Search results

By drawing on protection motivation theory, this study explores consumers' motivation to engage in adaptive behaviour envisioned through a transition from offline to online clothing purchasing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this paper explores the conditioning effects of consumer resilience and satisfaction with retailers' assistive intent through the consumer well-being framework.

A total of 363 useable surveys were obtained from Croatian consumers. Data were analysed with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Coping appraisal positively impacts adaptive behaviour by increasing online clothing purchase intention, while threat appraisal has no direct effect on adaptive behaviour. The relationship between threat appraisal and adaptive behaviour is negatively moderated by consumer resilience and satisfaction with the retailer's assistive intent.

Limitations include the convenience sampling method and data collection at one point as well as the focus on consumers from one country.

This study provides a blueprint for designing marketing actions that retail managers should consider to respond to a crisis effectively while maintaining satisfactory buying experiences during health crises and other challenging events.

Given the unique research context, i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic, this study is one of the few and the first in Croatia to unfold the importance of protection motivation theory in providing a greater understanding of consumer's adaptive behaviour (transition from offline to online) in online clothing retail channels during the period of the global health-related crisis. Benefits from understanding consumers' coping and threat appraisal mechanisms while addressing their buying needs in adverse circumstances are revealed. In addition, the theoretical implications regarding the conditional effects of consumer resilience and consumer satisfaction with retailers' assistive intent during a pandemic are also provided.

Model's physical attractiveness plays an important role in online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among model type, consumer's perceived amount of information and consumer's approach behaviour.

Construal level theory and anchoring effect are used to develop hypotheses. The authors conducted an online experiment in China, and 229 females participated in this experiment.

Compared with the professional model, the nonprofessional model triggers consumers' more perceived amount of information and approach behaviour. The latter effect is significantly enhanced in the website retailing context. Moreover, perceived amount of information positively affects approach behaviour.

The findings can help fashion brands understand the roles of model type and the online retailing context in consumer behaviour. It offers guidance on how to improve its marketing strategy scientifically. It can also provide consumers with suggestions for making objective purchasing decisions.

This study is one of the first to examine the effects of two model types (professional model or nonprofessional model) on consumers' perceived amount of information and approach behaviour within two online retailing contexts (website stores or webcast studio).

This study aims to examine the influence of attitudes toward particular clothing web sites, specifically favorite ones, on information search at those web sites and on the choice to purchase items from those web sites and from non‐internet channels after finding the items at the web sites.

Using survey data from 414 US college students who had online shopping experience and favorite clothing web sites that they especially like to visit, hypothesized relationships among attitude toward internet web sites, online information search and channel choices for purchasing were tested using path analysis.

Results showed that participants' attitudes toward their favorite clothing web sites had a direct, positive effect on their intentions to search for information at those web sites as well as intentions to purchase clothing items from those web sites after finding the items there. Additionally, operating through information‐search intentions at the web sites, participants' attitudes toward those web sites had an indirect, positive effect on their intentions to purchase clothing items from non‐internet channels after finding the items at the web sites.

Results cannot be generalized to the larger population of young consumers and to other consumer groups. Future research should include other population groups.

This research provides insights into how college students' attitudes toward internet web sites affect their information search at the web sites and their channel choices for purchasing. Our results suggest potential benefits of multi‐channel retailing for online clothing retailers targeting US college students and the importance of building effective web sites to elicit those consumers' positive attitudes toward the web sites.

This study is the first to investigate young adult online shoppers' attitude towards internet web sites and their information search and channel choices for purchasing.

While marketers want to drive higher repurchases for better business sustainability, repeat shopping experiences may change customer perceptions of the online channel, resulting in the emergence of new segment typologies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the segmentation of online clothing shoppers using a repeat online clothing shopper base. Further, it analyses segment positions in a perceptual space to derive relevant positioning insights for the various segments.

Segmentation is done using dual bases of e-lifestyle and website quality factors for which the scales are derived from literature and then adapted and validated using a two-phase process across two samples of 271 and 644 experienced shoppers, respectively, in India. Positions of the segments are explored using the discriminant analysis-based perceptual mapping technique.

Three segments are found, namely disengaged averse online shoppers, interactive convenience seekers and adept online shopping optimists with the latter two having a higher propensity to purchase clothes online. Perceptual mapping of the segment positions reveals dimensions, which can be used for appropriate positioning.

The research methodology may be replicated for other products and country contexts, and additional factors may be explored for further insights.

The study reveals insights on the evolving nature of segments as shoppers gain experience of online shopping for clothes and highlights the varied reasons for the growing acceptability of the online channel. The findings reveal key targeting and positioning strategies for e-marketers.

This is one of the first studies of its kind in India, which explores the segmentation of repeat online clothing shoppers in India using dual bases. Another distinctive feature of the study is its use of the perceptual mapping technique to draw inferences about factors that differentiate multi-segment buying behavior.

This paper aims to study consumers’ visual attention and emotional experience with clothing design factors and their combinations from the perspective of cognition and emotion and propose an interaction phenomenon to evaluate the combined effect of clothing factors to better guide online clothing design and sales.

An eye movement physiology experiment was conducted, 33 participants screened by questionnaires were invited for this experiment. Hypotheses of visual attention were verified by the FIRST_FIXATION_TIME indicator, DWELL_TIME indicator and FIXATION_COUNT indicator. Hypotheses of emotional experience were verified by the PUPIL_SIZE indicator.

First, on the product list page, it is better to use only the three factors of clothing and a small number of stimulating factors. Second, when the stimulus is consistent with the cognitive task performed by the consumer, the efficiency of the task and the consumer's user experience will be improved. Third, the positive interaction phenomenon of clothing design factors and their combinations could significantly attract consumers' visual attention and improve their emotional experience.

This work argues consumer interest and emotional experience with online clothing can be expressed through eye movement physiological indicators, and the concept of interaction was proposed to evaluate the design and display of online clothing.

This paper conducted interaction research on online clothing design factors and their combinations from the perspective of cognition and emotion, which provided an objective quantitative method for online clothing designers and online clothing retailers.

This study illustrates the use of qualitative methods for establishing content validity for e-lifestyle and website quality constructs in relation to their impact on loyalty towards clothing e-retailers. The use of constructs without going through a content validation process limits the overall validity of conclusions drawn from the research results and therefore, the study addresses this research gap.

Based on a detailed literature review, dimensions of the two constructs were identified. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions across 29 online shoppers were used for exploring the definition and scope of each construct dimension. This was followed by identification, adaptation and/or addition of items for each dimension basis inputs from respondents. Further, expert inputs were used for elimination of redundant items whilst ensuring proportional representation of all facets of the construct domain.

Use of qualitative methods for content validity and scale item development in effect contributed to the existing literature and highlighted issues as well as suggestions for clothing e-retailers.

The paper is limited to the process of content validity. Further techniques may be used for establishing other forms of validity. Modification and adaptation of constructs may be required for other product segments.

The paper enhances the extant knowledge about the two constructs in terms of definitions and items, which can be further used for marketing and driving loyalty.

The use of qualitative methods for establishing content validity is an important but often neglected step in marketing research. This paper reveals how the same can reveal interesting and important insights for marketers.

Online shopping has continued to grow in popularity, and the advance of internet technology has enhanced customers’ experiences. One technology online retailers have been using to increase sales is virtual try-on (VTO). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how such technology affects online consumers’ purchase decision process towards purchase intention, especially from an integration of utilitarian, hedonic and risk perspectives, by using advanced partial least square (PLS) approaches.

This study applied a web-based survey approach for data collection from online apparel retailing websites. The survey instrument was developed by adapting previously validated measurement items. The valid data collected were analysed using PLS with multi-group analyses. Advanced PLS techniques such as examination of discriminant validity using heterotrait-monotrait ratio, tests of out-of-sample prediction performance, and measurement invariance of composite models were applied.

The results of examining the proposed model reveal that customers’ attitude towards VTO technology can affect their intention to purchase a garment online, which is affected by perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment and perceived privacy risk. Perceived ease of use is found to affect perceived usefulness and perceived helpfulness. The results also show no significant differences among age groups and genders in terms of the role of VTO technology in the full decision process towards online purchase intention.

This study enhances the understanding of the roles that VTO technology plays in consumers’ online purchase intention by providing an integrative view of its utilitarian value, hedonic value and risk. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying advanced PLS techniques to investigate online consumer behaviour, particularly in the field of VTO application in online retailing. Implications for online retailers and designers of VTO technology are also derived from the findings.

The internet has changed the way services are delivered and has created new forms of customer-firm interactions. Whilst online service failures remain inevitable, the internet offers opportunities for delivering efficient service recovery through the online channel. Notwithstanding, research evidence on how firms can deliver online service recovery remains scarce. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of two online service recovery strategies – online information and technology-mediated communication – on customer satisfaction, switching and word of mouth intentions.

A scenario-based experiment is employed. Data are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

Online information and technology-mediated interactions can be used as online service recovery strategies. When fair, online service recovery can restore customer satisfaction, lower switching and enhance positive word of mouth. Interactional justice delivered through technology-mediated communication is a strong predictor of satisfaction with online service recovery. Yet, customers in subscription services show greater expectations of online service recovery than those in non-subscription services.

Further research could examine the impact of online service recovery on relational constructs, such as trust. Since customers participate in the online recovery process, future research could investigate the role of customers as co-creators of online service recovery.

Service managers should design online recovery strategies that meet customer need for interactional justice, for example, bespoke e-mails, and virtual chat communications with genuine customer care.

Online information and technology-mediated communication function as online service recovery strategies. Customer perceptions of justice towards online service recovery restore satisfaction, and encourage loyal behaviour.

Customer experience is increasingly recognized as a source of competitive advantage. Customer experience refers to customers' responses and reactions to cues within touchpoints along customer journeys. Nowadays, customers often interact with online touchpoints – such as social media, websites, or e-commerce – in their customer journeys. Given that customer experience is multidimensional, this chapter addresses the following question: How can sensorial experiences be triggered in online touchpoints? Based on a review of the literature on customer experience and sensory marketing, four challenges in triggering sensorial experiences in online touchpoints are identified: (1) limited sensorial cues, (2) lack of thematic congruence between online and offline touchpoints, (3) sensory overload, and (4) lesser control over sensorial cues. Then, two routes through which organizations can trigger sensorial experiences in online touchpoints are proposed: (1) directly influencing sensations through sensory-enabling technologies, and (2) indirectly influencing sensorial perceptions through the use of sensory and nonsensory cues. The chapter closes with a presentation of a model that describes the process of triggering sensorial experiences in online touchpoints as well as a checklist of relevant questions for practitioners who wish to do so.

Blockchain can track the material from the manufacturer to the end customers. Therefore, it can ensure the product's authenticity, transparency and trust in the retail supply chain (SC). There is a need to trace and track the retail products before it reaches the customers to check the quality of the products so that expired products can be recycled and reused, which in turn will help gain customers' trust. This research aims to investigate retail employees' behavioural intention to adopt blockchain in the retail SC.

To examine the behavioural intention of employees in the retail SC, the research uses three theories – the technology acceptance model; the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology; and the theory of planned behaviour. The technology acceptance model measures the employee's acceptance of blockchain in the retail SC. The unified theory of acceptance is used in this research to measure how blockchain adoption will improve the performance of the employees. The theory of planned behaviour is used in this research to measure whether the employees intend to adopt blockchain. A survey was carried out in the retail stores of India. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used for data analysis.

This study found that the employees of the retail stores have a positive intention and attitude to adopt blockchain technology. Further, it was found that perceived behavioural control and effort expectancy was not promoting blockchain adoption in the retail sector.

This study will help the retail stores' employees understand the blockchain in their operations and will motivate the top management of the retail companies to adopt this technology. The study is limited to the retail SC in India only.

This study uses three theories technology acceptance model; the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology; and the theory of planned behaviour, which were not used in earlier studies of blockchain adoption in the retail SC.