The Influence of Consumer Preferences and Perceived Benefits in the Context of B2C Fashion Renting Intentions of Young Women

Abstract

Fashion consumption has continually increased in recent decades, leading to severe environmental problems. Apparel renting provides an opportunity to foster sustainable fashion consumption. However, fashion rentals are rarely used. Previous research identified participation drivers in fashion renting but neglected the potential influence of consumer preferences which were found to be essential drivers of decision-making in fashion shopping. Therefore, this study extends previous research by investigating the role of fundamental consumer preferences and existing intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in fashion renting. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the effects of fundamental consumer preferences, i.e., quality, brand, and novelty preference, and perceived economic and sustainability benefits on fashion renting intentions in a B2C context. The final dataset included 327 Generation Y and Z women in Germany. The results indicate that fashion renting relates positively to quality and novelty preference. Brand preference did not display a significant effect. Furthermore, economic benefits positively relate to fashion renting, indicating that financial motivations encourage commercial renting but might crowd out sustainability gains. Recommendations are provided to make fashion renting more attractive to consumers.

Promoting access-based consumption practices through fashion renting: evidence from Italy

“…more conscious about the potential benefits related to FR (Helinski and Schewe, 2022; Jain et al , 2022; Lang et al , 2020; Lee and Chow, 2020).…”

“…Lang et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2021), economic and financial convenience (e.g. Helinski and Schewe, 2022;Lang, 2018;Lang et al, 2019), ease of use (e.g. Lang et al, 2020) and environmental reasons (Lee and Huang, 2020) have been usually recognised as the most important benefits.…”

Gen Xers: Perceived barriers and motivators to fashion renting from the Indian cultural context

“…So, cleanliness-conscious Generation X members are likely to avoid fashion rental due to the perceived hygienic risks associated with the practise (Table 5). Generation Y, Generation Z, or a combination of Generation Y and Generation X (Neerattiparambil, 2020;Pham et al, 2021;Shrivastava et al, 2021); the current study, however, is a novel endeavour to respond to the call for additional research on other generations for a holistic understanding of the fashion rental phenomenon (Helinski & Schewe, 2022;Pham et al, 2021). It addresses this gap by specifically focusing on a potential cohort, Generation X, to determine their perceived motivations and barriers to fashion rental within the cultural context of India.…”

“…Prior studies in the context of influential motivations and barriers to fashion rentals are illustrated in Table 1. Aspects such as affordability (Park & Lee, 2022; Ruan et al, 2022), showing possessions in social settings (Jain & Mishra, 2019; Mishra et al, 2022), self‐expression (McNeill & Venter, 2019), desire to differentiate (Lang & Armstrong, 2018; Ruan et al, 2022), trial of new styles (Bodenheimer et al, 2022; Park & Lee, 2022), environmental friendliness (Bodenheimer et al, 2022; Ruan et al, 2022), convenience (Park & Lee, 2022), smarter shopping (Ruan et al, 2022), product life extension (Pantano & Stylos, 2020), wide variety (Lee et al, 2021), user‐friendly digital platforms (Lang et al, 2020; Park & Armstrong, 2019), rental business proficiency, trust in the rental firm, personal data protection (Fota et al, 2019), a sense of fun (Ruan et al, 2022; Baek et al, 2021), creativity and change (Park & Lee, 2022), ego defence (Ruan et al, 2022), novelty and quality preferences (Helinski & Schewe, 2022), wardrobe transformation (Neerattiparambil, 2020), fashion leadership, social media usage, price consciousness (Myin et al, 2022), perceived consumer effectiveness, perceived individual relevance (Chi et al, 2023), quality service (Krishnakumar, 2023), fit, and occasion aptness (McKinney & Shin, 2016) are perceived motivations to renting fashion.…”

“…Furthermore, recent research has highlighted the need to study additional generations for a complete understanding of the fashion rental phenomenon (Helinski & Schewe, 2022;Pham et al, 2021). Millennials drove the expansion of India's fashion rental market (Jones, 2019).…”