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Purpose – This paper aims first, to identify online service attributes that facilitate efficient and effective shopping, purchasing, and delivery based on the modified E‐S‐QUAL scale and, second, to evaluate the extent to which current online retailers provide such service attributes as an objective measure of service performance. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis of 111 women's apparel retail web sites was conducted to assess online retailers' performance in providing online service attributes. Findings – The overall extent to which current online retailers provide online service attributes appears to be low. Managerial implications are provided to help online retailers improve their service performance. Originality/value – This study provides an objective way to evaluate online retailers' service performance and thus complement existing online service quality research based on consumer perceptions and evaluation of online service quality. In addition, the coding guide developed in this study provides an easy and practical tool that can be used by online retailers for the self‐assessment of online service performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether service attributes available on women's apparel web sites differ from those available on men's apparel web sites in relation to the nine dimensions of E‐A‐S‐QUAL (E‐S‐QUAL for apparel).

Using three separate sources, 97 women's and 97 men's apparel web sites were selected, which constituted a variety of apparel retail web sites that are a fair representation of available US retail apparel web sites. ANOVAs and chi‐square analysis were performed.

The results of content analysis suggest that differences exist between women's and men's apparel web sites in providing online services that improve e‐service quality in such a way that women's web sites provided more service attributes that improve e‐service quality than men's web sites.

The results of content analysis suggest that the distribution or availability of almost half the e‐service attributes analyzed significantly differed between women's and men's apparel web sites. For the further growth of men's apparel shopping via the internet, e‐retailers of men's apparel need to provide e‐services at a more sophisticated level.

This study provides valuable information to both men's and women's apparel e‐retailers to understand their current performance in delivering e‐service and areas for improvement.

The objectives of this paper are to: examine e‐shopping quality dimensions; explore how e‐shopping quality factors influence consumer shopping outcomes (e‐shopping satisfaction and e‐shopping intention); and test the moderating effects of consumer experiential e‐shopping motives on the e‐shopping quality – e‐shopping outcomes links within the context of online apparel retailing.

Data were gathered from 298 college students in the USA using a self‐administered online survey.

Among four e‐shopping quality factors identified (privacy/security, web site content/functionality, customer service, and experiential/atmospheric), web site content/functionality and atmospheric/experiential quality have significant impact on e‐shopping satisfaction contributing to e‐shopping intention, while privacy/security and customer service have significant impact on e‐shopping intention but not on e‐shopping satisfaction. Furthermore, this study provides some support for the moderating roles that experiential e‐shopping motives plays in the e‐shopping quality – e‐shopping outcomes links.

This paper shows that experiential e‐shopping motives as an individual characteristic play a role in controlling the dynamics among e‐shopping quality, e‐shopping satisfaction, and e‐shopping intention. However, the data consisting of self‐reported measures from a single segment of online retail industry warrants caution in generalization in relation to common method bias.

This paper entails useful implications for internet‐ and multichannel retail marketers delivering apparel/fashion goods to better understand the online consumer response process and determine effective e‐store management strategies that reflect the differing customer evaluation processes.

This study extends and complements the e‐tail service literature by examining whether and how experiential e‐shopping motives moderate the relationships among e‐shopping quality dimensions, e‐shopping satisfaction, and e‐shopping intention.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of successful customization of apparel in e‐retailing and to provide managerial suggestions for strategic planning.

Using an online survey, data are collected from 300 female adults in the US secured through a nationwide random sampling method. AMOS 7.0 and SPSS 15.0 are used to analyze the data.

Customers recognize the benefits of online customization of apparel when they perceive the website to be useful and competent. Additionally, customers perceive customization websites to be more useful when the websites are secure for the information customers provide. Interestingly, the ease of operation of a website is negatively related to the perception of a competent website and does not influence a positive attitude toward the online customization of apparel.

In order to give the impression of competent and useful websites, marketers need to develop secure websites. Ease of operation on the website may not always be an advantage for apparel customization; therefore, marketers need to find the optimal levels of ease of website operation to imply useful, yet competent, websites.

This study identified the potential factors for successful customization of apparel in e‐retailing and provided strategic implications to marketers.

Visual merchandising has a direct impact on shopping experience, making it pertinent for the retailers to ensure that their store environment has an effective design. This study blends fuzzy numbers and Analytical Hierarchy Process to create a fuzzy evaluation model prioritizing the relative weights of visual merchandising dimensions of online fashion apparel store. This study will help the fashion retailers in creating more engaging and informative online stores leading to subsequent increase in online retail sales.

Visual merchandising dimensions and sub dimensions used by retailers for online stores were identified through review of literature and discussion with experts. Twenty experts were interviewed and their responses captured. The responses were analyzed using Fuzzy AHP technique resulting in prioritizing the dimensions according to the weight. For testing the stability of the results, sensitivity analysis was conducted.

Four key dimensions and sixteen sub dimensions were extracted. Weights were calculated using FAHP. “Pictorial Presentation” has the highest weight followed closely by “Product Information” dimension. Amongst the sub-dimensions “Number of Product Images” scored highest followed by “Product Presentation mode”. “Alterable Background” scored the least weight.

Previous studies have identified Online Visual Merchandising dimensions and have also studied the impact of some of these dimensions on consumer buying behavior, but the relative significance has not been determined yet. This study fills the gap.

The purpose of this paper is to study, explore and rank the non-conforming factors in apparels purchased from e-shops.

Data were collected by visiting and interacting people in colleges and through the structured online questionnaires (n=222). The exploratory factor analysis was performed using “R” software. Identified factors were ranked using AHP methodology; 12 experts from various fashion institutes participated in identifying the factors.

Based upon the results of the exploratory study, non-conforming factors such as “visual variation”, “functional inconvenience”, “cloth attribute variation”, “haptic variation”, “aesthetic variation” and “fit variation” were identified. The priority ranking of factors and sub-factors was done.

The sample primarily comprised of the young adult population (19–27 years) and most of them were females (71.6 per cent). There can be other demographic factors. Research is limited to online apparel retailers. Advanced methods of prioritisation can be used.

The paper can be useful to online apparel retailers, vendors and manufacturers to understand the factors that may be important for improving their business.

There is no study that identifies the non-conformance factors related to online apparel retailing.

The purpose of this study is to survey the associations among innovation perspective on value priorities, i.e. hedonic vs utilitarian facets, satisfaction among customers and behavioral intents for online fashion apparels in the Asian economic context, i.e. Indian market.

The research used a hypo-deductive strategy and all the constructs were amended from the previous scholarly work. The two-step methodology with structural equation modelling in terms of covariance-based methodology was deployed to weigh the measurement and structural models.

The conclusions reveal that value priorities in terms of hedonic vs utilitarian dimensions have a substantial influence on satisfaction, and satisfaction significantly affects intentions for online apparels. Additionally, customer satisfaction performs the role of a partial facilitator between hedonic and utilitarian values and purchase intents. In comparison to hedonic, utilitarian priorities display a superior outcome on customer satisfaction and purchase intents for fashion apparels getting sold online portals.

The research will facilitate online researchers and fashion managers recognize the underlying dimensions of innovation-led perspectives on values, i.e. hedonic vs utilitarian, for satisfaction and behavioral intents.

The study results will assist online marketers, fashion portals and specialists recognize the characteristics of hedonic vs utilitarian dimensions to improve satisfaction facets and behavioral intents for online fashion apparels.

The present scholarly work presents useful insights related to social transformation with respect to innovative online fashion apparel buying paradigms.

In an Asian market context, the paper is pioneer work to examine the comparative relationships among value priorities, e.g. hedonic vs utilitarian dimensions and their influence on satisfaction and purchase intents for the fashion apparels sold online sector a two-dimensional measure of consumption values.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers and barriers to omni-channel retailing in China, and attempts to understand how companies formulate their business strategies during their transformations to omni-channel retailing.

This study adopts an exploratory case study approach to investigate the omni-channel retailing transformations of two well-established Chinese fashion apparel retailers. The study draws on multiple sources of evidence, comprising: interviews with eight business executives from three major operational departments; on-site observations in firm’s retail stores, factories and distribution centres; and secondary data review of firm business reports, news, whitepapers and archival records. The findings are established through a consistent within-case data analysis and cross-case comparison.

The study reveals that the two retailers formulated different strategies in developing their omni-channels, and exhibited different degrees of success. The similarities and differences in the drivers, as well as the barriers, were analyzed and compared in this study. Operational variations (i.e. enablers and inhibitors) due to the unique context of the Chinese market were also explored. The findings reveal that coherent leveraging firm resources and capabilities from the three perspectives – marketing, logistics and supply chain, and organizational management – is critical to the full implementation of omni-channel retailing. They provide relevant managerial insights that can assist firms in formulating appropriate strategic action plans during the transformations.

As a theoretical contribution, this paper identifies a set of drivers and barriers for omni-channel retailing in the developed market, and classifies them into three categories: marketing; logistics and supply chain; and organizational management. The empirical-based qualitative analysis reveals the key factors impacting on omni-channel retailing within the Chinese market, and suggests a series of practical implications for local retailers planning to embark on omni-channel retailing.

As satisfaction is one of the most important conditions for loyalty, this study aims to investigate the main factors affecting online satisfaction for buying clothes from the internet. In this research, the authors followed two main objectives: (1) to identify factors influencing online satisfaction and (2) to determine the importance of the main determinants that explain online satisfaction in the retailing clothing sector.

The research combines qualitative and quantitative research methods. The authors used the focus group technique and a survey based on a questionnaire. For the first exploratory phase of the research, we conducted four focus groups with 21 women, 18–39 years old, who have at least two years experiences as online buyers and who made at least two acquisitions for clothing products in the past six months, from the same website. The purpose of this qualitative method was to understand the young women's perception about online satisfaction and to collect items to be included in the questionnaire. For the second quantitative phase of this study, the sample consisted of 241 participants. To analyse the data, two different types of inferential analysis were used: factor analysis (for identifying the factors that compose online customer satisfaction) and analysis of regression (to determine the most important factors that determine and predict online buyers' satisfaction).

The main results indicate that the significant factors determining a satisfactory experience in an e-retailing market are: good deal (savings), product expectations, customer service and website reputation.

The study is more relevant in the current pandemic context, when the consumer’s behaviour has changed and online shopping has substantially increased. The research can be used by companies that sell clothing on the internet and are interested in increasing their financial results and also their customers' satisfaction.

The purposes of this study were to investigate components of apparel Web sites and to examine whether differences existed among the types of Web retailers in their components. Thirty‐six apparel Web sites were classified into four categories: virtual e‐retailer, catalog company, bricks‐and‐mortar retailer, and multi‐channel retailer. The Web sites were content analyzed according to the components of the apparel Web including merchandise, promotion, and customer service. Significant differences were found among the four types of Web retailers as to the components (product description, product price information, advertising, catalog service promotion, placing order, and returns policy) included on the Web sites. Currently, competition among Web sites is not based on what information is available, but how information is provided. Therefore, to differentiate themselves from competitors, each type of Web retailer should take advantage of their unique Web strategy within their own retail channel.