FARFETCH Releases Second Annual Conscious Luxury Trends Report – Retail Times

FARFETCH Limited, the leading global platform for the luxury fashion industry, today releases its second annual report Conscious Luxury Trends Report look at how luxury consumers buy more responsibly.

This year Conscious Luxury Trends Report examines data from luxury customer interactions with Conscious Products (including used) and circular services on FARFETCH to provide a one-year snapshot of attitudes and behaviors through the lens of sustainability. The report reveals that customers continue to shop more consciously and that brands and stores on FARFETCH are responding to growing consumer demand by consolidating and increasing their commitments to improve their impact on people, planet and animals. . FARFETCH uses a set of Criteria to qualify what is classified as Conscious products on the platform. For products to be Conscious, they must meet one of the following criteria: be made from independently recognized or certified materials, have been created through a certified production process, be pre-owned or belong to a brand that achieves the minus a four (for big brands) or three (for the smallest brands) out of five with the ethical rating agency Good on You.

Thomas Berry, Senior Director of Sustainable Business at FARFETCH, said: “As a luxury platform, we have a unique insight derived from over 3 million active consumers and over 1,400 luxury sellers in the marketplace. It’s clear from the data that consumers’ appetite for more conscious and circular ways of engaging with fashion continues to grow and that brands are responding to the opportunities this trend presents. In line with our Positively FARFETCH strategy, we hope the insights in this year’s report will help our partners and the wider industry to continue to think, act and choose positively.”

Key findings from 2021 include:

• Searches for conscious product terms on FARFETCH are up 93% year over year (YoY)
• Circular initiatives that extend the life of items and promote the repair or resale of fashion are gaining popularity
• Stores and brands act to meet consumer demand by promoting measures to improve their sustainability performance
• Consumers around the world are choosing to buy more consciously, and the profile of customers who buy conscious products broadly matches that of an average FARFETCH consumer: the number of FARFETCH customers who have purchased a product from our Conscious collection in 2021 increased by 60% year-on-year; 29% of customers in China made a conscious purchase in 2021; the average age of aware customers is 32 (for general FARFETCH customers the average age is 34); France saw the strongest global growth in conscious purchases with +149% YoY growth in GMV of conscious products; South Korea saw the highest increase in pre-owned spend per item (ASP) at +116% YoY.
• Purchasing quality parts with long life is a key goal for FARFETCH consumers: The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have changed the way FARFETCH customers shop, with 79% saying have adopted one or more behaviors that they consider more sustainable. The most popular behavior, cited by 79% of customers, is that they now buy a greater proportion of luxury fashion because they believe it is more sustainable than fast fashion, being of higher quality and longer lasting.
• There is a growing demand for products made with less impact on the planet or animals: the sale of Conscious products grew 1.8 times faster than the market average in 2021, thanks to the wider offer of FARFETCH and increased consumer interest; brands that score high with Good On You and are assessed by FARFETCH as fully aware accounted for 49% of Conscious product GMV, up 52% ​​year-over-year; searches for conscious terms on FARFETCH increased 93% year-over-year, suggesting that many customers are proactively searching for sustainable items; Conscious filter usage on the FARFETCH site and app increased 29% year-on-year.
• Demand for second-hand luxury goods is growing, attracting high-value customers: 20% of survey respondents have purchased a second-hand fashion item in the past year; used item views increased 150% year-over-year; 65% of used vehicle GMV comes from FARFETCH’s highest spending Private Client and Platinum customers.
• Circular fashion initiatives are resonating with customers and these services are attracting valuable new customers: customers are increasingly using services that help them extend the useful life of their items; 22% of respondents say that in the past 12 months they have started selling fashion items they no longer use; 20% say they’ve donated a second-hand fashion item in the past year, while 13% say they’ve repaired one; Farfetch Second Life increased the number of customers by 195% year-on-year; more than 70% of Farfetch Donate customers are new to FARFETCH; FARFETCH Donate customers spend 99% more per year than the average FARFETCH consumer.
• Stores and brands are acting to meet consumer demand by implementing measures to improve their sustainability performance: FARFETCH now sells 220 brands highly rated by Good On You, up 13% from the year; The quantity of Conscious products on FARFETCH supplied by the store network increased by 40% year-on-year; The GMV of Conscious products from partner stores increased by 46% year-over-year.