In recent time, the rate of online shopping has been remarkably grown and approximate of 87% of the UK customers are buying their products online (Seiler 2013). The online sales at the end of the 2016 were 21.3% that has increased to 30% by the second half of 2017 (Statista.com 2018). Unay and Zehir (2012) highlighted that the most common products that is purchased through online is electronic products that comprises of video games, computers, phones and music downloads. The second largest industry that is liked by people is fashion industry that covers apparel and footwear industry. The leading nations in terms of online fashion are U.K., U.S., China (Statista.com 2018).
Moreover, according to the McKinsey result, the growth of the fashion-industry was 2.5% to 3.5% in the year 2017 (McKinsey & Company 2018). The major reason for the growth was the reliable buying attitude of the consumers through these sites. Couture et al. (2015) also stated that the factors that enhances the buying attitude is increase in personalized product categories, clear value definitions, have coherent channel strategies. Some online fashion industry also attained sales growth from athletic wear and affordable-luxury segments. Thus this research will highlight all the factors that enhance the buying attitude of the consumers from online fashion industry.
There are several fashion outlets in the community, where people can judge the quality and appearance of the clothes and the material used. However, the rate of people shopping online has been increased over the years. The average e-commerce spending per chopper is approximate $1804 in the United States and $1629 in the United Kingdom (See Appendix, Figure 1). Unay and Zehir (2012) also highlighted that there are factors like the availability of the apparels, the wide presence of different colors and styles along with the price of the products and ease of payment adopted by the online organization can motivate an consumer to experience their services. Thus, this research will highlight these factors adopted by online fashion industry and its affect on the cucumber behavior.
The aim of this research is to highlight the factors that influence of online fashion industry on customer behavior.
H0: There is no impact of online fashion industry on consumer behavior
H1: There is impact of online fashion industry on consumer behavior
The emergence of online shopping made the shopping experience easy and effective. Kawaf and Tagg (2012) stated that people do not have to stand in a long queue and wait for the shop to open. People can now check all the available products and their status from the online sites and also select apparels according to their preferences (McCormick and Livett 2012). There are every kind of product available in the online website and the most common type of products that are purchased through these online shopping sites are electronic products, books and fashion clothes (Liu et al. 2013).
There are several types of online fashion organization, which are selling their products based on some criteria as they target different types of audiences. Boohoo is one of the leading online fashion apparel sellers in UK and is established from last 10 years. Their main motive is to offer their fashion apparel at affordable rates and this company has also won awards for their price-savvy designs. McCormick and Livett (2012) on the other hand stated that companies like Jacamo initiated the online fashion apparel website only for men. There are many online website that is closely focused on women products as it contains variety or designs and colors. This organization have a large inventory and men can shop from this site from small right through to 5XL (Jacamo.co.uk 2018). There are some other online fashion organizations that emphasized more on old styles and people are looking for vintage products. Rokit is one of the online fashion organizations in UK and having vintage stocks both for women and men. They also focus on selling recycled products to enhance their CSR activities. However, there are some fashion companies, the emphasized more on attracting the customers through the heavy discounts on the products that they are serving. One such online company is TK Maxx Gold Label where a person can get fashion products not only for apparel but also for toys and gifts items (Tkmaxx.com 2018).
Hosany and Martin (2012) stated that the term consumer means those who make purchase in an organization or from the market. The consumer behavior not only focused on the factors that motivate them to purchase certain products but also deals with all the stages that a customer goes through prior purchasing an item. These factors can be of many types- their reason due to which they purchase the product, the factor that influence them to shop online and the occasion for which the consumer buy a product from the market. In recent times, in this technical era, a user searches for different sources and then find the most reliable sites, were they can get the most preferable products. Reed et al. (2012) stated that once these consumers have decided to make a purchase, organizations have to provide them certain reason so that they can purchase from their store. Hawkins et al. (2013) thus highlight that marketers thus research on their buying behavior that is based on the pricing strategies, availability of the products diversifications, additional facilities and heavy discount or gift cards.
2.1.2.1 Psychological Factors
This factor deals with why a user needs to buy a product. Rucker et al. (2012) highlight some of the cases that are they need the product for themselves, they have to gift it to someone or they have to maintain their social status.
2.1.2.2 Personal Factors
This factor focuses more on products personalization based on which a particular portion of the community responds. Taken for instance, an elderly person will never buy athletic products and a male person will not select women apparel for themselves. Hosany and Martin (2012) thus stated that personal factors thus highlight the characteristics on how a person makes decisions, their personal interests and other factors like age and gender.
2.1.2.3 Social Factors
This factor highlights more the need of maintaining the social activity than the personal need. Mullen and Johnson (2013) stated that social influencers are diverse in nature and refers to social interaction, group activities or academic communities. Taken for instance, for school uniform, a person has to buy certain products that are preferred on the university. Similarly, in some curricular activities, when a group of people decided to purchase similar item, the searched classifications are different from usual purchase.
2.2.1 Lesser crowd– One of the most benefit in any online industry is that people do not have to wait in long queue to get their desired products. Muruganantham and Bhakat (2013) also added that online consumers also get every detail like availability of the products in colors and sizes without asking any person of the store.
2.2.2 Low price– Oliver (2014) stated that whether or not a person is looking for a luxurious products or a regular item, everyone want to get heavy discount. Since, all the products are directly given to their users from the manufacturer, the middleman costs are omitted that make the total cost of the products lower than offline outlets. So, online shopping allows people to shop for minimum prices.
2.2.3 Easy customization– Boztepe (2012) stated that a person do not have to ask for the item that they are looking for. The online websites are often have filters, where they can customize their search with their preference choice of the material of the products and quantity of the products. Mullen and Johnson (2013) highlighted that in recent times, the delivery of the products can also be customized that can be send to the desired person on the same date that is selected by the user.
2.2.4 Easy price comparisons– A person do not have to go to different type of shops for buying a single product. Online websites gives the privilege to the users to visit many site simultaneously and compare the price. Seiler (2013) also stated that a customer also compare the product review and then decide whether or not to buy the products.
2.3.1 Visually appealing– Online fashion websites must have to show their most attractive products for motivating people regarding their organization. Stokburger-Sauer et al. (2012) also highlighted that on displaying the recent fashion apparels and accessories, most people intends to buy such products in order to get the experience.
2.3.2 Product displayed on the homepage– It is a human psychology that on finding their desired products in the front page, they make a purchase Couture et al. (2015). Thus, the design of the homepage also influences consumer behavior regarding the product purchase.
2.3.3 Easy search function and filters– Reed et al. (2012) stated that some people are looking for extra small sized apparel; while, some are looking for plus sized apparel. The ease in filtering the products not only saves user’s time but also help them to get their desired products easily. This will increases the probability of customer retention and their next purchase from the organization.
2.3.4 Transparency in follow-up activities– These activities are customer reviews, cost of the products, purchase procedures and shipping information (Hosany and Martin 2012). Customers share their genuine experience that helps a new user to get a quality perception regarding that product. Moreover, Hawkins et al. (2013) stated that users do not have to pay extra for their orders and they get the full information of the delivery for their order.
Kumar (2014) stated that research philosophy highlight the development of knowledge through the way of data collection. There are three types of research philosophies- positivism, realism and pragmatism. Mackey and Gass (2015) furthermore depicted that positivism philosophy is used mostly in primary research where sample sizes are large and the research is highly structured. On the other hand, in realism philosophy, lesser sample size is collected and research objectives are answered based on the theoretical research. The pragmatism research philosophy is the combination of both the positivism and realism philosophies. In this research, positivism philosophy will be sued.
The positivism philosophy will help to analyze the data obtained from the large sample size to obtain the research objectives. This method also provide the benefit of evaluate the research result based on the statistical outcome and not on the social belief on the research topic.
Inductive and deductive research approaches are the two types of research approaches. Matthews and Ross (2014) stated that in inductive research new ideas, research questions and theories are constructed based on the obtained data collection. However, in deductive approach, the data collection is based on the some pre-defined research question, which is tested for their validity through the data collection. In this research study, the deductive research approach will be followed.
The research questions are tested through obtained data for the research and this way, the validity of this question will be judged to obtain the main aim of the research.
Two research purposes- exploratory and descriptive purpose are used in a research. Flick (2015) stated that the main purpose of using research purpose is to highlight the way to answer or address all the research objectives. In exploratory purpose, new answers will be investigated related with the research topic and it does not provide a concluding statement or result. On the other hand, descriptive purpose verifies insights and aid that define the research questions. Thus, in this research study, deductive purpose is followed.
Deductive purpose will provide exact answer to the research question and thus it can be easily found whether or not there is an impact of the online fashion industry on the consumer behavior.
Panneerselvam (2014) stated that primary data collection and secondary data collection process are the two different types followed in this section. The data for the research when collected directly from the research respondents it is known as primary data collection. On the other hand, Silverman (2016) portrays that the data for the research when collected from external sources like some magazines, company’s websites and research papers and publish journal articles, it is known as secondary data collection process.
This research will focus on the primary data collection process so that accurate outcome can be attained. Customers are selected and question about the factors based on which they decide to shop from an online apparel organization.
This section primarily focused on two types of techniques- qualitative and quantitative data analysis technique. Bernard (2017) stated that in qualitative analysis technique the outcome is judged based on the theoretical analysis. However, in quantitative data analysis technique, numerical data is considered and is evaluated for obtaining the desired research objectives.
In this research study, the method of quantitative analysis will be used through regression analysis. Regression analysis is used to shows that there is a relationship between the research variable which is in this case are online fashion industry’s sales factor and consumer behavior.
Creswell and Creswell (2017) highlighted that there are two types of sampling techniques- probability and non-probability technique. When all the participants considered for the research are selected with same priority and provided with equal chances, the method is known as probability sampling techniques; on the other hand, when the sample for the research are not provided with equal chances of selection, it is known as non-probability sampling technique.
In this research, the probability sampling technique will be followed to select all the 100 customers and participate in the survey so that they can give their feedback on the topic of impact of online fashion industry on the consumer behavior.
This research will be accomplished by following all the research ethics. All the customers will be given a consent form and is duly signed by them that indicate that they are participating in the research voluntarily. Moreover, all the data will be protected by following the legislation of Data Protection Act 1998. All the data collected will only be used for the research and not for any business gains. Lastly, the outcome of the result after accomplishment of the research will be shared with all the participants.
The research aims on finding the impact of the online fashion industry on consumer behavior. There is one hypothesis also selected for the research and this is expected to reject the null hypothesis. The null hypothesis stated that there is no impact of the online fashion industry on consumer behavior. The result of the regression analysis shows that there is a relationship between the two research variable that are online fashion industry and consumer behavior. It is also expected all the consumers give positive reviews on their shopping experience of fashion products.
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