Size Recommendations in Online Fashion Retail

This paper describes the e-Size project as well as presenting the preliminary results of its exploratory survey administered to a sample of customers in the attempt to establish whether the integration of a size recommendation application into a menswear fashion retail website had been successfully achieved by verifying the size recommendations made by the application. From the preliminary findings, it emerges that all participants found the size recommendation application easy to use. The majority of participants received the correct size recommendation from the application, and would be willing to use the application due to its helpfulness in providing a size recommendation when shopping online. However, users' personal style and fit preference is an important factor, irrespective of the size that fits them correctly by integrating additional garment and fit information into the application, retailers can ensure every user will be able to receive a tailored recommendation that meets both their size and personal style preference.

The Effects of Online Consumer Reviews on Fashion Clothing Purchase Intention

This chapter examines a particular type of electronic word-of mouth; that of online consumer reviews featured on fashion retailer websites, and studies the effects they have on female fashion consumers in terms of subsequent purchase intention decisions. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model as the theoretical framework, this study has focused on examining the effects of three peripheral cues; source credibility, review volume and valance on purchase intention, and also investigated how fashion clothing involvement moderates these relationships. The results suggest that reviews that are perceived to be credible, featured in high numbers and predominantly positive all had a significant effect in increasing the purchase intention of female fashion consumers. The level of fashion clothing involvement did not appear to be a significant moderator of cue effects with the notable exception of negative reviews, which were more likely to deter purchase intention from low involvement consumers compared to high involvement consumers.

A Review of Consumer-Facing Digital Technologies Across Different Types of Fashion Store Formats

Several current trends in the fashion retail and marketing landscape are associated with the ongoing digital revolution, including the increasing tendency for fashion retailers to adopt consumer-facing digital technologies across their online and physical store formats. Such technology helps improve the store environment by conferring a more engaging and stimulating shopping experience for consumers. This chapter provides a review of existing literature, supported by relevant industry reports and current examples from key players in the fashion retail sector, to provide a comprehensive analysis of different types of consumer-facing digital technology in various fashion store formats and how they impact on the overall shopping experience. The authors review a number of technologies including interactive touchscreens, RFID tags, beacon technology, magic mirrors and mobile apps, and consider how they are implemented in online stores, digitally enhanced stores, brand stores and pop-up stores in the fashion sector.

Fashion Fusion in Kazakhstan

Fashion and technology have been deeply connected in Central Asia since the dawn of time. Every piece of clothing was the result of applying technology to materials found in nature, based on an idea that originated in someone's mind. Clothing held a mystical purpose as well as a utilitarian one, protecting the owner from all kinds of danger. What people wore signified who they were as individuals situated in the family and the cosmos. Changes in fashion went hand-in-hand with technological change as the inspiration for and outcome of new ideas. This is why one can predict with confidence that forms of high technology now emerging will be assimilated quickly by the local fashion industry. This signals a bright future for high tech fashion in Kazakhstan, where significant changes are already well underway. As the emerging fashion industry advances on its current trajectory of development, it will continue to express the beliefs, expectations, hopes and dreams of the people of Kazakhstan in a synthesis of elements from the past, present and future.

Cross-Cultural Study of Online User Behavior in Fashion E-Commerce

Adopting the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) – perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (Davis, Bagozzi, & Waeshaw, 1989) and Customer Buying Decision Process (Engel, Kollat, & Blackwell, 1968), this research examines the role of culture in influencing online shopping use, comparing differences across two continents and countries: Britain and China. Qualitative data obtained through the semi-structured focus group interviews was analysed using content analysis, which involves examining the accumulated data for ideas and constructs that have been pre-determined. The TAM held for the U.K. This project also explores whether the relationships hold for the emerging Chinese market.

The Effects of National Culture on Social Commerce and Online Fashion Purchase Intention

This chapter investigates the effects of national culture on social commerce and in turn, online fashion purchase intention. Using a deductive approach, hypotheses were developed that sit within the context of shopping for fashion products online. A quantitative research instrument was developed to test for difference between Chinese and British online fashion consumers. Results show that national culture has a significant influence on social commerce engagement, with Chinese participants found to be greatly influenced by their social group when shopping online. The study also found that purchase intention is positively influenced by social commerce engagement across both cultures. As this study argues that global fashion consumers are not homogenous in their shopping habits, fashion brands are advised to acknowledge cultural difference across markets to ensure an optimal shopping experience. Investment in website localisation using local expertise should increase purchase intention in overseas markets.

Understanding On-Line Fashion Buying Behavior on Impulse

This chapter contributes to the understanding of the impulsive fashion consumer online in a digitalized retail and consumer world. It also questions the notions of impulsive consumption in general. The description of the impulsive fashion consumer as guided by emotional irrationality is questioned and disputed, as the digitalization transforms the retailing concept, alters consumer's way of thinking, and changes buying behavior. The results from a study of young Swedish consumers show that the fashion consumer online wants to be rational and in control of their buying behavior, even when acting under the influence of emotions. Results also indicate that shopping fashion for fun might be better suited for the online environment compared to the mall environment, as supply is richer and inspirational tools are easier to provide on the Internet.

Convergence of Physical and Virtual Retail Spaces

This chapter examines the effective integration of online within the offline physical store in one holistic shopping experience in the fashion sector. It explores the merging of three key dimensions in creating an integrated experience – physical store atmospheric variables, technology implementation and consumer attitudes and motivations. An extensive literature review was conducted from which a conceptual framework ensued. A multi-method qualitative research utilising case study strategy was adopted (Bryman & Bell, 2007). The data was collected by observation of technology enabled fashion stores, experiential consumer interviews (Silberer, 2009) to examine motivations, behaviour and interaction with in-store technologies and interviews with experts providing insights on the role of the store, experiential retailing and the implementation of technologies in store design.

Mastering Fashion Supply Chain Management and New Product Development in the Digital Age

This chapter indicates the perspectives on retailing and Supply Chain Management (SCM); trends and issues with fast fashion industry; the overview of Fashion Supply Chain Management (FSCM); fashion retail supply chains and fashion sales forecasting; fashion retail supply chains and sustainability; the overview of New Product Development (NPD); NPD process, social media, and digital environments; NPD, ecological marketing, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); NPD performance and supplier-buyer relationship; and the importance of NPD collaboration. In addition to the traditional functions of logistics management in fashion companies, which include inventory management and transportation management, FSCM places a strong emphasis on both collaboration and partnership among various channel members along with the fashion retail supply chains. With the advance of the Internet and social media, NPD strategy provides a beneficial framework for creating the new products and improving the product performance, product cost, and quality of the existing products.

Let It Go

The various digital interactions and contributions, which can be grouped under the umbrella term User Generated Content (UGC), can take the form of product reviews, blogs, demonstration of product usage or even “homemade advertising” (Berthon, Pitt, & Campbell, 2008; Fader & Winer, 2012). While current studies on UGC have mainly focused on the motivations that drive consumers to engage and contribute in various forms online, this research aims to explore how are organisations operating within the fashion industry are listening to, and taking advantage of, the various consumers contributions defined as UGC in order to innovate and create value for customers and other stakeholders. The findings of the semi-structured interviews conducted show that managers are still struggling in balancing the level of control and in managing a new generation of empowered consumers (Pires, Stanton, & Rita, 2006). Social media and UGC call for a more strategic approach by organisations wishing to succeed. The relationship between UGC and co-innovation was also identified.