Sustainability and fast fashion: Understanding Turkish generation Z for developing strategy

1 Introduction

Fast fashion is a term defined by Joe et al. [1] as low-price clothes that move from the catwalk to a mass market by replicating current luxury fashion trends. Generally, fast fashion is identified with a short lead time, mass production, and a low stock turnover ratio with new merchandise deliveries every 2 weeks. This unbelievable speed in managing the supply chain is the main reason for their success in the fashion industry [2]. Another important characteristic of fast fashion companies is to offer similar versions of trendy products of haute couture brands at an affordable price [2]. Although fast fashion is favored by many consumers, the main criticism directed to fast fashion is its high negative contribution to the environmental and social aspects of sustainability. Poor working conditions, high usage of water and chemicals, carbon emission rate, and breach of intellectual property rights are some of those negative contributions of the fast fashion industry [3,4,5]. Generally, the concern related to environmental concerns such as pollution of water, increase in toxic materials, and global warming has increased [6]. During the last decade, there has been an increase in the awareness against the social and environmental negative effects of fast fashion and consumers began to avoid the unethical companies in industry as they became more aware about their purchasing decisions [7]. This increasing awareness of the consumers created a movement in the fast fashion industry toward ethical fast fashion and avoiding unethical practices [8]. This movement led to the emergence of new consumption paradigms such as sustainable consumption, anti-consumerism, and ethical consumption [4,9]. Those developments made fast fashion brands develop strategies focusing on sustainability all through the supply chain. H&M is the leader in adopting sustainability in the fast fashion industry. H&M declared that all of the company’s products will be renewable or sustainable by 2030 in its conscious collection [10] and year 2022 company statement of H&M has a declaration of “… improving sustainability performance in our own value chain and demonstrating the resilience of sustainable business” [11].

Generation Z (Gen Z) are young people who were born between 1995 and 2010 and is the generation, which is raised during the digital technologies and engaged with Web 2.0 technology and social media tools where they interact with their popular brands [12,13]. They have less loyalty to retailers compared to other generations, and they expect retailers to capture and retain their attention. In addition, they have higher expectations related to experience [14]. Generally, cohort academicians declare that Gen Z is more profound to consumption of sustainable fashion products [15,16]. Nevertheless, this generation is also keen on fashion shopping [17]. There is a research gap in the literature related to how Gen Z perceives sustainability attempts of fast fashion brands and if Gen Z is satisfied with those efforts. Unfortunately, there is very limited research in that area which is strategically important for fast fashion companies. The aim of this research is to understand the behavior patterns of Turkish Gen Z for fast fashion and their attitudes toward sustainability strategies of the fast fashion brands. It is vital to understand what Gen Z consumers think about sustainability attempts of fast fashion brands as they are not only the target market but also a pivotal factor in defining the future of the fashion industry [18]. Through the findings of this research, the fast fashion brands can understand the dynamics of the Turkish market better and develop sustainable strategies for the future.

2 Literature review

3 Methodology

The research method is exploratory qualitative research design which is mainly applied in exploratory field research. With the help of qualitative research, phenomena can be analyzed deeply in their natural context [54]. As a design of the research, case study is used and it can be described as “a qualitative approach in which the researcher collects detailed and in-depth information through multiple information sources about real life, a current limited situation, or multiple classified situations over a certain period of time, and presents a situation description or situation themes” [54]. In other words, the case study design targets to analyze and describe a limited structure in detail [55].

The typical case sampling is used in this research as it is one of the purposeful sampling methods in which the sample is composed of people, events, and situations that have characteristics related to the research subject [55]. As Creswell [54] declared, the number of interviews for qualitative research can be between 5 and 25. As a preliminary question, participants were asked whether they use fast-fashion products and secondhand products. A total of 15 participants out of 34 replied positively to this question and at the second stage, by conducting semi-structured interviews with those 15 participants, it is targeted to gain a deep understanding of the topic. In accordance with Guest et al. [56], who mentioned saturation occurs after 12 interviews, 15 interviews were selected as a cut-off point as data began to repeat. The language of the research is Turkish in order to allow participants to express themselves comfortably. During the data analysis, the interviews were translated into English and translated scripts were reviewed by a second researcher to ensure consistency in order to minimize risks related to translation. It should be underlined that there was no prior relation between the researcher and the participants in order to reduce the bias arising from the pre-existing familiarity. The 15 participants are university students (8 females and 7 males) from both public and private universities in the age group of 20–26 with a minimum spending of USD 100 for fast fashion monthly as they are a representative group for Turkish Gen Z. Table 1 shows the demographics of the participants of the research.

The main criterion for selecting the participants is to be a continuous customer of fast-fashion brands and secondhand products. The design of the qualitative research was a two-step approach; at the first step, as a preliminary question, the participants were asked whether they were shopping from fast-fashion brands and secondhand products. The semi-structured interview had two themes which were fast fashion with 11 questions and secondhand consumption with 14 questions, with 25 questions in total. In order to protect confidentiality, participants were numbered P1–P15 and they were interviewed between May 1, 2024 and Nov 15, 2024. The interviews, which lasted around 30–40 min, were held online and recorded with the consent of the participants. As Creswell [54] stated, participants were informed about the purpose of the research before the interviews, the questions were adhered to throughout the interview, and emphasis was placed on being a good and courteous listener.

In qualitative research, the validity and reliability are the most criticized topic and therefore, in order to guarantee the validity of reliability of the research, the following were performed:

• Detailed literature research was conducted.

• All the interviews were recorded with the permission of the participants in order not to have a loss of data.

• A pilot interview was performed in order to test the clarity of the questions of the interview. The results of the pre-interview are shared with an academician in order to confirm the validity of the questions.

• In order to have internal consistency, a minimum of 80% of the intercoder consensus was obtained.

After reviewing the relevant literature and examining the transcripts of the interviews [54], themes and code of content analysis were created. All necessary qualitative analyses were completed by transferring the data to the Maxqda program. It was tried to reach the results by interpreting the themes in line with the codes they contain and by including quotations from the interview texts in order to support the comments. Based on the Maxqda qualitative analysis, the main themes of the research are: knowledge about fast fashion, attitudes toward fast fashion sustainability, sustainability of fast fashion and strategies of fast-fashion brands. The sub-codes of each theme are discussed in separate sections.

3.1 Knowledge about fast fashion

Generally, all the participants know what “fast fashion” is and most of them use the brand names “Zara (Inditex)” and “”H&M” as a synonym with fast fashion for the Turkish university students. The underlying reason for this is their strong presence in the Turkish market. The theme “knowledge about fast fashion” is grouped under two codes: “meaning of fast fashion” and “fast fashion brands.” The codes of theme “knowledge about fast fashion” are grouped as “definition” and “brands.” The codes of theme “knowledge about fast fashion” are presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1

Codes of theme “Knowledge about Fast Fashion”.

3.1.1 Meaning of fast fashion

All the participants can describe fast fashion and the common point in their description is that fast-consuming trendy products. The participants generally stated that the fast fashion brands are The P2 and P9 describes fast fashion as follows as an Fast fashion brands like H&M, Zara, and Bershka frequently introduce new trends. However, the fabric quality is generally poor, and the clothes often lose their shape or durability after a few washes, which makes this approach to fashion unsustainable.

P9: “…As the name suggests, fast-changing, trending products. Brands like Zara and H&M come to my mind …”

3.1.2 Fast fashion brands

The participants are asked about the fast-fashion brands that they recall when fast fashion is mentioned. “Zara (Inditex group)” is the fast fashion brand that all the participants mentioned. H&M is the second brand that is mentioned by the participants. The other brands of Inditex, which is the group that Zara belongs to such as Bersha, Massimo Dutti, Stradivarius, are also mentioned by the participants. The participants also mentioned Adidas and Nike as a fast-fashion brand although just some product lines of them can be accepted as fast fashion. In addition, some local Turkish fast fashion brands such as Koton, Mavi are also mentioned by some participants. As an example, the declarations of participants P3 and P4 are as follows:

P3: “… Zara comes to my mind and Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti …”

P4: “… Zara, H&M, Koton …”

3.2 Attitudes toward fast fashion

Under this theme, participants are asked about the dynamics that make them purchase fast fashion products. The participants were also asked if they make purchases of fast-fashion products, if they really need that product, and finally they were asked to mention about change in their purchasing pattern if there are no fast-fashion brands available. The codes of this theme are listed as follows: “dynamics,” “ need or not?,” and “replacement of fast fashion.” The codes of the theme “attitudes towards fast fashion” are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Codes of theme “Attitude towards fast fashion”.

3.2.1 Dynamics

The participants were asked their dynamics for purchasing fast fashion and they mentioned that they like following trends, influencers, and their friends. In addition, participants mentioned that they buy fast fashion brands as they are affordable. Male participants said that their parents forced them to do shopping. Related to this code, the participants P1 and P8 expressed their opinion as follows:

P1: “… There are a few content creators I follow. I follow a few of them as I find them closer to me. There are so many of them, it is impossible to keep up with all of them, but … what I like and what I need, I am following from them. I create a capsule wardrobe style like this. It affects me that way …”

P8: “… I would say trends most of the time. I’m also curious about new things. They attract my attention, I enjoy buying different things …”.

3.2.2 Need or not?

All the participants mentioned that they can do shopping if the price of the product is too low even if they are not in need of such a product. They also stated that they sometimes feel guilty of having too many fast-fashion products. The participants P8 and P10 contributed to this code as follows:

P8. “… Yes, this happens to me very often. I sometimes buy a lot of products even though I don’t need them …”

P10: “… Of course, when I enter the store, we buy things that I see cheap, even if I don’t need them…

3.2.3 Replacement

The participants were asked how they should react if fast fashion brands do not exist anymore. Most of them were not worried about the non-existence of fast fashion products, and as a common consensus participant all mentioned that they will use their current products for a longer time period. The statements of P1 and P7 are given as an example for this code:

P1: “… I will try to wear them longer …”

P7: “… I should wear the same clothes longer and more often. As you know, I always try to wear them for a long time, but I would like to use them even longer …”

3.3 Sustainability of fast fashion

It is very clear that participants are aware of what sustainability is, what damages fast fashion is giving to sustainability and what has been done, and what actions should be taken in the future. Under this, the sub-codes are formulated as “knowledge,” “awareness,” “actions,” “recycling,” “responsibility,” “things to do,” and “criticism.” The codes of theme “sustainability of fast fashion” are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3

Codes of theme “Sustainability of fast fashion”.

3.7 Strategies of fast fashion

The participants are asked about their knowledge and thoughts about the strategies of fast fashion brands. Generally, participants think that fast fashion brands are creating demand by trendy, popular items, which have short life cycles and use sustainability as a marketing strategy. The statements of participants are grouped under four codes which are “competitiveness strategies,” “sales strategies,” “sustainability strategies,” and “greenwashing.” The codes of theme “strategies of fast fashion” are presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Codes of theme “Strategies of fast fashion”.

3.7.1 Competitiveness strategies

The participants were asked about the dynamics behind the competitive prices of fast brands and there is a consensus that those brands are using raw materials with a short life span, and they are also very strict on labor cost control. The mass production capability of fast fashion brands enables them to have better prices. It is agreed by participants that the success of fast-fashion brands is mainly by managing their supply chain efficiently and effectively. Related to this code, the participants P2 and P7 expressed their opinion as follows:P2: “… It is very clear that it is a poor quality product. In other words, things I bought from different shops at the same time last much longer than those I bought from higher-end brands, while Zara’s products become unwearable after 5 washes. It’s clumping and fuzzy. It is clear that poor quality raw materials were used for this reason. But as you know, labor is made cheaper by exploiting people a little. So I think it’s a combination of both. I also think that it has an effect because I think it is gained from the version. It should not be forgotten that they manage their production chains very efficiently …”

P7: “… Both cheap raw materials and cheap labor are important in their success. Also, in the part we call mass production, that is, when they produce too much of a product, they remain at a high point in terms of profit. So I think it’s the sum of it all …”

3.7.2 Sales strategies

There is a consent that fast-fashion brands are very successful at creating demand. Even though the consumer is not planning to purchase, they manage to attract the attention of the consumers and convince them to do shopping. The success of creating demand is offering different trendy products every 2–3 weeks, which is a real success of managing the supply chain. To give examples for the expressions that takes place in this code, P8 and P9 stated as follows:

P8: “… I think they create demand. They cause us to buy products that we do not have in mind or need. They definitely meet their needs somewhere, but they achieve success by creating more competition …”

P9: “… I haven’t been able to figure out what kind of sales strategy they follow yet. Because they come up with something different every day. I think they do this by putting a lot of product and managing the product well …”

3.7.3 Sustainability strategies

Although fast fashion brands are focusing on developing sustainability strategies for both social and environmental aspects, participants do not perceive those strategies very sincerely but rather as marketing strategies. Majority of the participants are not happy with using generated polyester products as a sustainable product and they mentioned that those products have a negative effect on their perception of fast-fashion brands. The participants P2 and P10 contributed to this code as follows:

P2: “… H&M specifically says 90 percent, 80 percent recycled polyester. Now polyester is not good for health. Now he puts it like this, he makes a green label. It says something like. But this does not satisfy me. My trust in H&M is already low. That’s why it doesn’t make such a contribution, it has a negative effect …”

P10: “… I think of it as something done entirely for advertising purposes. Just because they put something with a green label in front of my eyes does not make me think that way …”

3.7.4 Greenwashing

The participants do not trust the fast-fashion brands related to their sustainability strategies and most of them think that they do not find the fast-fashion companies sincere about their sustainability strategies. The participants P10 and P14 contribute to this code as follows:

P10: “… It’s funny to me when brands claim to be environmentally friendly. I don’t think they really mean it …”

P14: “… I don’t trust most of those brands, it doesn’t seem convincing to me. Those brands already produce poor quality products and put recyclable labels on polyester products …”

4 Discussion

By focusing on Turkish Gen Z, this research explored attitudes of Turkish Gen Z to fast fashion brands and their perception of fast fashion brands’ strategies about sustainability. Based on the cognitive dissonance theory, The Turkish Gen Z is showing a clear attitude-behavior gap between their attitudes towards sustainability and fast fashion consumption patterns. This “attitude-behavior gap” is examined for fashion in the studies of Ritch and Brownlie [57], Taljaard et al. [58], Wiederhold and Martinez [59], and Wilken et al. [60]. This “attitude-behavior gap” is explained by cognitive dissonance theory. According to our research, Turkish Gen Z is aware of the importance of sustainability and the hazards of fast fashion to sustainability from both societal and environmental aspects. Although they are aware, this awareness does not have any effect on their shopping behavior. They generally believe that personal efforts cannot make any change in reducing the negative effects of fast fashion to sustainability and the topic should be handled at industry level and managed by governments. Similarly, Ritch [61] states that consumers are patsies in the fast-fashion world in which they do not clearly understand the dynamics underlying the relation between production, consumption, and sustainability. Similarly, Cairns et al. [40] declared that the consumers are experiencing cognitive dissonance theory, which mainly states that consumers cannot act consistently with their attitudes in their fast fashion purchases with their sustainability intentions. Furthermore, a similar result was found in the research of Achabou [46] and it was stated that individuals are feeling free to express conflicting beliefs. In this study, a similar result was found, participants did not feel uncomfortable about declaring that they had conflicting feelings about fast fashion and sustainability. In addition, an important reason for this gap is not having sufficient economic power to purchase sustainable products. A similar result is stated in the research of Uzun [62].

In the literature, recent research revealed fast-fashion brands’ sustainability efforts on consumer behavior patterns. Noh [63] examined the relation between consumer royalty and brands sustainability attempts on three different brand groups. Similarly, Blazquez et al. [2] analyzed consumer intentions toward sustainable fashion in the Spanish. In addition, Blasi et al. [64] analyzed the relation between environmental sustainability and fashion brands’ perceptual aspects, which can be grouped as fast fashion, high street, and luxury by Twitter data. There are several studies focusing on the behavior of the consumer to outline the attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors towards fast fashion brands [3,4,35]. It should be noted that most of the previous studies, which have a focus on sustainability in the textile and clothing industry, are mainly dealing with fast fashion as it is mainly related to the hazards to sustainability because of its overconsumption. Related to sustainability strategies of fast-fashion brands, participants do not find their approach to sustainability sincere, and they just think that they are using it as a strategy which is generally named greenwash. Greenwashing, which is defined as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service” (Delmas and Burbano [65], p. 66), is another way of alleging perception of a company related to environmental issues. The researchers clearly state a relation between environmental performance and green advertising [65,66]. The study of Nyilasy et al. [67] stated that greenwashing occurs when green advertising and corporate social responsibility are not consistent with each other. The reason for this inconsistency is mainly the discrepancy between the internal and external corporate environmental responsibility of the company. Amongst our participants, H&M is mainly accused of greenwashing. The participants are complaining that H&M is inconsistent with advertising sustainable fast fashion and labeling of using generated polyester. Generally, participants are finding the sustainability of fast-fashion companies as greenwashing. TerraChoice [66] describes greenwashing as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The attribution theory, which takes its roots from general psychology, analyzes the random explanations that people attach to behaviors of other people in the social environment [68]. According to the attribution theory, the behaviors of individuals are attributed to either internal or external restraints. Intrinsic motives such as characteristics are focused on internal attribution whereas extrinsic motives or environmental factors are at the center for external attribution. This theory is adopted by consumer behavior researchers by suggesting that consumers are also involved in a similar attributional process when assessing a company’s behavior [69]. According to this approach, if consumers perceive a company’s attribution internally, they believe that company is engaged in a trustworthy corporate social responsibility for the environment. On the other hand, if consumers perceive attributes of the company externally, they believe that corporate social responsibility is performed just because of situational factors. In Kelley’s covariation model [68], intrinsic and extrinsic motives represent two extremes. The interaction between these motives often produces messages that combine elements of both poles, which are frequently observed in practice [70]. Companies are interested in investing in green marketing and corporate social responsibility to be perceived as more environmentally friendly to have a positive brand image [67] while some researchers found the reverse effect [71]. Nevertheless, too many efforts into corporate social responsibility may cause a self-promoter’s paradox that creates skepticism that consumers are suspicious about a company’s efforts and the company itself [72].

The cognitive dissonance related to fast fashion is generally lower in developed economies compared to developing economies. This is mainly due to more awareness of the environment, strong habits of ethical consumption, and easier access to sustainable fashion products. All these factors make it easier for individuals to match their attitudes with their behaviors, which reduces cognitive dissonance. In their research, Gupta and Singh [73] state that Indian consumers have high levels of skepticism about the declarations of the fast-fashion brands and perceive them as greenwashing when there is an inconsistency between the actual and advertised practices. The study of Lu et al. [74] had a similar result in China and states that it is important to reduce information asymmetry in green marketing strategies to lower the perceived risks of consumers and encourage companies to develop initiatives for sustainable development.

5 Conclusion

In order to understand which codes of the research coexist together, code relations analysis is performed in the Maxqda qualitative analysis tool. First solid relation is between the codes “dynamics” and “things to do.” When the participants were asked which dynamics stimulate their fast fashion shopping, the majority of the participants mentioned the effect of trends. When they were asked about the brands they recall, Zara (Inditex group) and H&M were the first ones for all of them. The reason that the Turkish Gen Z mention Zara (Inditex group) and H&M is directly linked with their dominance in the Turkish retail market. The participants believe that it is the responsibility of the above-mentioned fast fashion brands to focus more on sustainability as they are guilty of all the negative effects of fast fashion on sustainability.

The second strong relation is present between the code’s “brands” and “competitiveness.” The fast-fashion brands, mainly Zara (Inditex group) and H&M, have competitive advantage in Turkey amongst fast-fashion brands and mainly their competitiveness is coming from their ability to manage their supply chain by having both low labor and materials as mentioned by the participants. The results of the research show that Zara (Inditex group) and H&M is mainly associated with competitiveness strategies of the fast-fashion industry. The Turkish consumers believe that the Turkish fast-fashion brands such as Koton, LCW, and Mavi are the followers of the international brands.

The third strong relation is between the code’s “awareness” and “actions.” Generally, the participants stated that although they are aware of the importance of sustainability and its hazards of the fashion industry to sustainability, they ignore this and prefer shopping from fast fashion brands. The participants also added that awareness related to sustainability of fast fashion is very low in Turkish Gen Z.

Another relation is between codes, “things to do,” “recycling,” and “knowledge.” This is the most surprising result of the research. In contrast to developed countries, there is no charity concept in Turkey and secondhand consumption is not mainly performed as a commercial activity. Although the participants believe that the charity concept will not work in the Turkish market, when they are asked about what they do with their used old clothes, nearly all of the participants stated that they are giving their small sized clothes to their relatives, which is a different form of being sustainable. This behavior is very common in Turkish society and this sustainable habit can be explained by the culture of the society. This culture is different from the culture of Western charity models, which are key collectors for unwanted clothes. Generally, it is accepted that developing countries are far behind the developed countries in sustainability, but in some respects, the culture of the developing countries can differentiate them positively in sustainability.

These relations have two important outcomes: first, Turkish Gen Z likes shopping from fast-fashion brands mainly because of following fashion trends. Although they like following trends and shopping from fast-fashion companies, the Turkish Gen Z is giving importance to sustainability. However, they clearly experience cognitive dissonance in fast fashion shopping as they have an “attitude-behavior gap” as they continue shopping from fast fashion brands. In addition, they perceive the sustainability strategies of these companies as superficial or even as forms of greenwashing. The perception of “greenwashing” causes Turkish Gen Z to experience cognitive dissonance in their fast fashion shopping.

6 Managerial implications

As indicated by Hanss and Böhm [75], an “important step in promoting sustainable consumption is to find out how consumers understand the concept of sustainability” [11]. With the help of this research, detailed information was obtained about the behavior patterns of Turkish Gen Z and their attitudes toward sustainability strategies of the fast-fashion brands. Thanks to this study, the perception of the sustainability strategies of fast fashion brands by the Turkish Gen Z was analyzed and in the light of this knowledge, fast fashion brands and especially the local fast fashion brands can develop or adjust their strategies according to this valuable information. The main finding of this study is that Gen Z is not finding the fast fashion companies sincere in their sustainability approaches and although Turkish Gen Z care about sustainability, they experience attitude-behavior gap, and they do not act accordingly. Another important outcome of the research is that Turkish Gen Z believe that government and non-government organizations should bear the main burden in this area. They should increase the regulations in sustainability for fast-fashion companies and adopt the Turkish regulations to the international sustainability regulations.

7 Limitations and further research

The main limitation of the research is that it is limited to a Gen Z. Although this range is selected as they are the main target market of the fast fashion brands, the research can be performed with other generations in different cultures. In order to offer a broader perspective on Gen Z behaviors about fast fashion companies, quantitative research should be conducted.