Renting can enhance shoppers’ need for novelty and variety
By Joëlle Vanhamme
Is renting garments as an alternative of shopping for them really higher for the planet? Because the textile trade faces rising scrutiny for its environmental influence, clothes rental providers promise shoppers the chance to refresh their wardrobe continuously whereas decreasing their carbon footprint. However is that this answer as eco-friendly because it seems?
That is the query we sought to reply in our current research. We selected to look at the hidden results of client behaviour when utilizing access-based providers (ABS) as an alternative of proudly owning garments.
Our qualitative and quantitative research spotlight a shocking truth: removed from at all times decreasing the ecological footprint, clothes leases can truly encourage elevated consumption amongst sure kinds of shoppers! The trigger? The rebound impact, a phenomenon that happens when the anticipated environmental features are decreased, cancelled out and even reversed by compensatory behaviours on the a part of shoppers.
These points are a part of a wider debate on the boundaries of options perceived as ecological and on how shoppers and companies can react to keep away from the pitfalls of overconsumption disguised underneath a special identify.
ABS are constructed on a easy concept: as an alternative of proudly owning a superb, the buyer advantages from it briefly in alternate for the fee of a financial contribution. Possession is now not an crucial. This paradigm shift has been made potential by the rise of digital platforms in transport (Uber), leisure lodging (Airbnb), family home equipment and, extra just lately, vogue.
Clothes leases, as soon as reserved for particular events similar to weddings or galas, at the moment are obtainable for on a regular basis put on. Platforms similar to Le Closet and Coucou enable shoppers to rent designer garments for a number of days or a number of weeks, earlier than returning them to lease new ones.
Customers particularly worth the pliability and selection these providers present. They’ll keep up-to-date with vogue tendencies with out committing long-term, all whereas participating in a consumption mannequin offered as extra sustainable. Textile manufacturing is among the many most polluting industries, particularly with the rise of quick vogue. In precept, subscribing to a clothes rental service shouldn’t solely restrict the amount of garments produced, but in addition prolong their life by providing them to a number of successive customers.
By means of conducting interviews with 31 customers of Franco-Belgian clothes rental platforms, we recognized varied rebound results that problem the concept renting garments is inherently extra sustainable than shopping for them.
Rebound results happen when effectivity features or practices which can be speculated to be sustainable, similar to clothes rental, paradoxically result in a rise in consumption.
The simple entry – selection and low value of rented garments can encourage a extra frequent use of the service, and even result in shopping for garments impulsively (some individuals even purchase garments they initially rented!) – can cancel out the anticipated environmental advantages of renting as an alternative of shopping for (direct rebound impact).
Alternatively, somebody who saves cash by renting garments might use these funds to purchase different items or providers in different product classes (high-tech merchandise, journey, family gear, and so on.), thereby rising their complete consumption and their ecological footprint.
Our quantitative research of 499 customers allowed us to succeed in this conclusion, however it’s essential to grasp that these results will not be homogeneous and range in accordance with client teams and their psychological motivations.
Our research identifies two of the 5 teams analysed – representing about one-quarter of clothes rental service customers – as notably vulnerable to experiencing damaging rebound results.
The “thrill and pleasure seekers” group (7 per cent) is characterised by a robust seek for stimulation and hedonistic motivations and is principally made up of males. For them, renting garments doesn’t cut back their general consumption, and quite the opposite, it will probably enhance it by stimulating their need for novelty and variety.
The group of “contextually apathetic spenders” (18 per cent) shows paradoxical behaviour: though they aren’t notably motivated by pleasure or stimulation, and cut back their consumption of garments by renting, they enhance their purchases in different product classes after renting garments. They’re additionally the least frugal, which reinforces their propensity for oblique rebound behaviour. They are typically younger city males, usually single and extremely educated. These outcomes spotlight the necessity to tackle the range of client behaviour throughout the sharing and ABS financial system, and to adapt methods for every client group.
Though ABS have the potential to advertise extra sustainable consumption habits, they’ll additionally encourage behaviours that negate these advantages – or worse, exacerbate environmental impacts. This analysis, subsequently, challenges the belief that clothes rental providers are inherently sustainable.
What are the avenues for extra accountable vogue? As ABS achieve in recognition, it turns into essential to grasp the right way to maximise their ecological potential whereas minimising undesirable rebound results. To attain this, companies and shoppers alike might must rethink their method.
The implications for managers and policy-makers are clear: it isn’t sufficient to advertise clothes rent as a sustainable answer. With round 1 / 4 of customers of clothes rental providers more likely to exhibit damaging rebound behaviour, it’s important to determine these shoppers and supply them with applicable info and incentives to restrict these results.
Rental firms’ communication methods must be differentiated in accordance with client segments. For individuals on the lookout for stimulation and pleasure, hedonic incentives unrelated to the garments rented, similar to competitions, video games, rewards or presents, could be efficient. For apathetic shoppers, reminders of the damaging penalties of their behaviour could make them suppose extra rigorously about their decisions.
Corporations ought to keep away from solely emphasising the inherently hedonic facets of clothes leases, as this method might inadvertently reinforce damaging rebound results. As a substitute, they need to spotlight the ecological advantages and promote worth co-creation with shoppers, addressing their wants whereas minimising environmental influence.
For instance, clothes rental providers may encourage the extra accountable long-term rental of eco-designed merchandise from manufacturers that share the identical ecological values. As a substitute of selling the fast rotation of things, they may encourage customers to scale back the frequency of exchanges and restrict the variety of objects that may be rented on the similar time.
Corporations may additionally increase client consciousness in regards to the environmental influence of their decisions by sharing information, such because the carbon footprint of rented garments or the variety of extra makes use of a rented garment achieves in comparison with a bought one.
On the similar time, shoppers play an important function in remodeling vogue towards extra considerate consumption. This shift begins with rethinking their relationship with vogue and adopting a minimalist method that priorities high quality over amount.
Customers can even select “moral” items – responsibly manufactured clothes that mix model and sturdiness. Earlier than renting a garment, they may ask themselves, “Do I actually need this?” Such mindfulness may also help stop impulse leases and cut back environmental influence.
Joëlle Vanhamme is a advertising professor at EDHEC Enterprise College. This text is republished from The Dialog underneath a Artistic Commons licence
