Fashion online

Citation

Hayes, S. and Curran, L. (2007), "Fashion online", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 11 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmm.2007.28411daa.001

Fashion online

The pervasive nature of the world wide web in the “connected” world is undeniable. From the first click in the morning to access our e-mail to the final “shut-down” of the evening we are continually engaged with the online community. Perhaps this is through Web 1.0 channels such as web sites, chat rooms and e-mail or, more increasingly, through the Web 2.0 world of blogging, Flickr and MySpace. But how many of us regularly purchase clothing online? Do we spend our time inside virtual retail outlets and break for a discussion about the latest trends through a blog? Much has been made of the potential of online channels for retail and this issue brings together research into these many facets of the online environment. The paper by Seock and Norton acts as a good springboard for this issue as they consider the choices made by consumers based upon online information and how that influences their choice of purchase channel. The Korean context for fashion retail online is brought to us extensively by Lee and Lee in their paper looking at the impact of e-tailer attributes on Korean consumer attitudes along with Lee, Geistfield and Stoel’s comparison of American and Korean apparel websites. With a particular eye on the visual merchandising (VMD) Ha, Kwon and Lennon give further comparisons of Korean and US web sites by analysing the visual content of web sites from these two countries. The theme of web site attributes and components is extended by Seock and Norton in their exploration of US college students’ perceptions of their favourite clothing brands online. Kwon, Joshi and Jackson provide a detailed study of the influence of demographic characteristics on consumers’ perceptions of web site attributes, while Kim, Kim and Lennon focus specifically on the impact of the task relevance of web site information components on the consumers’ experience. The more recent channels of communication and retail are considered by Thomas, Peters and Tolson in their study of the MySpace virtual community. Delving further into a virtual existence Song, Fiore and Park consider the role of teleprescence and fantasy in fashion e-tailing sites. A practitioner paper from Rickman and Cosenza completes our tour of the virtual fashion retailing world by considering the use of the weblog as a fast fashion trending tool. Where will you buy your next fashion item from, the real high street or one of Second Life’s virtual malls?

In a slight deviation from the norm this editorial both introduces the main content of this online centric issue and brings you “hot off the press” Commentary on the EU clothing market in 2006 provided by Louise Curran, DG Trade of The European Commission – a departure I hope you will forgive in light of the usefulness of the piece.

Steve Hayes, Louise Curran