Visa has announced its first partners for the Recommence Behavioural Insights Lab, a project aimed at understanding and promoting consumer engagement in the transition to a circular economy. The initial initiatives will be conducted in collaboration with H&M Group’s COS brand and the United Repair Centre, with experiments taking place in several European countries including France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK.
COS will focus on exploring consumer motivations and experiences that drive participation in the resale market. The aim is to understand what encourages consumers to buy and sell second-hand items. The partnership with the United Repair Centre will investigate the barriers that prevent consumers from repairing their clothing and seek ways to make repair services more accessible and beneficial.
These initiatives will involve testing different experiences and motivations with customers in various environments, such as online and in-store. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence consumer behavior change, such as improving visibility, access, community, reward systems, ease of use, and affordability.
Katherine Brown, Vice President of Sustainability and Inclusive Impact at Visa Europe, highlighted that over half of Europeans are already engaging in recommerce activities like resale. By uncovering the drivers behind consumer behavior change and utilizing data and insights from the experiments, Visa aims to make sustainable fashion more appealing and accelerate the transition to a circular economy.
Thami Schewichler, CEO of the United Repair Centre, emphasised the value of repair as a means to demonstrate the worth of clothing to consumers and provide them with an opportunity to make a real impact in the fashion industry.
The Lab’s foundational partners include Mindworks, a behavioral design expert; Twig, a circular economy FinTech company; and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. These partners will contribute their expertise to the project and collaborate with Visa to design innovative behavioral interventions that promote more sustainable choices.
