The climate crisis that the world is facing has resulted in a generally greater awareness about how climate friendly the products that we consume are. This has led companies all over the world to develop their sustainability marketing communication in order to attract consumers. As a fast fashion company, it could be quite a battle to communicate sustainability as it is stated that the textile industry has the greatest negative environmental impact on the climate today. H&M and Lindex are two Swedish-founded fast fashion companies which, among many others, have adapted their communication on their media channels to highlight the environmental friendliness for their consumers.  The purpose of this study was to investigate how H&M and Lindex communicate their sustainable marketing communication on their official websites. The theoretical framework used in the study is Framing theory and Public Relations. By applying a Critical Discourse Analysis based on Fairclough's three-dimensional analysis model the result of the study shows how the two fast fashion companies' sustainable communication is framed. The result of the study shows that both H&M and Lindex use sustainability in their marketing communication as a way to position themselves in the fashion market as active actors by highlighting their own sustainability achievements. By also urging consumers and other actors to contribute with sustainable and environmentally friendly measures, both brands create a role where they take social responsibility in engaging and encouraging a more sustainable world. Future goals and measures pursued in the companies’ sustainability work are also explained in both companies' web communication. Both brands also position themselves as a source of information for consumers, since  they inform them about how climate change can affect society. The differences that were found in the two companies' sustainable marketing communication were above all that Lindex, unlike H&M, places a greater focus on the empowerment of women in its sustainability communication.

In this era of environmental upheaval, this study sought clarity on the matter of green purchasing behavior. How the fashion industry’s specific impact on the environment has affected consumers' attitude towards companies and their collections. It was identified that customers have been requesting sustainable products from their retailers more and more and yet, a conscious willingness to help on the part of the consumer did not necessarily equate to purchasing more sustainable products.  The empirical part of the study was based on a quantitative research approach. The findings and data collection were obtained through an online questionnaire, generating responses from 40 individuals. Deductive reasoning was selected in this thesis as a scientific approach. The research has been done from the consumer's perspective. Furthermore, the collected data that created the hypothesis was analyzed and gathered from existing theories.  The conclusion of this research demonstrated that consumers did possess a willingness to be more conscious of their own climate change footprint by adapting green purchasing intentions such as buying less new clothes at present than 5 years ago. The findings indicated that consumer awareness did not necessarily result in a change in their green buying behavior. Finally, it was found that an unchanged position in consumers' green buying behavior would have been due to a lack of sustainable fashion alternatives readily available. The authors believe that further research is needed to shed light on the divide between consumers' attitude and actual purchasing behavior.

The purpose of this study is to examine and investigate if there has been a growth within the second hand industry during the pandemic and if so, investigate what factors there are that have contributed to the growth. The target group of this study is within generation Z and their view on second hand. The study is based on the number of gaps that had been identified with help on earlier research on the subject. Numerous people in the literature and articles are eager to present that the second hand market has increased, but why it has increased and what has caused generation Z to shop more second hand is more challenging to answer. Furthermore, an analysis has been conducted in order to cover the gaps that have been identified. The study is based on a quantitative study with generation Z as respondents. The results from this study shows that the generation has begun to shop more second hand over the last years than they have been doing before. This is due to the fact that the generation is very active on social media where second hand has become a trend. New websites have emerged and it has become increasingly accessible to find good second hand bargains. It has also become increasingly common to seek inspiration on social media to find a foundation where they can express themselves with clothes and products. The results also show that there is a growing interest in products that are sustainable and environmentally conscious. It can be said that there are a number of factors that have played a major role in the growth of the second hand industry.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka och fördjupa oss i värdekonflikter kopplat till fast fashion, och ta del av hur kvinnliga studenter vid Uppsala universitet konsumerar kläder och förhåller sig till fenomenet. Studien har en fenomenologisk utgångspunkt och utgår från tio informanters perspektiv och upplevelser som samlats in genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Vi analyserar materialet genom transkribering, kodning och metoden Ad Hoc som tillåter oss att använda flera analysmetoder för att tolka och skapa mening i materialet. Det teoretiska ramverken som utgör grunden för studien är Pierre Bourdieus och Beverly Skeggs teorier med specifikt fokus på begreppen habitus, kapital, distinktion, smak, respektabilitet, femininitet och disidentifikation. Resultatet av detta arbete visar att det uppstår värdekonflikter hos yngre kvinnliga studenter då de upplever miljöfrågor svårhanterliga i kombination med samhällets identitetsnormer. Informanterna upplever att det finns flera normer kopplat till att vara kvinna med fokus på utseendet, hur de konsumerar kläder och hur de ständigt förväntas vara den bästa versionen av sig själva. Studien visar att informanterna påverkas av samhället genom olika digitala plattformar och sociala medier, men att de även erhållit värderingar och en identitetsbild av sig själv från sin familj och uppväxtmiljö. Värdekonflikterna som informanterna upplever resulterar i att fler av dem börjat handla mer kläder från second hand-butiker, och medvetet anstränger sig för att konsumera mer hållbart i hopp om att minska negativa känslor. Mot bakgrund av detta bidrar studien med viktig information kring värdekonflikter i en sociologisk och samhällsmässig kontext.

Detta examensarbete är baserat på en designprocess som går ut på att influera kvinnliga klädkonsumenter i åldrarna 17-25 att göra mer hållbara val. Fast fashion är ett välkänt globalt problem i dagens samhälle och även om människor är medvetna om problemet, fortsätter vi att mätta marknaden. Varje individ har makten över sin egna garderob, däremot saknas det vägledning i hur man ska göra den mer hållbar. Genom att göra en designprocess som var inriktad på att jobba nära målgruppen har problemet undersökts. Arbetet utvecklades till ett koncept av en mobilapp som riktar sig till unga kvinnliga konsumenter och som genom nudging leder dem i en grönare och mer hållbar riktning, genom att de ser sitt köpbeteende och även får slow fashion tips.

Background: Fast-fashion companies are famous for manufacturing the products at cheaper prices and consumers are getting aware of that. Due to the widespread environmental and social problems in the world, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has significantly evolved in fast-fashion industries. A lot of fast-fashion companies are involved in CSR communication in order to convey the information to consumers. It is significant for the companies to adapt effective strategies of communicating their CSR activities to consumers.  Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of CSR content communication on consumers’ attitudes toward fast fashion companies.  Method: In this study, the semi-structured interviews as a qualitative method were conducted. The sample size is 12 consisting of 6 men and 6 women. The authors selected individuals who are interested in fashion and preferably have concerns about sustainable fashion brands.  Findings: The findings demonstrated the significance of transparent CSR communication as a consideration for the effect on consumers’ attitudes. Visual content attracts consumers’ attention and gives sympathetic emotions to consumers wherein directly influence positive attitudes towards the companies. However, the participants did not regard written content as important because of the difficulties of availability and readability. Third party confirmation from the new theory plays an important role in contributing to a positive attitude and it also expands WOM and credibility of the companies.  Conclusion: This study contributes to the knowledge of CSR communication strategies in fast-fashion companies because the findings are closely related to how companies can create effective CSR content to positively influence consumers’ attitudes.

Title: Incentive Systems Related to Sustainability - Are They Efficiently Structured within Nordic Fast Fashion? Problematization: Incentive systems play an important role in guiding and motivating employees towards the goals regarding sustainability for business. The problem that this thesis investigates is that the incentive systems of nordic fast fashion businesses might not be efficiently structured to contribute to the sustainability work. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the current incentive systems within fast fashion businesses and the relation to sustainability within these systems, in order to determine if the structure of the incentive systems are efficient. Research Questions: (1) How could the sustainability work of nordic fast fashion businesses be enhanced by incentive systems? (2a) What kind of incentive systems are integrated within the fast fashion businesses today, and to what extent are they related to sustainability? (2b) In what way can an efficient sustainability-integrated incentive system provide a potential solution for fast fashion businesses to become more sustainable? Method: In order to study this phenomenon of efficient sustainability-integrated incentive systems, a qualitative approach has been implemented. The qualitative approach was conducted through a multiple case study consisting of an interviewing process as well as a document analysis of the case businesses for the study. Results: The result retrieved from this study manifest that the current incentive systems are heavily focused on financial targets, while being inefficient sustainability-wise in integration and motivation on individual plans. Although the case businesses proved to be valuing and targeting sustainability work to a large extent, the work seems to be excluded from the incentive systems for employees, as the systems are lacking implementation of sustainability as well as clear motivation of the employees. Refusing employees the possibility to influence the targets on their own, and thereby obstructing the ability to actually influence sustainability work according to the incentive theory of motivation and Expectancy theory.  Practical Implications: This thesis provides a good ground to argue for an actual lack of action among fast fashion businesses to make a difference, sustainability wise. The presented factors argue for there actually being more to do to enhance sustainability, while proving that there is reason for trying the sustainability integrated incentive systems approach. Keywords: Incentive System, Fast Fashion, Sustainability, Motivation, Management Control

Loyalty programs are something that have made an appearance in the retail industry, where the retail industries have rewards that can give loyalty for consumers to engage and create long term relationships. With the loyalty programs there is an uncertainty on how Gen Z consumers will engage and keep using these rewards. With this thesis the authors want to investigate how the Gen Z consumers can be more engaged in the loyalty rewards in the fast fashion retailers in Sweden. Where the authors will examine various aspects that will improve the engagement mechanics and rewards for the Gen Z consumers. There will also be a look at how social media influenced the Gen Z consumers on their decision making. Gen Z is targeted in this thesis because they are one of the segmentation groups that are most active in the loyalty programs and fast fashion. The empirical data was collected through individual semi structured consumer interviews, where the data was collected on how Gen Z understands and uses loyalty programs. With the data collected it will be analysed through a thematic approach where themes have been identified to understand perspectives and experiences. The collected empirical data will be analysed using theory where differences and similarities are discussed throughout the thesis.  The conclusion of this thesis has shown that in order to improve loyalty rewards and engage Gen Z consumers, fast-fashion retailers should focus more on four different factors. According to the findings, Gen Z consumers value convenience, personalization, saving money and quality when it comes to loyalty rewards. Although, while the thesis does give insights to Gen Z behaviour and factors influencing it, it does not give a complete solution to how fast-fashion retailers in Sweden should respond to this behaviour. However, this thesis does provide valuable insights for retailers in the fast-fashion sector in Sweden and how they can increase loyalty reward engagement among Gen Z consumers.

Over the last decade, loyalty programs have been emerging more and more and the demand for better offers in exchange for loyalty has been increasing given the rising prices throughout the society. With this, an evolution is required in how brands should design their loyalty programs to retain their customers as well as to attract new customers in fast fashion retailing. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how loyalty programs can be strategically designed to strengthen brand loyalty with Gen Z by examining various aspects such as program structure, rewards and engagement mechanisms. This is because Gen Z is one of the demographic groups most active in the use of loyalty programs and fast fashion. Empirical data was obtained through individual semi-structured consumer interviews, to collect data on how Gen Z perceives and uses loyalty programs. The collected data was analyzed through a thematic approach where different themes were identified to explore experiences and perspectives. Furthermore, the collected empirical data is analyzed using theory where similarities and differences are discussed. The conclusion of this thesis showed that in order to develop brand loyalty among Gen Z using loyalty programs, developers should put a strong focus on the financial benefits included in the programs. However, many of the interviewees preferred personalized offers and rewards shaped by their personal data. The thesis did not provide specific answers on how loyalty programs should be designed, however that they should be tailored to the customer using them and that brands should make use of the customer data they collect.

This study addresses the imperative challenge encountered by Scapa, a Swedish textile company transitioning into sustainable fashion, regarding the differentiation of sustainable fashion from fast fashion. By synthesizing data analysis, literature discussion, and theoretical underpinnings, the study develops a comprehensive strategy tailored to Scapa's needs while benefiting consumers and the sustainable fashion industry. The research questions investigate the factors contributing to differentiation and propose effective communication strategies to facilitate consumer understanding. Recommendations encompass enhancing digital presence, transparent communication, educational initiatives, and collaborative partnerships. Focused on Swedish consumers, particularly Generation Z, the study provides targeted insights into future consumption patterns and sustainability efforts. While constrained by its focus on a specific demographic and nationality, the study offers valuable contributions to promoting environmental sustainability in the textile ecosystem.