Attitudes toward the design of Islamic mobile shopping apps in Turkey: the case of hijab clothing mobile apps from the perspective of conservative consumers

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to determine the attitudes of Turkish consumers toward Islamic mobile shopping apps and discuss whether these apps will need to be designed in accordance with Islamic rules in Muslim countries or not in the sample of Turkey.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive study was used. The data was collected online through a questionnaire form. The one-sample t-test and univariate analysis of variance were used to analyze the data obtained from 379 individuals.FindingsThe results show that Turkish customers have mostly positive attitudes toward Islamic mobile shopping apps and demand that the pictures, videos and advertisements used on mobile shopping apps be in concordance with Islamic rules. As a result of this study, consumers do not mind the colors or lean toward the use of models on Islamic mobile shopping apps. Furthermore, there are differences between gender with regard to using Islamic mobile shopping apps, showing that male consumers have a more positive attitude toward Islamic mobile shopping apps compared with female consumers.Research limitations/implicationsLike many previous empirical studies, this study has limited its context to capture a particular geographical area. Moreover, in this study, the data are obtained by judgmental sampling as a nonrandom sampling method. The contributions of the current study are restricted to Islamic mobile apps for the hijab clothing sector in Turkey.Practical implicationsThe results obtained can become a yardstick to measure consumer attitudes toward Islamic mobile apps’ attributes.Originality/valueThe primary benefit is to call the attention of mobile app designers to the design features of mobile shopping apps aimed at Muslim users. The second benefit is to determine the expectations of Muslim users regarding the design of Islamic mobile shopping apps, and eventually establish the fundamental Islamic design features needed to be available on new Islamic mobile shopping apps.