Abstract
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:107%">This study examined the impact of product overload and store surroundings on retail shoppers' confusion and their avoidance shopping behavior during-store shopping at fast fashion stores based on the SOR framework. An online survey was performed using Qualtrics panels, and SEM was conducted to test the hypotheses. The findings confirmed that both cues from the store surrounding and the information rate are significantly related to shoppers' confusion and avoidance behavior. The dominant dimensions, efficiency, and helplessness, of retail shopper confusion in the context of fast fashion, indicated that their confusion tends to come from the utilitarian shopping value. Thus, retailers need to develop strategies that assist consumers in navigating in-store more efficiently and easing their information processing by improving product assortment planning and in-store display. Further research is required to understand what substantial strategies can reduce choice overload in fast fashion stores.<o:p style="font-size:11.5pt;line-height:107%"></o:p></span>
Highlights
The classic psychological theory indicates that the more choice, the better
Items for the survey instrument were adapted from the previous studies except for the three items used to measure product assortment variety, which were developed by the authors based on the choice overload literature (Donovan et al, 1994; Garaus & Wagner, 2016; Jang & Namkung, 2009)
Equation Modeling (SEM) to examine the measurement model, and the results suggested a great model fit, χ2 = 202.47, p < 0.01, CFI = .97, TLI =. 96, RMSEA = .06, SRMR =
Summary
Retailers are inclined to provide wide and deep product assortments to their customers to satisfy consumers’ psychological need to seek variety and increase the likelihood of matching the different needs of consumers. Fast fashion retailers have been following this “science” to develop a business model that offers quick turn over and more new styles to their customers. The store environment of fast fashion exhibits a natural setting to examine the issue of choice overload. Empirical studies that focus on the paradox of choice in the context of fast fashion has not been explored. The purpose of this study is to understand how product assortment variety impacts consumers’ internal responses and shopping behavior during in-store shopping. A model based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, which explains the influences of external stimuli on responses through intervening variables (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974), was developed and tested in this study
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