Unpacking Fast Fashion E-tail Returns : A Qualitative study of Environmental Awareness in Return Behaviors of Fast Fashion E-tail

Abstract: Online consumption and e-tail have clearly increased in recent years, largely sinceaccessibility is an advantage that consumers notice as beneficial. The availability of e-tail has also received clear environmental disadvantages, as returns are an inevitable part of online orders. The increased return rate results in large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, something customer groups with environmental awareness has perceived. Which leads to the purpose of this research, to provide information about environmentally conscious consumers, their behaviors, and intentions towards e-tail returns. Theinformation collected, can be of great significance to fast fashion companies, e-tail platforms, and decision-makers, to guide them in developing effective strategies aimed at promoting sustainable consumption behaviors and mitigating the detrimental environmental effects associated with returns.The empirical findings were gathered through qualitative research, where semi-structured interviews were conducted on 15 Swedish e-tail consumers in the ages 24-44. The empirical evidence was analysed with a Thematic Analysis and discussed in context with the secondary data to strengthen the collected empirical evidence.The conclusion of the thesis portray that the participating environmentally conscious consumers have a predominant insight regarding the environmental impact that occurs when returning e-tail purchases. The research shows that environmental awareness is considered when ordering and returning garments, however, to varying extents, which leads to inconsistent actions. The participants have more environmental thinking regarding the product, production, delivery and consumption i.e., the buying process that directly affects the participants. However, conflicts are identified in several aspects such as that environmental communication from e-tail companies is difficult to understand, economic aspects and the conflict of the desire for certain garments. In summary, the results show that the return process is not prioritized to the same extent as the buying process, because of indirect influence or lack of knowledge of the participants. The findings indicate that there is not always a harmony between the perceptions and actions of the participants.