An Investigation of Consumer Behavior Characteristics in Fast Fashion Industry of Uk

This dissertation will explore and investigate the influence of fast fashion on consumer behavior and its theories and the study will be conducted from the UK's retail fashion industry's perspective. Fashion industry is one of the industries with dynamic nature and changes take place in this industry so fast that the players or businesses in this industry get almost no time to respond to that change (Passariello, 2008; Rohwedder & Johnson, 2008). Due to the changing nature of the business environment the firms operate in this industry always look for change and ability to quickly adopt change is considered as a competitive advantage in this industry. Most of the firms or fashion houses in this industry are quick learners so that they can respond to the changing situation quickly at the same time they are trend setters in this industry (Fisher & Raman, 1996; Eppen & Iyer, 1997; Caro & Martínez-de-Albéniz 2010; Caro & Gallien, 2010). Fashion is something that comes with the modern trend and reflects the perception of people or consumers about something that they considered trendy (Meichtry, 2007). Lifestyle of people gets changed due to change in fashion and it is also closely related to the living standard of people of a country (Ferdowset al. 2004). People from the country with high per capita income have shown more positive attitude towards adopting a new fashion compared to the people with lower per capita income country. Consumer behavior is another dominant factor that shapes the nature of the fashion industry. Some argue that the opposite of the pervious statement is true because consumers are driven by fashion therefore fast movement in this fashion industry actually shapes the consumer behaviors. Although there is controversies both the above statements are true from various perspectives.

The fast fashion industry is dominated by various players and they are all retail in nature (Fisher & Raman, 1996; Eppen & Iyer, 1997; and Fisher et al 2001). Most of the firms in this industry have their own designers who design clothes and accessories for consumers. Then according to the given design clothes are manufactured from RMG industry of low cost manufacturing countries like India and Bangladesh. Therefore outsourcing of production of fashion accessories or products is a very crucial factor in fashion industry. Some other factors like supply chain management, customer relationship management, quality management, partners'