Sustainability: Yes - Paying more: No
Everyone would like to protect the environment. But when it comes to paying more for products that are produced in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner, most people are no longer interested in protecting the environment. What you experience in many areas also applies to shoes.
This is shown by the first edition of the World Footwear Business Conditions Survey.For the survey, 183 experts from the footwear industry were interviewed (manufacturers, retailers, trade organisations, associations and journalists).
When asked about consumers’ preferences for products with less negative environmental impact 56% of the respondents believe that consumers prefer shoes with less negative environmental impact but only if that does not result in higher prices.
According to the survey 15% of the respondents believe that consumers simply won't care about sustainability, which represents a high percentage, considering all the mediatic attention this subject has been having on the news and on social networks in the most recent months, resulting in many companies announcing several measures to tackle the environmental issues. This percentage is even higher, if we look into the results by continent and into Asia in particular: Almost one third of respondents in Asia consider that consumers do not care about the environmental impact of shoes.
29% of the respondents of the survey believe that consumers are prepared to pay more for shoes with less negative environmental impact. 27% believe they will only be willing to pay slightly more (up to a 10% difference for shoes with less negative environmental impact) while 2% believe that consumers are prepared to pay more than a 10% difference in prices.
About World Footwear Report
In 2019 the World Footwear has created the World Footwear' experts panel and is now conducting a Business Conditions Survey every semester. The objective of the World Footwear Experts Panel Survey is to collect information regarding the current business conditions within the worldwide footwear markets and then to redistribute such information in a way it will provide an accurate overview of the situation of global footwear industry.The first edition of this online survey was conducted during the month of December 2019.
