Active Participation of E-Consumer: A Qualitative Analysis From Fashion Retailer Perspective

María Cordente-Rodríguez,María-Encarnación Andrés-Martínez,Miguel Ángel Gómez-Borja,Carlota Lorenzo-Romero

doi:10.1177/2158244020979169

María Cordente-Rodríguez, María-Encarnación Andrés-Martínez + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020979169

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Journal: SAGE Open	Publication Date: Jan 1, 2021
Citations: 7	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Castilla-La Mancha

Abstract

This work aims to study the web innovation strategies used by Spanish companies in the fashion and accessories sector, with the specific aim of analyzing co-creation as an innovation strategy so that this link with customers will improve efficiency and effectiveness in decision-making. Qualitative research was carried out through in-depth interviews with Spanish professionals and companies in the fashion and accessories sector. Then, a theoretical model was proposed. This model integrates value co-creation, social networking, participation, engagement, feedback, and other variables. This qualitative analysis has relevant value for the professional sector because there are many papers from consumers’ perspective; however, studies from the retail sector’s perspective are less common in the literature. This study contributes ideas for the strategy of co-participation with clients to improve the activity and management of fashion companies.

Highlights

The continued increase in the use of the internet worldwide has led to digitization becoming a source of competitive advantage for both B2C (Business to Consumer) and B2B (Business to Business) companies, leading some authors to start paying attention to the challenges this digitization brings to companies (Leeflang et al, 2014)
This study offers an innovation as it provides the results of a qualitative analysis, which enriches the previous knowledge about the topic, taking into consideration the opinions and experiences of the supply and producer sector
We interviewed academic institutions, such as the European Institute of Design (IED), to tell us which companies are important in the sector; professional associations, such as the Asociación Empresarial del Comercio Textil y Complementos (Acotex) and the Asociación Valenciana de Empresarios de Calzado (Avecal), among others, to provide us with a perspective on the fashion and accessories sector; Showroomprive as a distributor; and companies in the sector, such as Nikita Nipone and Wonders, which gave us specific information about their companies

Summary

Introduction

The continued increase in the use of the internet worldwide has led to digitization becoming a source of competitive advantage for both B2C (Business to Consumer) and B2B (Business to Business) companies, leading some authors to start paying attention to the challenges this digitization brings to companies (Leeflang et al, 2014). One of the effects of this digitization is that traditional marketing has ceased to be useful as customers were previously homogeneous and there were few sources of communication and limited reach This new market situation is characterized by the use of the internet as a medium that favors the transmission of commercial messages, the facilitation of interaction between customers and companies, the optimization of value co-creation and consumer engagement (Rodríguez et al, 2015), and the expansion of 3.0 internet age. This development has provided to the usage of social networks sites like Facebook, wikis, blogs, video platforms, and recommendation sites (Blasco, 2014). Co-creation involves personalized mass co-production and the co-design processes of specific products and services, resulting in new thinking with a collective approach achieved through platforms and social networks (Pardo, 2014). (p. 9)

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