Sustainable clothing: new frontier in India

Abstract

The study is undertaken to understand the customer perception of sustainable garments within the Indian market. It provides an in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis to identify the gaps in the marketing of current Indian brands and identifies critical factors responsible for the weakened demand for sustainability in the Indian markets through the customer lens. It finds that consumers perceive sustainable clothes to be more costly to produce and are therefore higher priced. One of the critical factors for the depressed demand in the Indian market is the scepticism regarding sustainable clothing credentials. The study concludes by recommending the way forward for Indian brands to establish their foothold by consistent messaging using standardized indexes such as Higgs Index score along with transparency regarding the Supplier's practices. It helps to establish credibility, tackles the effect of higher prices and formulates ease of reception of the message to the target audience.