Consumers’ purchase behavior towards green beauty care products

Abstract

Consumers are increasingly looking for a more sustainable consumption. In the past years, a green trend has emerged in the beauty care market. However, even if consumers claim to want more green products, an attitude-behavior gap can be observed and the green beauty care segment remains a niche market. Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the attitude-behavior gap is this particular market. Why does the green beauty care market remain a niche segment despite the fact that consumers say they want to consume greener and more natural products? Research design To answer this question, we designed a qualitative study. For this purpose, we created an interview guide that we tested before conducting interviews with consumers and one interview with a specialist to have a professional point of view. Findings Our main findings are that most consumers do not buy green beauty care products because their main argument when buying beauty care products is efficiency, and they do not perceive green products as being as efficient as chemical beauty care products. But other factors such as relationship with brands, habits or availability can help explain the existence of the attitude-behavior gap. Keywords Beauty care, cosmetics, green, sustainable, natural, attitudebehavior gap, consumption habits, efficiency