Driving Forces Towards Shopping for Second-Hand Clothing

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the driving forces towards second-hand shopping for clothing. Though literature on this topic already exists, there is still room for further examination, especially when adding other perspectives to it. Therefore, this project is especially concerned with gaining a deeper understanding of the underlying motivations for shopping second-hand, looking into the moderating factors that affect the shopping behaviour in second-hand stores and finding possible linkages between those motivations and moderating factors and also relating them to the existing life-courses. The paper is based on secondary and primary research, providing firstly a thorough literature review, and secondly insights from eighteen interviews from respondents residing in the city of Lund in Sweden. The main findings not only confirmed the existing theory, but also indicated new aspects of motivations and moderating factors and exposed significant linkages between the driving forces. Moreover, the results did not support the expectation of the motivations being dependant on the life-courses, but instead revealed that the motivations emerge from values and personal ideologies of an individual. On the basis of the results of this research a new framework was developed that illustrated the main findings and provided another angle on how to look upon driving forces and other factors.