Yes / The purpose of this paper is to provide response around three commentaries: Lowe’s view on key mechanisms through which greater transparency could influence consumer product evaluations (Lowe, 2015); Kuah and Weerakkody’s critical assessment on whether cost transparency is good for consumers (Kuah and Weerakkody, 2015); and Singh’s perspective on what is behind the price tag and why companies should embrace cost transparency (Singh, 2015). Design/methodology/approach – This is a response to the aforementioned commentaries, from the authors of “Should Consumers Request Cost Transparency?”. Findings – The authors call for empirical studies to shed light on issues, including, but not limited to, drivers and challenges/barriers of making unit cost available; appropriateness of unit cost information for different category of products; information overload caused by cost transparency; effect of availability of unit cost on the consumer decision-making; empowerment of consumers through unit cost information; impact of cost transparency on realisation of fairness, differentiation, competitive advantage and sustainability for businesses; and impact of cost transparency on market dynamics and consumer behaviour. Originality/value – Given its potential impact on both theory and practice, the arguments presented for and against provisioning of unit cost information to consumers is an issue worthy of further debate and empirical investigation.

Background: Consumers are aware of and care for the environment, which has led to a need for transparent and sustainable fashion products. This results in that companies need to create transparent and sustainable communication strategies to gain the consumers’ trust. In order to strengthen trust among consumers, brands needs to tell stories that are credible and create emotional bonds. A few fashion companies has taken this transparency further through implementing cost transparency in their business model. This means that they as opposite to traditional retailers reveals its costs and margins in order to justify the product price and communicate this through storytelling towards the end consumer. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to present how fashion companies that today work with cost transparency disclose this information, what parts of the cost structure they do not disclose and how it is communicated through storytelling. This paper will focus on companies that communicate cost transparency to the end consumer online and how they do this through their company websites and their online shops. The research will add to the existing literature which has until now concentrated on transparency from an ethical supply chain perspective and price transparency. Methodology: This research is a qualitative study where a comparative research design is chosen. A multiple-case study is chosen where primary data regarding cost transparency and storytelling is collected from three company websites. The data is later analysed back and forth with concepts presented in the theoretical framework in order to analyse how fashion companies work with cost transparency and storytelling. Findings: The research shows that all three cases choose to display transparent cost information related to direct material costs and manufacturing costs as well as a price comparison with traditional retail brands. Meanwhile the less recognisable costs such as the indirect costs related to running the business were not included in the cost breakdown information. The cost transparency narrative is used in storytelling to educate the consumer where all three cases tell a story where they function as the hero, meanwhile the traditional retailers represents the villain. Managerial implications: From a company perspective, everything related to adding a value to the product is seen as part of the cost structure. Hence, in order to keep the consumers’ trust and stay relevant, it is seen that companies are advised to tell stories that transparently gives the consumers the full picture of the cost structure.

Yes / Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that consumer choice be guided by price fairness judgements to increase consumer satisfaction and subsequently enhance market efficiency. Consumers en masse lack the information to judge price fairness, thereby causing their ability to influence the economy to be overlooked. Design/methodology/approach – This is an argumentative and conceptual work that aims to initiate a debate on this important yet unexplored issue. The arguments presented in the paper are based on economic and technological considerations. Findings – The measure for enabling a consumer price fairness judgement is unit cost information – the cost incurred by a firm to produce a product and/or service. The benefits and challenges stemming from the availability of unit cost information (i.e. cost transparency) to consumers and companies are presented and the likely impact of cost transparency on addressing information asymmetries between buyers and sellers are discussed. Originality/value – Although a significant body of knowledge exists on issues such as price transparency and how it is driven and enabled by the growth of the Internet, there is little or no evidence of research yet on issues related to cost transparency. The authors believe this work would create a new line of research for scholarly community leading to an impact on practice.