Behind the Scenes of Marketing Fast-Fashion: How Social Media and Trends Influence Teen Spending

Chloe Ramette, Latin School of Chicago, Junior, Spring 2026

Your shopping trip where you hit the cheap yet fashionable fast-fashion stores may have felt like a win until you look in your wardrobe in a couple of months and find nothing to wear again. Behind the scenes, the market prioritizes the purchase of many cheap, short-lived, trendy items over fewer but longer-lasting, high-quality ones. Teens will believe that they are budgeting their money effectively when, in reality, in the long run, they end up spending more money. 

Although fast-fashion brands are affordable, they market their products by “creating trends that will last a week,” says student Finn Parr, causing teens to constantly spend more money on the newest trends provided by brands. The rise of social media has significantly contributed to this marketing strategy being more prominent than ever. According to Fashion Takes Action, fashion brands in the past had two runway collections in a year compared to the present 52 collections in a year- meaning, a new collection every week (Bari, 2023). 

Teens are heavily influenced by the people around them and those they see on social media for their purchases, and fast-fashion uses this exact phenomenon when marketing its products. An anonymous retail store employee explains that “by wearing the products that we sell, I am also marketing our products.” Fast-fashion employees wearing the clothes allows consumers to follow their created trends and purchase the clothes themselves. With social media, student Finn Parr explains that “teens are impressionable, so they feel the need to buy things that they see online”. In the Global Fashion Influencer Study of 2019’s survey, 86% of respondents stated that they have purchased apparel or fashion accessories after seeing them on a fellow influencer, and 47% of influencers have spent $1-$50 on clothes or accessories after seeing them on an influencer (Marketing Dive, 2019).

So, next time you go into your favorite fast-fashion store and think you are wisely spending your money, think about all of the factors that have led you to your possibly unnecessary purchases.

https://www.fashiontakesaction.com/blog/articles/what-is-social-medias-impact-on-fast-fashion-an-investigation#:~:text=Social%20media%20plays%20a%20major,they%20have%20in%20the%20past

https://www.marketingdive.com/press-release/20190605-study-86-of-fashion-influencers-have-purchased-apparel-based-on-recommend/

Finn Parr, Student at Latin School of Chicago

Anonymous, Retail store worker