Sustainability in Mass- Retail Industry: A Comparative Study Between Major Players

Abstract

Economic growth and retail industry have been extremely close linked since last few decades. This mass production industry being one of the major employment providers as well as creating elite brands for consumers around the world. The aim of this paper is to understand if the customers of this sector are more sensitive to the price offered or to the sustainability attitude of the brand, also making a distinction between various generations since last five decades. Through the analysis of data, the objective is to understand if the increasing investment in sustainability by some of the main player in this industry also if the consumers are mostly moved by price reasons in purchasing their product, not taking care of environmental and social behaviour of their favourite fast fashion brands into consideration. A qualitative analysis has been adopted based on the customer’s opinion, using a survey addressed to the customers belonging to major mass retail fashion brands. The results have been analysed in order to understand the consumer behaviour and the sustainable pattern adopted by this industry.