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Plus-size women represent a large consumer segment that has grown in popularity with the fashion industry, retailers and advertisers. Despite advancements in clothing availability for plus-sized women, the shopping experience for these women (compared with that of straight-size women) often still falls short. The current experience leaves plus-sized women feel like a second-class, minority group despite the fact that the majority of women in USA are considered plus-size. The purpose of this study was to assess how US-based, value- and mid-market online clothing retailers position their plus-size female clothing sections in their site navigation.

This study assessed the websites of N = 68 popular plus- and straight-sized US-based, value- and mid-market retailers to evaluate the placement of, and options available in, their plus-sized clothing sections.

Findings revealed that the majority of retailers completely separated out the plus-sized section from the straight-sized section and that the language used to describe plus-size clothing was body-focused (versus clothing-focused for straight-size clothing sections). Theoretical and practical implications for marketers, advertisers and retailers are discussed.

This is the first study to assess the separation of plus- and straight-sized clothing sections in online retail spaces. As brands begin to consider combining plus- and straight-sized clothing sections (see Old Navy), it is important to assess how wide-spread the separation of sections currently is in online retail environments.

It is widely known that fast-fashion retailers are struggling to keep up with consumer attention for quick responses within the fashion industry. With the advance of Internet and e-commerce, consumers prefer to purchase online. Online platform information has become an essential source for exploring consumer attention. However, there is often a mismatch between the information provided by retailers and the feedback received from consumers, leading to an imbalance between the supply side and demand side of online information. The purpose of this study is therefore to provide a unified approach to discover consumer attention from the design topic aspect by revealing the information imbalance between supply side and demand side.

To address the issue of online information imbalance and discover consumer attention, this study proposed an approach that focuses on the design topic perspective. The design topic is a collection of design elements that represent a clothing-design feature more comprehensively and accurately compared to a single design element. The proposed approach begins with generating design topics through topic modeling based on online information provided by retailers on e-commerce platforms. Two indicators, influence degree and attention degree, are then used to quantify the intensity of supply information and consumer attention related to design topics. Finally, design topic strategy diagrams are constructed to reveal information imbalance and discover consumer attention.

The experimental case demonstrates the existence of information imbalance, indicating that the intensity of supply information and consumer attention from the perspective of design topics is not uniform, although both follow the Pareto principle. The results of consumer attention distribution with heavy power-law tails are consistent with current research findings. This further demonstrates that the proposed approach is capable of discovering consumer attention in the design topic strategy diagrams.

The issue of information imbalance between retailers and consumers poses a challenge in keeping up with customer attention. The proposed approach offers a practical solution by visually identifying the symptoms of information imbalance and discovering consumer attention through design topic strategy diagrams. This approach provides fast-fashion retailers with a valuable reference to seize market opportunities, improve product design and adjust marketing or management strategies.

This study proposes a novel approach to disclose the issue of information imbalance between supply side and demand side and therefore to discover consumer attention from the perspective of design topics. In addition, guidelines for applying the proposed approach for fast-fashion marketing and management are presented.

The purpose of the study is to explore Shein’s “ultra-fast fashion” merchandising strategies as opposed to Zara and H&M, two of the most representative conventional fast fashion retailers.

The study was based on a statistical analysis of the detailed product assortment and pricing information of 12,000 apparel items at the stock-keeping unit level sold by Shein, Zara and H&M in the US market between January 2022 and December 2023.

Results show that Shein’s merchandising strategies differ statistically from Zara and H&M. Such distinctions can be observed through Shein’s deliberate adoption of a narrower product assortment, substantial investments in trendy clothing over plain-style staple items, a significantly lower product replenishment rate and a more conservative discount rate.

The findings offer unique insights into Shein’s business secret and deepen our understanding of the evolving fast fashion business model.

For online experiential products, tactile attributes are important but hard-to-achieve features. This research aims to explore consumers' emotional experiences by incorporating tactile attributes into the online clothing shopping scenario.

This paper presents two online shopping experiments by consumers who purchase online clothing: one experiment involves subjects browsing clothing products on a computer screen; the other one involves subjects touching the clothing fabric while browsing a corresponding product on a computer screen. Based on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model, a physiological polygraph was used to record the emotional experience of subjects under the stimuli of “sight” and “sight + touch.”

(1) Subjects had a more positive emotional arousal under the stimuli of “sight + touch”; (2) the visual merchandising of clothing and expected touch task affect subjects' overall emotional experience with clothing, and with a good visual experience and expected tactile experience, the subjects showed a more positive emotional valence under the stimuli of “sight + touch”; (3) differing from previous research, this experimental data only supports the hypothesis that the skin conductance indicator is related to the level of emotional arousal, without supporting its correlation with emotional valence. However, the heart rate indicator is correlated with emotional valence but not with emotional arousal.

This work proposes a way to study the tactile attributes of online clothing and enriches the theoretical framework of polygraph and the S-O-R model for the research of online experiential products, and in terms of application, it sheds light on sales strategies of online experiential products for retailers and brand owners.

Body shape is a critical variable influencing consumers' garment choices (Zakaria, 2017), yet research investigating how UK females with varying body shapes evaluate and experience fit is limited. Moreover, while digital methods exist to classify female body shapes, application in a commercial setting is limited. To fill this gap within the literature, this study aims to understand the influence of body shape variation on garment fit evaluations of 30 UK females aged 18–34 years.

This study conducts a physical garment try-on session whereby 30 UK females aged 18–34 years were body-scanned and categorised into a body shape, using the Female Figure Identification Technique method. Participants verbalised their fit experiences during a physical try-on session through semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of individuals' fit appraisals.

The findings demonstrate that UK females who share the same body shape classification experience the same issues when appraising dress fit, challenging Makhanya and Mabuza (2020) who found that body shape does not influence apparel fit satisfaction. The results shed light on the importance of body shape during the fit appraisal process.

Despite the contribution, future research to improve the limitations should be addressed. First, although it was necessary to investigate a UK demographic to address research gaps, the finding of this study cannot be generalised to the entire UK female population nor to other areas of the world. Hence, future research should overcome this limitation by extending this study further to other countries, cultures and ethnicities.

The findings of the present study shed light on the role of body shape in determining satisfactory clothing fit and how females' fit experiences will differ depending on their body shape classification. Thus, fashion retailers should use this insight to better inform their promotional strategies, not only making them more inclusive but also to help assist this particular consumer segment with their clothing decisions based on their body shape.

The present study provides an in-depth understanding of how females with the same body shape experience garment fit, contributing novel findings to the literature through a mixed-method inquiry previously lacking in this area, with a UK demographic which has not previously been explored.

Digitalization and multi-channel strategy have appeared as recurrent themes in retailing for years, yet some major international as well as domestic mass retailers have chosen to retain a single, physical channel focus for customer transactions. These retailers, despite the digital mindset preoccupying the retailing sector, have chosen to rely fully, or predominantly, on their stores to generate revenues. A number of questions arise from this approach. This paper aims to understand the rationale for marketing and strategic practices which appear to go against the dominant, strongly digitally oriented, discourses and practices in the field of retailing. Why do some retailers choose not to add a digital transactional channel? Are there defensible reasons for this choice? Can such a strategy successfully create value?

This research is based on a qualitative, multiple case study of the strategies adopted by Primark (fashion) and Aldi (food), two major retailers that retain a largely single-channel transaction focus, in France and the UK.

This research suggests that some retailers may still be able to succeed by maintaining a single-transactional physical channel to avoid a cost trap which extensive moves towards digitalization of transactions might mean for them. In such circumstances, refusing to adopt a digital value proposition may be a means of preserving the success of their original business model.

Despite the weight of academic and practitioner discourses on the urge to undertake digital transformation, this work provides a comprehensive illustration of the rationale for sticking to a single physical channel to preserve the profitability of a traditional store-based business model.

Online fashion retailers offer body measurement guidance, alongside their target consumer body size charts and fit information, to help consumers select the right size garment as the garment cannot be tried on. Its use by retailers suggests it can act as a means of mitigating garment returns as there has been a noted increase in returns due to incorrect size selection even though body measurement instructions are provided online. The purpose of this research is to determine how consumers interact with body measurement guidance, how they interpret it and use it, thereby interrogating its efficacy.

An exploratory investigation was undertaken. Thirty participants were recruited and given a choice of fashion retailers' body measurement guidance and a tape measure. They took their body measurements over their clothes. A technician repeated the task, thereby providing two sets of body measurements. A paired t-test determined if there was a significant difference in both values in terms of their mean. Technicians also documented their observations of how the participants interacted with the task. The content of the fashion retailer measurement guidance was then compared to that of published anthropometric guidance for surveys.

Participants were familiar with the guidance and tape-measure; they were able to self-measure. The fashion retailer measurement guidance, however, lacked detail/clarity in visuals and written content when compared to anthropometric guidance. Interpretation of the guidance differed between participant and technician. This resulted in a significant difference in circumference measurements for the bust/chest and hips, yet no significant difference in waist and inside-leg measurements. For measurements that were difficult to take unaided, participants devised novel practices which resulted in little divergence from the technician taken body measurements. The results question the guidance efficacy in its current form.

There has been no study which addresses how consumers interpret and interact with fashion retailers' online measurement guidance. This is important as this can mitigate garment returns. This research provides insight to influence fashion retailers' measurement guidance policy. It also adds to the existing body of knowledge surrounding anthropometric practice for clothing.

The findings indicated that fashion retailers need to revise their body measurement guidance content. The content needs to be more comprehensive but still use accessible language and visuals. The broader implications of this study highlight that traditional anthropometrics for self-taken body measurement needs developing as an emerging concept through clothing-related academic study.

Fashion retailers' measurement guidance needs to be more comprehensive but still use accessible language and visuals. The broader implications of this study highlight that traditional anthropometrics for self-taken body measurement needs further investigation and documentation as an emerging concept through clothing-related academic study.

In today’s complex and globalised business setting, Australian clothing retailers are ever more vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Supply chain resilience reduces the effect of a disruption, which permits the members of a supply chain to respond aptly to disruptive events. This study, hence, aims to uncover the details of how the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of clothing retailers in Australia build supply chain resilience and what are the major issues experienced by the SMEs while building resilience.

This study is carried out using a descriptive qualitative research design, and data are collected from semi-structured interviews with key informants from managerial levels within the Australian clothing retailers’ businesses.

This study identifies five enablers, namely, collaboration, multi-sourcing, visibility, flexibility and information systems, that the SMEs of clothing retailers mostly consider to achieve resilience in the supply chain. This study also finds that SMEs’ capabilities, cost and financing, lack of managerial autonomy and the inability to create redundancy are the key impediments hindering SMEs from attaining the expected level of resilience.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by being one of the first empirical studies to explore the SMEs of clothing retailers’ supply chain resilience in the Australian business context, which can add valuable insights for academics and practitioners in guiding supply chain design decisions for the SMEs in other sectors.

Body positivity movement empowered plus-size women globally to speak up boldly about their clothing needs. Retailers cannot satisfy this group with some classic style offerings anymore. By taking clue from existing literature, this study aims to identify clothing preferences and problems related to ready-made plus-size clothing in India. Although many past literature pointed out about poorly fitted and size unavailability issues worldwide, very few of them addressed about clothing style preferences.

A self-administered close-ended questionnaire was used to answer a set of objectives. A pilot study with 40 plus-size women was carried out to check the reliability and validity of the instrument. Four hundred subject's data were gathered from six Indian cities with a purpose of varied geographical importance. Statistical tests like binomial distribution was used to analyze fit-related problems of 12 bodily sites such as shoulder, upper arm, lower arm, bust, waist, stomach, abdomen, hip, thigh, lower leg, armhole and elbow, and frequency charts were used to examine Likert scale data of sizing problems. The choices of 12 clothing styles were mapped through four factors which affect the purchasing decision of a plus-size woman.

Poor-fitted clothes at 10 body sites out of the 12 reflected about the fit aspect of plus-size clothing in India. Findings associated to sizing issues like unavailability of trendy clothes in appropriate sizes, which also adorn Indian curvy figure, shows synonymy to the worldwide researcher's findings related to sizing chaos. Classic silhouettes like Straight Indian kurti, A-line dresses and regular-fit trousers were majorly preferred by women. Hiding body bulges was mostly preferred while purchasing loose-fitted garments, and fitted garments were preferred only if these suits to the curvy body proportion. Appropriate fit and size availability are always a prime requisite for this class of women.

The outcomes of research will help Indian retailers/manufacturers to update their patterns in order to provide desired fit. In this lacuna of standard size chart, the study will add value in the development of Indian plus-size women's size chart. The factor mapping with clothing preferences will be useful to reduce rejections and inventories.

The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of uncaptured sustainable value and strategies to generate opportunities to capture it in the circular supply chain of post-consumer used clothing.

This study is based on an inductive analysis of 21 semi-structured interviews conducted with various stakeholders in the circular clothing supply chain (for-profit and not-for-profit) using the value mapping approach, as previously applied in the literature on sustainable business models.

Fifteen antecedents of uncaptured sustainable value, and thirteen value opportunity strategies were revealed that hinder or generate multi-dimensional value types. Economic value is impacted the most, while there is lack of explicit understanding of the impact of these antecedents and strategies on environmental and social value capture. From a multi-stakeholder perspective, the ecosystem is emerging as new for-profit actors are developing novel process technologies, while not-for-profit actors are consolidating their positions by offering new service options. There is also an emerging “coopetition” between the different stakeholders.

More granularity in the different types of uncaptured value could be considered, and external supply chain stakeholders, such as the government, could be included, leading to more detailed value mapping.

This research provides practitioners with a value-mapping tool in circular clothing supply chains, thus providing a structured approach to explore, analyse and understand uncaptured value and value opportunities.

This extended value perspective draws upon the value-mapping approach from the sustainable business model literature and applies it in the context of the circular clothing supply chain. In doing so, this research illustrates circular clothing supply chains in a new way that facilitates an improved understanding of multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder value for embedded actors.