Introducing the Index:MH Retail Pilot

Retail is changing. Footfall is harder to win, loyalty is harder to keep, and customers are quicker to judge a brand by what the in-store experience signals, not what the marketing says. The store is no longer a backdrop - it does the marketing.

Physical retail is not neutral. It is an environment full of cues that shoppers absorb while they browse, often without noticing. What feels “normal” here? What feels “aspirational”? What feels quietly off? In UK consumer research, 41% of shoppers said a negative in-store experience would stop them making a purchase. (corporate.zalando.com) When the experience is uncomfortable, people leave. They rarely announce why. They just do not return.

41% of shoppers said a negative in-store experience would stop them making a purchase.

Expectations around representation have also moved fast. Consumers increasingly expect realism, not polish for its own sake. In Attest research, nearly 70% of shoppers said it is important to see models that have not been digitally altered. (Attest) In a separate Vogue Business survey of US and UK consumers, 67% said they are more likely to buy from brands that showcase diverse body types. (Vogue)

Customers can spot surface-level inclusion language quickly, and physical retail is where the gap between message and reality shows up most clearly. Here’s the problem for retailers who want to respond to changing consumer expectations: there is no independent, evidence-backed standard for what drives body image pressure in physical retail, or what “better” looks like in practice.

When major brands like Dove and CVS have taken public steps on related issues, they have done it with specialist input. Dove’s long-running work on retouching and representation, and CVS’s Beauty Mark commitments on unaltered imagery, were not lucky guesses made by marketing teams. They were expert-led programmes with significant resourcing that most retailers do not have access to. That gap is what Index:MH exists to solve.

About Index:MH

Index:MH is an independent, non-profit certification body focused on how beauty and fashion marketing impacts consumer mental health. We are starting with physical fashion retail through the Body Image Safe standard: a measurable, in-store criteria set designed to be recognisable to customers and practical for retailers.

Body Image Safe has been developed with an expert advisory board of leading body image researchers. The criteria are grounded in the evidence on how appearance-related cues shape how people feel, and how retail environments can reduce or amplify avoidable pressure.

The Pilot

We’re now inviting fashion brands and retailers to take part. Pilot Retailers will help refine the criteria and language, and will be the first stores eligible to be certified. Participation is intentionally light: a workshop and a short feedback loop.

Pilot applications are open to clothing retailers of all sizes. The essentials are a physical retail location and clear alignment with the purpose of reducing avoidable body image pressure in-store.

Aligned with our mission to reduce avoidable body image pressure in-store? Get in touch to become a part of the Pilot Retailers group.