Dissertation | Page 58

Spending habits Due to an increase in marketing and social media platforms, shopping has now being a leisure and social activity. Consumers are spending six billion a week and overall 340 billion in the year of 2015 (Porta, 2015.) According to Mary Portas (2015) that these spending habits could be linked too “All change was enabled by technology, phones, watches, tablets, computers, we were able to spend money quicker.” Every platform makes shopping more accessible to all consumers spending habits, giving supplier’s easier access to sales through the power of marketing. A strength for suppliers, but a weakness effecting the sales in high street stores due to the easy access of online sales. Consequently keeping high street stores open through the sales generated online. Does this benefit or a threat to the sales in high street stores, will it become too much of an expense to cover the day to day costings of the stores? An opportunity here can be identified whereby companies operating simply online have no day to day costings to cover. A consumer survey ‘Recycling in the fashion industry: The effects of plastic and cardboard packaging waste on landfill sites in the UK’ was carried out as a part of the primary research; whereby participants were asked a variety of questions based on their consumer habits when shopping, what recycling they do, and their opinion about current recycling that takes place within high street stores. This survey showed that 29.5% of participants shop online with 60.2% shopping instore for clothing, with 53.4% of participants buying into both fast and slow fashion, concluding that clothing has now become more accessible, with online sales increasing. Mary Portas identified in the year of 2015 “for the first time in UK history, cards and cash less payments over took cash payments on the streets of Britain” (What Britain Bought in 2015, 2015) 45