How this economic indicator could finally counteract ultra-fast fashion

For about five years, environmentalists and fashion professionals have observed with dismay the queues that form at the opening of each Shein pop-up store. Campaigns and campaigns that raise awareness about the fast fashion giant’s environmental damage do not seem to be able to affect its success. It attracts customers primarily with low prices; The monetary argument therefore seems to weigh more heavily than the ecological one. It might be time to change strategy and follow a similar logic. A possible solution exists and can be summarized in three words: cost per wear.

One at the beginning of October by Lisa Eckmann and Lucia A. Reisch in the scientific journal Psychology & Marketing Published study supports the following idea: To encourage consumers to buy so-called “sustainable” clothing, it is better to talk to them about personal, monetary benefits rather than relying on explicit sustainability appeals. This is where Cost per Wear (CPW) comes into play.

What is cost per wear?

Cost per Wear is an indicator that shows the value of an item of clothing based on how often it is worn. The calculation is simple: the total price of the garment is divided by the number of times it is worn. This results in a hypothetical price that consumers pay each time they wear the item of clothing. The amount of this price decreases with the frequency of use.

Imagine Alice wants to buy a new blouse for work and plans to wear it once a week for at least five years. Her online search leads her to two options: a blouse from a fast fashion brand for 20 euros and another from a more expensive brand for 50 euros. To calculate the cost per wear, one must assume that Alice will wear the blouse approximately 50 times per year, i.e. once per week. The cheaper blouse is believed to last about a year before needing to be replaced. The more expensive blouse, on the other hand, will last at least four years. After the calculation, the 50 euro blouse has a lower CPW of 0.25 euros than the 20 euro blouse at 0.40 euros.

How the brand calculates the longevity of the garment on which the CPW is based can be determined through material durability testing. In fact, some clothing brands already indicate these tests on their website, such as the French brand Loom.

Is CPW more effective than environmental claims?

According to studies by Eckmann and Reisch, the CPW concept can be effective as a communication strategy. It can shift consumer preference from low-cost, low-quality clothing to more expensive, longer-lasting, and therefore higher-quality options.

They claim that this communication can be more convincing than general sustainability statements. Consumers are becoming increasingly suspicious of such claims due to widespread greenwashing.

Why is CPW compelling? It answers a question we often ask ourselves when purchasing an item of clothing: How often will I wear this? Is it worth the price? In other words, we question the frequency of use and try to do a cost-benefit analysis of the product ourselves.

Unfortunately, the usual shopping context, whether online or in-store, does not provide any guidance to consider the lifespan or frequency of use of a product. Ultimately, these aspects are easily overlooked. This often results in money being spent on multiple cheaper, lower quality items of clothing rather than a single more expensive, higher quality item. This prioritizes a low purchase price per item.

If brands, retailers or e-commerce sites provided CPW, the purchasing decision would be completely different. CPW communication helps consumers assess the long-term economic value of a high-quality product. Because it is worn more often, buyers can save money. Therefore, the researchers conclude that the CPW strengthens buyers’ preference for the high-quality option. This is particularly true if the CPW is accompanied by third-party certification.

These results are likely to pique the interest of marketers and policymakers who want to encourage the purchase of high-quality clothing and curb fast-fashion consumption.

Limits of the CPW

However, stating on an item that the CPW is 0.30 euros will not influence consumers if they cannot compare it with the CPW of another item. The essential condition is therefore to make this number meaningful; Consumers must be offered the opportunity to compare with another item.

Another key limitation of CPW is that ultra-fast fashion purchases are often made for a single occasion. This particularly applies to purchases made on the Shein website. In this case, buyers do not intend to wear the garment multiple times. So they don’t care that the cost per wear will be high.

In their study, Eckmann and Reisch confirm this observation: “(…) CPW communication is less effective in increasing preference for quality options when consumers purchase clothing for a special occasion. In these cases, the perceived economic value of a more expensive, higher quality option is reduced. The preference for this option remains unchanged. This suggests that economic value is not a relevant decision criterion when the intended frequency of use is low.”

The second-hand fashion platform Vestiaire Collective has been integrating CPW into its general communication for several years. This is intended to show that the cost per wear of a used luxury item is lower than that of a fast fashion item. The company concluded in a study conducted by an independent firm that “buying used items is 33 percent cheaper in the long run than buying new fast fashion clothing.”

However, this data remains linked to a communication campaign. This means they are not integrated into the retail strategy. The CPW does not appear on the product pages of individual items. This is probably because it would then be necessary to create a basis for comparison. As already mentioned, simply stating the CPW for an individual item of clothing is not meaningful enough for consumers.

In any case, secondhand fashion platforms do not seem to need the CPW argument to convince consumers. It’s no secret that the market for used clothing and accessories has exploded. According to a recent Ipsos study, a majority of French people now say they buy second-hand fashion.

Shein’s CPW

According to the 2023 Sustainability and Social Impact Report published by Shein, the “majority of customers surveyed said they typically wear Shein items more than ten times.” From a sustainability perspective, this number seems far too low. Unfortunately, it seems almost normal in a context where the mindset has been shaped by fast fashion and its throwaway culture for decades.

Although purchases on the Chinese platform often involve pieces for a single occasion, the quality of an item is becoming an increasingly important purchase criterion. Shein himself understood this well.

The platform said in one of its reports that it has “strict goals for continually improving the quality of its clothing,” relying “on standardized testing and customer feedback to guide our efforts.”

Despite its “efforts,” the platform is perceived negatively by almost half of the French population, according to Ipsos data from October 2025. This affects the brand at 48 percent and the quality of its products at 49 percent. The controversy surrounding the move into the Paris department store BHV Marais is unlikely to improve the situation.