Social media fashion influencer eWOM communications: understanding the trajectory of sustainable fashion conversations on YouTube fashion haul videos

PurposeThis study aims to examine YouTube comments relevant to sustainable fashion posted on fashion haul videos over the past decade (2011-2021). It is guided by two research questions: (1) How have sustainable fashion-related comments posted on YouTube fashion haul videos changed over time? and (2) What themes are relevant to sustainable fashion in the comments posted on fashion haul videos? Design/methodology/approachA data set of comments from 110 fashion haul videos posted on YouTube was refined to only include comments with keywords related to sustainable fashion. Leximancer, a machine learning technique, was employed to identify concepts within the data and co-occurrences between concepts. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software was employed to assess the prevalence of concepts and identify sentiment over time. FindingsOver the decade, the authors identified increased comments and conversations relevant to sustainable fashion. For instance, conversations surrounding sustainable fashion were linked to "waste" and "addicted" between 2011 and 2013, which evolved to include "environment" and "clothes" between 2014 and 2016, to "buy" and "workers" between 2017 and 2019 and "sustainable" between 2020 and 2021, demonstrating the changes in conversation topics over time. Practical implicationsWith increasing engagement from YouTube viewers on sustainable fashion, retail-affiliated content that promotes sustainable fashion is proposed as one approach to engage viewers and promote sustainable practices in the fashion industry, whereby content creators can partner with retailers to feature products and educate viewers on the benefits of sustainable fashion. Originality/valueThe findings suggest that consumers are becoming more aware of and responsive to sustainable fashion. The originality of this research stems from identifying the source of this interest.