South African millennials' propensity to adopt voluntary simplistic clothing purchasing consumption choices

Abstract

The study investigated South African Millennials’ propensity to consume in a Voluntary Simplistic manner taking into consideration selected dimensions of Voluntary simplicity as defined in literature namely; material simplicity, ecological awareness, self-determination and human scale. Demographic differences among Millennials were also considered. A survey was conducted in Tshwane, Gauteng, as Tshwane potentially provided access to a high population of Millennials, which made data collection easier. Data collection and coding of questionnaires were done by trained fieldworkers, after which a professional research company captured the data. Data analysis, which was done under supervision of a statistician, consisted of descriptive statistics, Chi square- and post hoc tests. The study confirmed that South African Millennials are to an extent Voluntary Simplistic in terms of the dimensions of Voluntary Simplicity. These Millennials indicated a fairly strong propensity toward material simplicity and ecological awareness but a moderate or weak propensity towards selfdetermination and human scale. Previous studies indicated that willingness to purchase in a Voluntary Simplistic manner is affected by demographic characteristics such as gender, education level, household income and population group. Therefore, the relevance of demographic characteristics formed part of the investigation of Millennials’ clothing purchase decisions. This study found that population group and gender could be good predictors of the nature of Millennials’ purchasing decisions, further indicating that females and the black population group are more likely to consume and purchase clothing in a Voluntary Simplistic manner. Further indications are that Millennials are fairly materially simplistic and frugal in terms of their clothing purchase and consumption practices. When confronted with a scenario where they were given the option of extra money to spend on a special outfit, the majority of the sample indicated that they would rather spend their money on something else than to upgrade their current outfit. This indicates a tendency towards frugal consumption and a change from materialism towards material simplicity. While the Millennial cohort is a highly lucrative market due to their undeniable purchasing power, marketers and brand managers should take cognisance of these consumers’ preferences and the type of products that they are interested in. Use of social media, which they are very confident in using, could be optimised to entice them to buy local merchandise and to enhance store experiences. Topics related to the way in which Millennials buy clothing and the factors that they regard important when purchasing clothing deserves further investigation in order to gain a better understanding of these consumers who are central to our economy in the future.