Enhancing the online decision-making process by using augmented reality: a two country comparison of youth markets

Although online stores extend the traditional offer of the brick and mortar ones, the limited possibilities to virtually try the product before the effective buying makes the online purchase decision a complex process for consumers. Therefore, online retailers face new challenges for supporting consumers consisting of the introduction of advanced technologies such as augmented reality systems. The present study investigates the effect of augmented reality technologies on consumer behaviour within the online retail environments, by comparing two different cultural settings. Drawing upon the technology acceptance model (TAM), new constructs related to the technology characteristics (e.g. quality of information, aesthetic quality, interactivity, and response time) developed a new conceptual model. This model has been tested for a new technology for virtual try-on (a smart mirror for virtual glasses). Focusing on young consumers, data collected in Italy and Germany yielding a total of 318 participants was used. Findings across these two markets reflect cross-market similarities, but also dissimilarities, related to consumers’ motivation to employ augmented reality systems for supporting their online purchase decision. These insights should prove helpful to retailers in better manage the online channels, that could be easily extended to the mobile one

The Impact of Experiential Augmented Reality Applications on Fashion Purchase Intention

Utilizing the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of augmented reality (AR) (specifically augmentation) on consumers’ affective and behavioral response and to assess whether consumers’ hedonic motivation for shopping moderates this relationship. An experiment using the manipulation of AR and no AR was conducted with 162 participants aged between 18 and 35. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling and randomly assigned to the control or stimulus group. The hypothesized associations were analyzed using linear regression with bootstrapping. The paper demonstrates the benefit of using an experiential AR retail application (app) to positively impact purchase intention. The results show this effect is mediated by positive affective response. Furthermore, hedonic shopping motivation moderates the relationship between augmentation and the positive affective response. Because of the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalizability to other forms of augmentation. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed model using different types of AR stimuli. Furthermore, replication of the study with other populations would increase the generalizability of the findings. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for retailers of the benefits of using AR when attempting to optimize experiential value in online environments. The study contributes to experiential retail and consumer purchase behavior research by deepening the conceptualization of the impact of experiential technologies, more specifically AR apps, by considering the role of hedonic shopping motivations.Peer reviewe

Examining teen girls\u27 fashion behavior in the virtual and the real world: an exploratory study

Over the past few years, changes in technology, especially the emergence of virtual worlds, have impacted the landscape of doing business. Many industries, such as retailing and fashion industries have recognized the e-commerce potentials and have engaged in setting up strategic ventures in the virtual worlds to develop products and/or services that are geared towards meeting consumer needs. Previous research has examined consumers’ adoption of innovative products, but there is no known study that has examined consumers’ adoption of virtual fashion. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to shed some light on understanding consumer adoption of virtual fashion. Specifically, assessed the effects of external variables, (i.e., fashion innovativeness and peer pressure), on need gratification, attitudes, and adoption of virtual fashion among teen girl consumers who have grown up with advanced technology and sophisticated fashion changes. Data was collected from a convenience sample of teen girls between the ages of 12 to 19 via an online survey. The final sample consisted of 177 teen girls. A series of multiple regressions were employed to test all hypotheses. Results revealed that adoption of virtual fashion is significantly impacted by teen girl consumers’ gratification of needs, attitude towards the virtual fashion world, and fashion innovativeness. However, adoption of virtual fashion was not significantly impacted by peer pressure. The results add to existing literature related to consumers’ adoption of an innovation by the integration of communications, sociological and innovation adoption theories. Future research may focus on the difference between urban and suburban teens

Is traditional retail moving to e-commerce in the field of the fashion industry in India?

The main aim of this dissertation is to discover whether consumers feel that e-commerce provides superior performance and technology facilities than traditional retail from the perspective of Indian consumers, and to assess the importance of Omni-channel concepts and operations in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is one of the foremost business segments in India. Currently, the fashion industry is overcoming with new technology and innovation in their business. In the 1990s e-commerce was introduced saw the potential possibilities of innovation, and the new concepts which made the consumer base attractive towards e-commerce. Online retailers are growing faster than traditional retailers due to high pressure from online retailer’s offers and strategies. This research is identifies the issues in the fashion retail business in India. What are the challenges faced by traditional retail? What are the environmental causes disturbing the fashion retail industry which are argued with more detail in PEST analysis and Porter’s five forces of modern retailing and communication? Traditional fashion retailers understand how to solve difficulties and challenges in the supply chain. Discussed many technologies for fashion retail markets to improve their strategy and customer satisfaction. Researching the hypotheses are collecting behaviourism, functionalism, and experimental ideas what should traditional retailers do in their retail shop and which channel should they adopt for their business? Hypotheses are used to conduct a quick market analysis to understand the Indian demographic attitudes towards technologies, client interest, and Omni-channel. We need to understand which approaches we can use to gain knowledge in theoretical perspective. Multiple techniques are involved in the analysis and validation of hypotheses. I used SPSS tool for data analysis with cross-tabulation function. In this research I found that traditional retail and e-commerce are independent of each other but gradually merging, a most important factor for future fashion industry trends. They are systematically embracing Omni-channel strategy to provide good consumer service

The Role of Social Network Websites in Consumer-Brand Relationship

This research explored the phenomenon of online social network in the context of consumer-brand relationship. The specific research objectives were: (a) to examine whether perceived benefits of a Brand’s Social Network Website (BSN) predict BSN relationship quality; (b) to investigate whether perceived benefits of BSN predict perceived relationship investment; (c) to examine if online social connection strengthens the relationship between perceived benefits of BSN and BSN relationship quality; (d) to examine if experience with BSN strengthens the relationship between perceived benefits of BSN and BSN relationship quality; (e) to investigate whether BSN relationship quality predicts brand relationship quality; (f) to examine whether BSN relationship quality predicts customer loyalty toward BSN; (g) to investigate whether perceived relationship investment predicts brand relationship quality; (h) to investigate whether brand relationship quality predicts customer loyalty toward BSN; (i) to examine whether brand relationship quality predicts customer loyalty toward the brand; and (j) to investigate whether customer loyalty toward BSN predicts customer loyalty toward the brand. This research employed a mixed-method approach to overcome the weaknesses in a single method approach and to provide stronger evidence for a conclusion. First, qualitative analyses explored the unique context of BSN, which was not much investigated in prior research. Specifically, Brand Pages of 22 apparel brands and 10 restaurant/coffeehouse brands, chosen as research settings, were investigated to validate the proposed research constructs. Second, quantitative analyses utilized an online self-administered cross-sectional survey method. A total of 501 complete responses collected from consumer panels of marketing research firm were used. The results suggested that BSN benefits are important drivers of relationship mediators (i.e., BSN relationship quality, perceived relationship investment), which in turn positively influence BRQ. However, functional benefits did not influence BSN relationship quality. In addition, while customer loyalty toward BSN was predicted by both BSN relationship quality and BRQ, it did not positively influence the loyalty toward the brand. Specifically, BSN loyalty did not influence behavioral loyalty and negatively influenced willingness to pay price premium. Further discussion about the results, implications, and suggestions for future research were provided

The role of individual behavioural differences on consumer's intention to purchase online mass-customised apparel products

Electronic commerce of apparel products has experienced unprecedented growing in the last decade and is considered a major category in the online market. Despite the significant bulk of research in this domain, there are still issues barely explored related to the consumer Individual behavioural differences specifically associated with online apparel mass-customisation. Supported by a detailed literature review, the main purpose of this study was to understand the roles of personality traits - desire for unique products, need for touch, apparel involvement and two new proposed traits (need for simplicity and need for reality) on intention to purchase online mass-customised apparel products. The investigation uses as conceptual framework the hierarchy of traits from the meta-theoretical model of motivation and personality (3M) that, to the best of our knowledge has never been applied to explore how traits in different hierarchical levels impact on the intention to purchase online mass-customised apparel products. A structured equation modelling approach was selected to represent the relationships among the constructs, which resulted on a set of 24 hypotheses that were then tested using a quantitative approach. The empirical data was collected through a self-administered online questionnaire directed to a non-probabilistic convenience sample. Considering the purpose of the study, were only considered respondents who have already bought apparel online and those who have not yet bought, but are considering it in the near future, resulting in 840 valid questionnaires retained for further analysis. Data analysis procedures employed include descriptive statistics, Partial Least Squares-Path Modelling technique and hierarchical regression. Major findings indicate that the surface trait - intention to purchase online mass-customised products (first level) - is mostly determined by situational traits (second level traits) - desire for unique products, apparel involvement, need for touch and need for simplicity. Compound traits (third level traits) - sense of uniqueness, need for cognition and need to evaluate - and elemental traits (fourth level traits) - openness to experience, extraversion, neuroticism, need for material resources and need for arousal - were found to be positive predictors of situational traits, but lacks explanatory power on the surface trait - intention to purchase online mass-customised apparel products. Furthermore, in this thesis two new personal traits, need for simplicity and need for reality were proposed and tested. Need for reality was dropped out the model, due to validity and reliability issues, however, this study provides a relevant starting-point for further research and discussion. Moreover, the framework applied has proven to be useful in improving knowledge about the relationships within personal traits in the context of online apparel mass-customisation. The theoretical contributions of this study are expected to extend the knowledge regarding online apparel mass-customisation consumer behaviour. Practical implications are presented and discussed and future research directions are detailed.O comércio eletrónico tem experienciado na última década um crescimento sem precedentes, e o vestuário tem sido uma das categorias de produtos mais dinâmicas no mercado online. Apesar do significativo crescimento da investigação neste domínio, existem ainda questões pouco exploradas, principalmente relacionadas com as características individuais de comportamento do consumidor associadas à customização em massa de vestuário online. A definição do objetivo deste estudo foi alicerçada numa revisão de literatura detalhada, e consiste em compreender o papel das características de personalidade - desejo por produtos únicos, necessidade de toque, envolvimento com o vestuário, e de duas novas características propostas (necessidade de simplicidade e necessidade de realidade) na intenção de compra online de produtos de vestuário customizado. A investigação realizada usa como estrutura conceptual a hierarquia de características (elemental, compound, situational, surface traits) do modelo meta-teórico da motivação e personalidade (3M), que até à data ainda não foi usada no estudo do impacto das características de personalidade em diferentes níveis, na intenção de compra online de produtos de vestuário customizado. Foi usada uma abordagem baseada em equações estruturais para representar as relações entre as variáveis, resultando num conjunto de 24 hipóteses. Os dados foram recolhidos através de um questionário online a uma amostra não probabilística e de conveniência. Tendo em conta os objetivos do estudo, foram só considerados os respondentes que já compraram vestuário online e aqueles que não tendo comprado demonstraram intenções de fazê-lo no futuro próximo. Deste modo, foram obtidos 840 questionários válidos para análise. Os procedimentos de análise dos dados incluíram análises descritivas, modelação através da técnica “Partial Least Squares Path Modelling” (PLS-Path) e regressão hierárquica. Dos resultados obtidos ressalta que o “surface trait” - intenção de compra online de vestuário customizado - é principalmente determinado pelos “situational traits” – desejo por produtos únicos, envolvimento com o vestuário, necessidade de toque e necessidade de simplicidade. Os “compound traits” - sentido de singularidade, necessidade de conhecimento e necessidade de avaliar - e também os “elemental traits” - abertura à experiencia, extroversão, instabilidade emocional, necessidade de recursos materiais e necessidade de estímulos - revelaram ser antecedentes dos “situational traits”, no entanto carecem de capacidade preditiva do “surface trait” intenção de compra online de vestuário customizado. Esta tese também propõe e testa duas novas características de personalidade, necessidade de simplicidade e necessidade de realidade, uma das quais revelou problemas de validade e fiabilidade, tendo por isso sido excluída. Não obstante este resultado o trabalho desenvolvido constitui um ponto de partida para futuras investigações e discussões. Nomeadamente, a opção pela estrutura conceptual aplicada, que demonstrou ser útil para o estudo do comportamento do consumidor e que representa uma ampliação do conhecimento sobre as relações entre as várias características de personalidade no contexto da customização online de vestuário. O trabalho desenvolvido apresenta igualmente contribuições teóricas relevantes para o conhecimento do comportamento do consumidor online de produtos de vestuário customizado, que podem ser aproveitadas igualmente pela indústria