Visa, COS and the United Repair Centre unite to make more sustainable choices everyone’s must-have

Visa has announced its first partners for its Recommerce Behavioural Insights Lab, a new initiative running rapid real-world experiments to understand and share how businesses can help consumers actively engage in the transition to a more circular economy.

With 92% of consumers surveyed claiming they want to live a more sustainable life, but only 16% taking active steps to change their behaviour¹, Visa will partner with leading brands to better understand how to bridge this “intention/action gap”, aimed at driving more circular behaviours and business models while ensuring an inclusive approach.

The first two experiments will be run in partnership with COS and the United Repair Centre, and will take place in various places across Europe. Initial countries where early experiments are likely to take place include France, the Netherlands and Germany, as well as the UK.

COS will explore the motivations and compelling experiences that increase consumer participation in the resale market. Resale is an important part of fashion’s shift to circularity and is a growing commercial activity. However, with only 47% of consumers participating in resale activities more than once a year, many brands are still learning the many motivations and novel barriers that affect customer interest².

The experiment with the United Repair Centre will leverage their experience offering high-quality repair services to leading European apparel brands. It will explore the barriers that stop consumers from repairing their garments, and how to make clothing repair services more accessible and beneficial for all.

The experiments will test the different experiences and motivations with customers in a variety of environments, including online and in store, to provide a better understanding of the precise triggers of changing consumer behaviours, experimenting with factors such as improving visibility, access, community, reward, ease, or affordability.

The experiments will be open sourced, with key findings available through downloadable playbooks so that other businesses can use this knowledge to help develop their own circular models and be part of the wider Recommerce community.

The meaningful and unique combination of Visa’s equitable commerce and design experience, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s circular design insights, Twig’s fintech meets resale space knowhow, and Mindworks’ key role in designing behavioural interventions, will supercharge discovery of actionable insights and scalable solutions, that encourage sustainable choices.

The creation of the Behavioural Insights Lab follows the announcement of Visa’s commitment to Recommerce as a regenerative way to buy, re-use and share goods and services, helping to accelerate the transition from our “take-make-waste” linear economy to a circular economy, incorporating recommercial activities and business models, including resale, repair, rental, redistribution, return and refill.

For more information about Visa’s Recommerce programme and to join Visa to shape and accelerate the transition to a more circular economy designed for everyone, everywhere, please visit: www.visa.co.uk/recommerce.

To become a partner, visit: https://globalclient.visa.com/recommerce

What is the methodology behind Recommerce Behavioural Insights Lab experiments?

Using insights from behavioural science, the Lab will identify the factors that drive consumer behaviour towards sustainable choices while also uncovering barriers that hinder the achievement of sustainable intentions, such as Resale, Rental and Repair.

The Lab plans to test and share the results of interventions that have been designed to overcome these obstacles, with the ultimate goal of assisting businesses and consumers in adopting more sustainable habits and behaviours.

In order to conduct these experiments, Visa has devised a comprehensive methodology that includes defining the behavioural barrier, establishing a behavioural intervention, designing the experiment, carrying out the experiment, analysing the data, and sharing the results openly. The foundation of the methodology and lab is based on the M.I.N.D.S.P.A.C.E behavioural framework that decodes the nine effects thought to have the most influence on behaviour.

By following this methodology, Visa will be able to evaluate experiment data and merchant feedback, share learnings, and create and share guides and playbooks for businesses to implement the intervention.