fashion.
Researchers can use the methodology of this study as a reference for company and
consumer comparison in the future.
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING 143

There are several limitations to this research. The first major limitation is the small
sample size and limited cultural context since this research uses a qualitative method to get
the data needed for analysis in Indonesia only. The lack of direct interviews with
companies could also have an effect to the study. Due to schedule clash and their
unavailability to be interviewed, only a small portion of them accepts the interview request
and the rest only provided links and past press releases for us to get data. In addition, since
most of the sampled companies are western brands, there may be a difference in results
since western and Asian companies may have a different perspectives.
Future studies could add fashion insiders and experts’ opinions about sustainable
fashion instead of regular customers. A previous study (Pappu et al., 2006) proposed that
country of origin has an impact on brand equity and consumers’ purchase intention;
however, since this study only measured respondents’ attitude towards sustainable
fashion in general, not the brand, future studies could include this variable. This study
also recommends future studies to combine both qualitative and quantitative methods to
further research about both companies and consumer behavior.

Disclosure statement
No, potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding
This work was supported by the Kyungsung University [Research Grants in 2019].

ORCID
Henny Puspita http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8017-5449
Heeju Chae http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1771-446X

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