Retailers play an important role in persuading consumers to purchase sustainable fashion
(SF), but little is known about how, and why, SF retailers persuade consumers. This research aims to
understand their choices for marketing and communication tactics. We interviewed 25 SF retailers about
the drivers that they presume motivate consumers’ purchases, and about the drivers they actually target
in their marketing practices. Our findings show that retailers do not base their marketing tactics on what
they presume drives SF purchases: most retailers presumed that personal benefits and advantages
motivate SF purchases, however, they targeted cognition-related drivers in marketing communications.
Retailers’ current marketing communication endeavors show a disproportionate focus on persuading
consumers to choose SF as a category, instead of persuading consumers to purchase their specific
products. Based on this study, we recommend researchers and marketeers to support SF retailers with
knowledge of effective marketing and communication tactics to address SF purchase behavior change,
and the industry and public authorities to provide an effective SF information campaign for consumers.
