Obstacles facing e-trading in online apparel marketing in Egypt

Abstract

With the introduction of the World Wide Web, no one ever imagined it would reach this level of propagation, today online website is competing with traditional Brick and mortar stores for increasing number of apparel shoppers worldwide. Egypt is not exception, with increasing number of Egyptian internet users estimated to be 31 million and approximately 33% of the country population. Most of those users are young shoppers, open minded for new ways of searching for fashion trends and looking for information about products. Previous literature shows the increasing importance of e-marketing for apparel retailers, however, most of the Egyptian apparel e-shoppers have concerns about the privacy and safety of their information. In addition to safety concerns, shoppers prefer to sense apparel products; look, touch, try on and test fitting for final purchase decision to occur. Marketing apparel online requires special strategies and methods, for the online apparel shoppers have some specific requirements. Most of the previous literature focused on the apparel e-marketing in developed countries, online marketing in developing countries however is different, thus, requiring a research be done within its own context. This research is intended to discover the opportunities and obstacles facing online marketing in Egypt, which can be summarized in three questions: What is the properties of apparel online shopping? What is the excellences of apparel online marketing? What obstacles do online marketing and trading of apparel goods faces in Egypt? In order to answer this questions, an online questionnaire was designed and made available online through an Egyptian fashion website for visitors to participate freely. A total number of 1741 individuals participated, of the 1741 individuals who participated in the survey, 895 respondents were omitted for either being non Egyptian (using no Egyptian IPs), from areas other than Great Cairo governorate, or being under 18 years old. Results: Online marketing of apparel is different than other goods, buying apparel online is charged with three main risks which is: Performance: apparel goods is very much judged by senses other than specification, look, touch and feel of apparel goods has a great influence on the shopper decisions, further, the fitting of apparel goods requires live trial of the garment before buying. Finance: financial risk refers to the probability that purchase will result in loss of money or other resources, because consumers cannot directly interact with the seller, which creates apprehension about the credibility of the seller. Privacy: security and privacy concerns have been major issues that prevent online users from shopping online. Transaction: transaction risk have been identified as important factors deterring consumers from purchasing items online.