Spirituality's effect on religious youths' e-retail second-hand clothing purchase intentions

Purpose This study investigates the effect of spirituality in shaping religious young Muslims' intention to purchase from online second-hand clothing retail, mediated by brand consciousness, consumer felt responsibility for sustainability and perceived social benefits. It also examines the moderating influence of familiarity with the circular economy (CE) within the sustainable fashion context. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on McNeill and Moore fashion consumer categories (self–sacrifice–social) as the mediators between spirituality and online intention to purchase second-hand clothing, a survey was conducted among 316 religious young Muslims with prior online second-hand fashion purchase experience. Data analysis was conducted using PLS-SEM to test direct, mediating, and moderating effects. Findings Results indicate that spirituality does not directly influences purchase intention. However, brand consciousness and perceived social benefits mediate this relationship. Familiarity with CE moderates the relationship between spirituality and consumer felt responsibility for sustainability. The feeling of responsibility toward sustainability does not have any significance on the direct and indirect effect between spirituality and purchase intention. This suggests that the main drivers to purchase from online second-hand clothing among young Muslims are hedonic which may contradict the role of spirituality. Originality/value This research integrates spirituality with consumer familiarity with CE and extend prior sustainable fashion literature by linking these dimensions with fashion consumer motivation dimensions (self–sacrifice–social) in the world's largest Muslim population that has significant growth of e-retailing activities.