How shoppers choose fabrics for ethnic wear

What is shaping textile

Textiles run from handloom weavers and spinning mills to garment exporters and retail brands. Buyers demand quality, compliance and speed; workers and artisans need fair, stable livelihoods.

• International buyers expect compliance and traceability
• Handloom and artisan programmes support livelihoods
• Fabric preferences change with fashion and climate

A fabric brand, working in Ten cities across India. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A fabric brand

Sector

Textile

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Consumer panel, Quantitative research, Qualitative research

The brand supplied fabrics to tailors and retailers and wanted to understand how women chose fabrics for salwar suits and sarees, including the role of feel, colour, price and brand.

• Answer the core question: how shoppers choose fabrics for ethnic wear.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of shoppers.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.

The work focused on 1,800 shoppers.

• shoppers1,800

Audiences we typically reach in textile

Weavers and artisansMill and factory workersGarment exportersInternational and domestic buyersFabric retailers

Coverage: Ten cities across India. Market: India. 30 store interviews covered.

• India

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Online survey
3. 3In-store shopper interviews
4. 4Insight

We surveyed women who bought fabrics for ethnic wear through our consumer panel and interviewed shoppers in fabric stores about how they judged quality and what made them trust a store or brand. We showed shoppers real fabric swatches during store interviews, asking them to explain how they checked quality, which revealed habits that online answers could not capture.

Consumer panelQuantitative researchQualitative research

shoppers

1,800

• Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Shoppers judged fabric by touch and colour fastness and relied on shopkeepers’ advice, rarely asking about brands.
• Retailers using the guides reported easier conversations with customers about why some fabrics cost more.

Supporting the retailer’s advice was more effective than building brand awareness directly.

• Build on the core insight: supporting the retailer’s advice was more effective than building brand awareness directly.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: shoppers judged fabric by touch and colour fastness and relied on shopkeepers’ advice, rarely asking about brands.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The brand created in-store fabric guides and wash-fastness assurances for retailers to share.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what do buyers look for in a sourcing partner?