Why Is Collaborative Apparel Consumption Gaining Popularity? An Empirical Study of US Gen Z Consumers

Abstract

Apparel rental, also known as collaborative apparel consumption, has created an innovative and popular business model, providing consumers with the ability to focus on using their products instead of ownership. Recent surveys show that sustainability is driving demand and customer loyalty in the US. Among all generations, Gen Z consumers lead the way. To better understand the emerging popularity of apparel rental services among Gen Z consumers who are becoming a major driving force for retail growth and the sustainability movement, this study aimed to identify the factors significantly influencing Gen Z consumers’ intention to use apparel rental services; 362 eligible responses were gathered via a questionnaire survey. The psychometric properties of the proposed model were examined, and the multiple regression method was applied to test the hypotheses. Attitude, subject norms, perceived consumer effectiveness, past environmental behavior, and fashion leadership significantly affected Gen Z consumers’ intentions to use apparel rental services. Attitude plays a mediating role between Gen Z consumers’ environmental knowledge, fashion leadership, need for uniqueness, and their intention to use apparel rental services. The proposed research model exhibited good explanatory power, accounting for 58.6% of the variance in Gen Z consumers’ use intention toward apparel rental services.

Collaborative Consumption: A Study of Sustainability Presentation in Fashion Rental Platforms

“…Despite recent bumps in the road, apparel renting continues to increase in popularity and is likely to become more common in the future [15]. Previous research has indicated that rental apparel models are more sustainable than traditional consumption models [15][16][17].…”

“…Despite recent bumps in the road, apparel renting continues to increase in popularity and is likely to become more common in the future [15]. Previous research has indicated that rental apparel models are more sustainable than traditional consumption models [15][16][17]. The reasons for this greater sustainability include being able to extend the life of products through use intensification and item repair; designing more durable products that last longer to avoid creating unnecessary waste; the need to create fewer products that satisfy more people, which reduces resource, water, electricity, and material consumption; the opportunity to reduce water and energy usage while better preserving garments through more professional cleaning services and technologies utilized by clothing rental companies; and helping consumers reduce overconsumption [18][19][20].…”

“…1, 2, 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,30,31,32,33,34,35,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49…”

Rent, borrow and...benefit? Exploring New Zealanders' intentions to rent and borrow consumer goods using an extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

“…In other words, the subjective norm tells us whether an individual believes the people close to them approve or disapprove of the behaviour. The reviewed B2C literature on renting clothes seems to report that the subjective norm is a significant predictor of intention (Becker-Leifhold, 2018;Lang & Joyner Armstrong, 2018;Lee & Huang, 2020;McCoy et al, 2021;Mishra et al, 2021;Pham et al, 2021;Tu & Hu, 2018). Furthermore, subjective norm appears to be a reliable predictor of intention in the literature on collaborative consumption in general (Ianole-Călin et al, 2020;Iran et al, 2019;Laurenti & Acuña, 2020;Lindblom & Lindblom, 2018;Roos & Hahn, 2019).…”

“…From the B2C literature on renting clothes, attitude is most often the strongest predictor of renting intention (Becker-Leifhold, 2018;McCoy et al, 2021;Mishra et al, 2021;Tu & Hu, 2018). Ajzen (1985) describes attitude as an "individual's positive or negative evaluation of performing the behaviour" (p. 12).…”