CONSUMERS PRICE PERCEPTION AND SALES PROMOTION OF FASHION BRANDS IN THE SOCIAL COMMERCE MARKET

Abstract

Today, consumers are becoming more sensitive to price since price have been an essential motivation for them to choose the electronic retail venue. Recently, it is recognized that social commerce, with higher rate of daily active users, is ahead of traditional electronic mobile commerce in Korea. One of strengths in social commerce is attractive price deals for fashion brands, which positively lead to purchase probabilities. Therefore, fashion retailers should understand consumers’ price perception and their responses toward sales promotions on the social commerce. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of consumer price perception and choice heuristics on impulse buying behavior for sales promotion of fashion brands and to examine the moderating effect of an engagement level in the social commerce. A self-administered questionnaire was developed, and mainly included consumer price perception (e.g., price consciousness, sales proneness), choice heuristics (e.g., affect referral, price referral), engagement, impulse buying and demographics. An online survey was undertaken by a research agency. A total of 235 usable responses were obtained from Korean consumers who had purchased fashion brands from social commerce sites (e.g., Coupang, Wemakeprice, Ticketmonster, etc.) using mobile devices. Respondents represent more females (n=129, 54.9%) than males (n=106, 45.1%). They are aged from 19 to 39 years old (Means=29). Results showed that consumers’ sales proneness had a positive effect on affect referral and price referral heuristics, which positively lead to impulse buying behavior. However, consumer price consciousness had a negative effect on impulse buying at the social commerce sites. Also, the mediating effect of the engagement was significant in the relationship among sales proneness, choice heuristics, and impulse buying behavior for sales promotion of fashion brands in the social commerce sites. This study discussed marketing implications for social commerce to effectively manage promotional program in the social commerce market.