Consumer Perception of Competitive Strategies in the EU Fashion Market: A Comparison of Established Retailers and Chinese Ultra-Fast Fashion Platforms

This thesis examines how European consumers perceive and compare Chinese ultra-fast fashion platforms, specifically Shein and Temu, with established European fashion retailers, specifically Zara and H&M, and identifies the factors that most strongly influence their online purchasing decisions. The study addresses a gap in the existing literature by providing an integrated, consumer-level analysis of the competitive dynamics between these two groups of retailers across five dimensions: price and value perception, product variety, supply chain speed, digital trust, and sustainability attitudes. A quantitative research design was employed, using a self-administered online survey distributed across EU member states, which collected 157 responses. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U tests, independent samples t-tests, and a chi-square test of independence. The findings indicate that price is the dominant purchasing driver among Chinese platform users, that established European retailers retain a statistically significant trust advantage that independently influences overall platform preference, and that near-universal awareness of the sustainability and ethical shortcomings of Chinese platforms does not translate into reduced purchasing behaviour, confirming the presence of a clear attitude-behaviour gap in the EU online fashion market. The study concludes that trust and quality positioning are the most defensible competitive assets for established European retailers, and that structural regulatory interventions are more likely to shift consumer behaviour than awareness campaigns alone.