Preferred Product Attributes for Sustainable Outdoor Apparel: A Conjoint Analysis Approach

Abstract Sustainability has become a critical concern for the textile and apparel industry. Over years, a variety of initiatives and practices have been implemented in the industry to reduce the impact to the environment. Offering sustainable products has been an endeavor for many companies in the apparel industry, including the outdoor wear segment. While Consumers are increasingly aware of and interested in buying sustainable products, much research is still needed in terms of important attributes influencing consumers’ purchase decision as well as tradeoffs consumers make when important attributes conflicting against each other. Employing a conjoint analysis approach, this study aims to investigate how different product attributes (i.e., type of fabric, type of down, eco-label certification, and price) jointly affect consumers’ sustainable apparel purchase decision in more realistic settings. As a result of a full profile fractional factorial design, a parsimonious orthogonal array of eight profiles were generated, representing eight different realistic combinations of product attributes. Four hundred and four participants were recruited to participate in this study to evaluate and indicate their purchase intention toward each product profile. Results suggest that price, as expected, is still the most important attribute to consumers, followed by type of fabric(recycled), availability of eco-labels, and type of down (traceable). Moreover, the results reveal that the tradeoffs consumers made varied due to their demographics in terms of gender, education, income, and past purchase experience. This research provides insightful managerial implications to fashion practitioners in their efforts in formulating strategies for product development and marketing by identifying preferred product attributes from the consumer-centric perspective.