Fashion Apparel Research Articles

I, me, and my everything: Self conceptual traits and compulsive buying behavior

Compulsive buying behavior is detrimental to the well-being of the consumers, brands, and the economy. Therefore, the current study aims to understand how the self-conceptual traits and values underline the corridors to the compulsive buying behavior of fashion apparel products. We collected self-administered data from systematically selected 744 young shopping mall consumers and employed structural equation modeling (SEM) via maximum likelihood method for analysis. Self-conceptual traits (physical and achievement vanity), materialism, and brand consciousness play a pivotal role in the development of compulsive buying behavior in young consumers of Pakistan. Furthermore, the presence of materialistic attitude and brand consciousness in consumers firmly explains vanity-driven consumer's excessive, chronic, and unneeded purchasing of fashion appeal products. Policymakers and fashion apparel marketers should limit the excessive use of self-oriented and self-defining appeals in their marketing campaigns and focus on strategies that build consumer relationships with brands based on mutual benefits and welfare.

Multichannel customer purchase behavior and long tail effects in the fashion goods market

The fast-paced growth of e-commerce is impacting the type and variety of products consumers purchase across channels. A commonly held theory, known as long tail theory, posits that online sales are less concentrated at the top of the sales distribution than offline sales, and that more variety is bought online, making the tails of the overall sales distribution denser with the growth of e-commerce. Most of the literature testing the long tail theory has focused on examining entertainment goods markets that do not require much physical examination, and has predominantly found results consistent with the theory. However, the magnitude and antecedents of the observed long tail effects might be different for product categories containing products that require more physical examination before purchase, such as fashion goods. In this study, using detailed individual and transaction level panel data from two multichannel fashion goods retail brands, we show that while the shift to the online channel results in a decrease in the concentration of overall sales for both brands, this change mostly results from consumers buying different products online rather than consumers buying a greater variety online compared to offline. We show that the flattening of the overall sales distribution with the growth of e-commerce in our data is driven by consumers sorting their purchases into channels based on product characteristics. In contrast to the recommendations from the previous long tail literature, our results show that fashion apparel retailers do not need to offer broader assortments online compared to offline, but they may find it profitable to carry or emphasize a different product mix online compared to offline. Our results also provide guidance to fashion goods retailers in curating their online and offline assortments and setting inventory management strategies across the channels.

A Graph-Based Representation Method for Fashion Color

Fashion color research takes the color information of fashion apparel as the major focus for further studies, such as style categorization or trend prediction. However, the colors in apparel are treated as isolated elements from each other, disregarding the fact that not only the attributes of each color itself but also the collocation relationship of the colors in apparel are important color factors. To provide a more comprehensive abstraction of the information from the fashion colors as well as emulating the human cognition of fashion colors, in this paper, we are the first to propose a knowledge graph-based representation method that captures not only the individual colors but also abstracts the spatial relation of all the colors that appear in a single piece of fashion apparel. This method provides the fundamental definition of the abstraction of the relation of colors, a detailed method to construct the color graph, as well as the practical matrix-based management and the visualization of the constructed graphs. The case studies for color data extraction and extended usage demonstrate the effectiveness of our method with comprehensive color data representation and effective information extraction.

The Impact of Knowledge of Sustainable Manufacturing Practices on Purchase Intention Towards Fashion Apparel

Indian apparel manufacturers are promoting sustainable fashion and reducing carbon footprint. Despite these efforts, the acceptance of green apparel in India is low compared to developed countries. In the current study, the impact of sustainable manufacturing practices on consumers’ purchase intention has been investigated while controlling for consumers' knowledge of sustainable manufacturing practices (SMPs). Data from 100 respondents analyzed using bivariate regression suggests that relationship between Consumers' Environmental Impact Consciousness, Consumers' Awareness of a brand's SMPs and their Purchase Intention toward the brand is differentially impacted by Consumers' own Knowledge of Sustainable Manufacturing Practices. The results carry implications for marketers who must craft messages to raise consumers’ knowledge of sustainable practices, as well as the consumers' awareness of brands' use of SMPs.

Deep Learning for Demand Forecasting in the Fashion and Apparel Retail Industry

Compared to other industries, fashion apparel retail faces many challenges in predicting future demand for its products with a high degree of precision. Fashion products’ short life cycle, insufficient historical information, highly uncertain market demand, and periodic seasonal trends necessitate the use of models that can contribute to the efficient forecasting of products’ sales and demand. Many researchers have tried to address this problem using conventional forecasting models that predict future demands using historical sales information. While these models predict product demand with fair to moderate accuracy based on previously sold stock, they cannot fully be used for predicting future demands due to the transient behaviour of the fashion industry. This paper proposes an intelligent forecasting system that combines image feature attributes of clothes along with its sales data to predict future demands. The data used for this empirical study is from a European fashion retailer, and it mainly contains sales information on apparel items and their images. The proposed forecast model is built using machine learning and deep learning techniques, which extract essential features of the product images. The model predicts weekly sales of new fashion apparel by finding its best match in the clusters of products that we created using machine learning clustering based on products’ sales profiles and image similarity. The results demonstrated that the performance of our proposed forecast model on the tested or test items is promising, and this model could be effectively used to solve forecasting problems.

Antecedents of sustainable fashion apparel purchase behavior

PurposeThis study aims to examine cosmopolitanism, global social identity, green peer and social media on green apparel knowledge and sustainable fashion perception. Further, it explored the mediating effect of green apparel knowledge and sustainable fashion perception on behavioral intentions and electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM).Design/methodology/approachData was collected through a mall intercept method across five cities adjoining the national capital region in India.FindingsThe results indicated that social identification with online (social media) and offline (cosmopolitanism, global self-identity and green peer influence) groups predicted Indian consumers’ perception of sustainable fashion, behavioral intentions and eWOM.Research limitations/implicationsA better discernment between social identity versus self-identity and social media influence versus peer influence may be considered in future studies.Practical implicationsSustainable fashion designers can use social media to create awareness and promote sustainable apparel. The information about novelty, design and style attributes of sustainable fashion can help overcome the skepticism regarding sustainable clothing.Originality/valueThis study extends the earlier research on online and offline influences by examining their role on green apparel perception, purchase and eWOM.

An Empirical Study to Measure Consumer Attitude Towards Luxury Fashion Apparels in Gujarat

The objectives are to investigate consumers' attitudes toward luxury fashion apparels brands, with a focus on Indian customers, and to choose the themes (cognitive, affective, and behavioural) from the current ones on the "attitude scale to luxury things." An empirical study was conducted among urban respondents from various social strata in Gujarat to investigate consumers' attitudes about luxury fashion apparels from an Indian context. The findings of this study offer helpful advice to luxury fashion brand managers and marketing researchers on how to develop and implement effective marketing strategies to maximize the potential of their luxury brands. Descriptive research design method used for this study. Samples were chosen for the study through non-probability convenience sampling method. Sample size is 390 individuals. Data were collected from primary and secondary sources. In study, the research, the researcher has collected primary data using survey method with reference to structured questionnaire. Data is analyzed by performing descriptive analysis, Chi-square, ANOVA, and Multiple Regression using SPSS.

Improving the Economic Sustainability of the Fashion Industry: A Conceptual Model Proposal

This study aimed to define the specific relationships between fashion style preference on the one side and product, promotion, word of mouth (WOM) and fashion lovers’ behavior on the other side during the COVID-19 crisis. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis was employed to unveil the mutual relations of the two and to verify the proposed conceptual model. The conceptual model was tested based on the answers of 642 respondents. The preference for a specific fashion style proved to have an impact on the product, promotion, WOM and fashion lovers’ behavior during COVID-19. Moreover, those elements have an impact on the frequency of fashion apparel consumption. Based on these results, fashion companies can tailor their activities in line with the predominant style of their fashion apparel to improve their economic sustainability during the post-COVID-19 era.

Alleviating demand uncertainty for seasonal goods: An analysis of attribute-based markdown policy for fashion retailers

This study develops a model for pricing seasonal goods, helping retailers better cope with demand uncertainty. Specifically, to improve price markdown policies for fashion apparel retailers, we uncover the relationship between fashion product characteristics and consumers’ within-season product adoption behavior. We develop an aggregate demand model and estimate it using a finite mixture model on data from a leading specialty apparel retailer. The demand model identifies two latent classes of products based on the evolution of demand within a product’s lifecycle (i.e., sharply deteriorating vs. stable demand), and accounts for unobserved heterogeneity where mixing probabilities are defined as functions of fashion product attributes. We then run hundreds of counterfactuals to evaluate pricing policies in terms of: (1) timing and (2) depth of price markdowns. Our findings show that the retailer should implement middle-of-the-season price markdowns for products that have high initial prices, are introduced in the summer/fall, or are darker in colors. For other products, markdowns should be shallower and earlier in the season. We show that ignoring the cross-product heterogeneity in within-season demand could result in a 5.77% reduction in revenues. Our solutions provide managerial implications and enable the retailer to predict products’ demand patterns prior to launching products in the market.

Garment fit expectations as determinants of men’s ready-to-wear business apparel purchase decisions: The personal appearance revelation

The purpose of this article is to examine male consumers’ functional expectations, aesthetic expectations and socio-psychological expectations of the fit of ready-to-wear business apparel as potential antecedents of the purchase decision among a sample of male consumers in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Data were collected from 216 respondents using anonymously completed online questionnaires. Research scales were operationalized based on previous work, and modifications were made to match the current research context and purpose. ‘Functional expectations’, ‘aesthetic expectations’ and ‘socio-psychological expectations’ all used eight-item scale measures. All the measurement items were on a five-point Likert scale anchored by 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = undecided, 4 = agree and 5 = strongly agree to express the degree of agreement. The three posited hypotheses were empirically tested. The results significantly supported all the hypotheses, except for H1. The study findings indicate that a robust relationship exists between socio-psychological expectations and purchase decisions, suggesting that socio-psychological expectations can have a strong, direct influence on male consumers’ decision to purchase business apparel. This could be indicative that when consumers evaluate garments, they do not only consider styles that fit comfortably, but also its aesthetic and cognitive impact. Both practitioners and academics may benefit from the implications of this study. A significant contribution is made to the fashion apparel marketing literature by systematically exploring South African male consumers’ functional expectations, aesthetic expectations and socio-psychological expectations of readyto- wear business apparel, and its effect on their purchase decision. Empirically, an understanding of consumers’ motivation to purchase ready-to-wear business apparel can assist retailers in developing more effective marketing strategies. While existing literature claims male consumers focus on the functional expectations of apparel, this study found that socio-psychological and aesthetic expectations have a significantly greater impact on South African male consumers’ business apparel purchase decisions. Overall, the current study’s findings support the proposition that there is a need to acknowledge aesthetic and sociopsychological expectations of business apparel as significant antecedents of male consumers’ purchase decisions in South Africa. This study, therefore, stands to contribute new knowledge to the existing body of consumer decision-making literature and male apparel shopping behaviour.

Investigating the impact of AI-powered technologies on Instagrammers’ purchase decisions in digitalization era–A study of the fashion and apparel industry

Over the last couple of decades, technological advancements have accelerated exponentially, especially in the realm of online social networking networks. The artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital technologies applications continue to emerge to enhance and improve novel ways of communication on social media platforms, particularly Instagram. Indeed, this has caused a change in the behavioral and social customer journey, where customers need to embrace a digital experience adoption. The AI applications primarily aim to study the shoppers browsing trend to draw new clients and expand businesses. Even the fashion industry has tapped into Instagram's business benefits in this fast-paced and competitive industry. With this quick and compelling way to capture shoppers’ attention towards fashion products, the purchase decision may differ between e-shoppers and conventional shoppers. AI seems to be extremely promising and has the potential to be a game changer for Instagram users, advertisers, and influencers. This study applies the Engel-Kollat-Blackwell (EKB) theory to investigate the effects of AI-based digital technology experiences on Instagrammers’ fashion apparel purchase decisions - perceived eWOM, perceived emotional value, perceived quality, perceived risk and perceived price. Based on data collected from Instagram users, the framework of this study was evaluated using structural equation modelling (SEM). Semi-structured in-depth interviews were also conducted as part of the research to get a more in-depth understanding of the profiles and behaviors of Instagram users. Our findings from both methodologies confirm that perceived emotional value, perceived quality, and perceived eWOM revealed a statistically significant and positive influence on Instagrammers’ purchase decisions for fashion apparel. Meanwhile, the importance performance matrix analysis (IPMA) identified perceived emotional value as the most important factor for Instagrammers, but the highest performance was perceived quality. This research has important implications for Malaysian online retailers and shoppers to adapt to the fast-changing digital transformation. Assuredly, this study makes a noteworthy contribution to attitudinal research on social media commerce within the fashion industry.

Direct and indirect influences of supply chain management practices on competitive advantage in fast fashion manufacturing industry

PurposeThis study investigates supply chain management (SCM) practices in a specific fast fashion apparel (FFA) industry. The impacts of SCM practices on competitive advantage (CA) are investigated via mediating roles of supply chain agility (SCA) and partnership quality (PQ). Resource advantage (R-A) theory, in addition to resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capability theories, is used as theoretical underpinning.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach is adopted: a qualitative field study and survey research. Data from 296 apparel manufacturers in Bangladesh are analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach, involving reflective and formative, first- and second-order constructs and mediation tests using the Hayes PROCESS macro.FindingsBoth SCM practices and PQ significantly affect SCA. SCM practices are found to directly enhance CA, but, counterintuitively, only marginally. Only through mediations of SCA and PQ do SCM practices enhance CA significantly. This is a departure from past research that has postulated direct effects between SCM practices and CA.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is confined to the FFA industry and one national setting, Bangladesh. The data analyzed is also cross-sectional, with customary limitations on the temporal dimension.Practical implicationsSCM practices contribute to CA, but only through the mediation of PQ and SCA. This is an important directive to practitioners. Also, the second-order reflective measures for each construct indicate the specific SCM practices needed to maximize CA.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on SCM practices in FFA industry, specifically the mediating roles of PQ and SCA, resulting in new, more nuanced findings that are important in dynamic business settings, driven by new theoretical perspectives incorporating R-A theory, which has hardly been utilized before in SCM research.

Studying Consumer Motivation Towards De-shopping While Purchasing High-end Luxury and Fashionable Apparel

Consumption of organized retail services is not only limited to buying apparel but to the overall customer experience of visiting the shop, interactions with executives, offers, hospitality, and the freedom to view and try a range of products uninterruptedly. The unorganized fashion retail in rural markets provides home delivery of a range of products to help female consumers choose, try, pick one, and return the rest so that only picked items can be billed. It is an unspoken communication that the buyer is sometimes permitted to consume the product without paying for it. This act, though, cannot be accommodated in the definition of de-shopping but establishes the argument that de-shopping can be part of the services offered by the organization retailers. There are organizations which accept the de-shopping behaviours of their selected customers to enhance customer loyalty. In this paper, exploratory research has been conducted in the NCR region of India, in which customers of high-end luxury and fashionable apparel respond to the questionnaire which recorded the impulsiveness, intention, satisfaction and urge of returning the used apparel either for an exchange or simply complete financial waiver. A total of 170 respondents were approached to answer 17 questions asking the various emotional arguments consumers put forward while de-shopping. This helped the study to develop a scale which showed all four factors that have a significant impact on product return.

S/he styles: narcissistic fashion apparel consumption in India

PurposeThis research aims to investigate if consuming fashion apparel brands for the purpose of social appearance expressiveness may garner calculative brand commitment, through the mediation of narcissistic brand love. It also tests moderation of gender for the aforementioned mediated relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe research has a core qualitative component (Study 1), which focuses on an interpretivist approach using a grounded theory paradigm to analyze data (N = 37) collected from semi-structured depth interviews. It is followed by a positivist survey based enquiry (study 2), and the data (N = 245) were analyzed using Haye’s (2017) process macro.FindingsAnalysis reveals that Indian consumers fall in narcissistic love with those apparel brands that aid their quest for maintaining desirable social appearances and develop a calculative commitment toward the brands, which aid this quest. The effect of social appearance expressiveness of apparel brand on consumers’ narcissistic brand love is moderated by gender, such that female consumers (as compared to males) are more invested in consuming fashion apparel brands as a means to enhance their social appearances.Originality/valueThe value of this study lies in extending self-presentation theory to understand the role of consumer narcissism in shaping Indian consumers’ fashion apparel consumption. The authors investigate the narcissistic consumption orientation that evolves as a result of consumers’ desire for social self-expression, irrespective of possessing narcissism as an enduring personality trait. Thus, the findings are relevant for possibly all consumers who, given certain conditions, may temporarily develop narcissistic brand love.

Causal Relationship of Market Orientation and Customer-Based Performance of Fashion Apparel Brands

This study was conducted to determine the impact of market orientation on the consumer-based performance of fashion apparel brands. The study also reveals the moderating effect of employee orientation on market orientation and consumer-based performance. The sample of 270 respondents of this study consists of managerial staff who have decisive power with regard to apparel brands in Pakistan . The findings of this study express that all three dimensions of market orientation have a significant and positive impact on the consumer-based performance of fashion apparel brands. Furthermore, the study finds no moderation between customer orientation and consumer-based performance, while for the remaining two dimensions, there is a positive moderation. The management of fashion apparel firms must give considerable importance to market orientation to enhance overall consumer-based performance. This study contributes valuable literature because it focuses on the fashion apparel industry, which is most important for very nearly everyone in the present era.

THE ROLE OF ONLINE CONSUMER REVIEW, SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISEMENT AND INFLUENCER ENDORSEMENT ON PURCHASE INTENTION OF FASHION APPAREL DURING COVID-19

Recent marketing research focuses on social media marketing as an essential tool for companies to fully utilise particularly with the increase of online and home-based consumption during pandemic. In particular, the authors hypothesize that online consumer review, social media advertisement and influencers endorsement may affect online purchase intention. The investigation of the hypotheses utilizes a sample of 163 customers who shop for fashion apparel via online platforms during the pandemic. In order to assess the relationships between these variables, the current research used quantitative methods through an online self-administered questionnaire, in which the scale items were derived from existing literature. These results suggest that ‘Online Consumer Review’, ‘Social Media Advertisement’, and ‘Influencer Endorsement’ have a positive and significant correlation with online purchase intention of fashion apparel during pandemic (r = .25; r = .35; r = .48, respectively). The researcher deliberates the implications for marketing research and practice which include addressing the literature gap in understanding online purchase intention of fashion apparel during the pandemic and highlighting the importance of social media marketing for companies to survive in the 21st century of online-based consumption and consumer-oriented social media.

Social and environmental concerns within ethical fashion: general consumer cognitions, attitudes and behaviours

PurposeAlthough interest in sustainability within the fashion apparel industry has increased over the last decade, ethical fashion remains a minority trend due to low consumer awareness and consumption behaviour. The aim of the paper is to explore empirically the relationships between general consumer support for ethical fashion, buying intention and willingness to pay, focussing on the effect that consumer concern and knowledge and beliefs have on these variables.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 450 general consumers in Spain, who are not specifically dedicated buyers of fashion apparel goods. Responses were collected with a structured questionnaire that included multi-item scales to measure all the variables of the causal model. After corroborating the reliability and validity of the measurement scales with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), 11 research hypotheses were explored using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that whilst beliefs are not predictors of consumer support for either social or environmental issues, concern and knowledge are antecedents of consumer social and environmental support, which determine general support for ethical fashion, intention to buy and willingness to pay. Consumer social support has a slightly higher impact on consumer support for ethical fashion, intention to buy and willingness to pay than environmental support.Originality/valueThe purpose of the paper is to contribute to the literature by empirically comparing general consumer perceptions, attitudes and behaviours towards the social and environmental dimensions of ethical fashion. In doing so, the authors aim at shedding light on the complex concept of ethical fashion and how general consumers understand it. The findings suggest that promoting educational marketing especially focussed on environmental issues is necessary to raise consumer awareness, knowledge and ethical consumption.

THE MEDIATING ROLE OF AFFECTIVE BRAND COMMITMENT AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN DEVELOPING PURCHASE INTENTION OF FASHION APPAREL BRANDS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of consumer brand identification on customer engagement and affective brand commitment. The research also aims to evaluate the mediating effects of affective commitment and customer engagement in the association between consumer brand identification and purchase intention. Using a convenience sampling approach, 443 participants were chosen among customers of fashion apparel brands in Pakistan through a self-administered online survey. For the estimation of the model, partial least squares (PLS) structural equations modeling (SEM) was used because studied constructs are comparatively latest or evolving. Results reveal that consumer brand identification affects affective commitment and customer engagement. Moreover, customer engagement and affective brand commitment partially mediate the relationships between consumer brand identification and purchase intention. The findings also demonstrate that customer engagement has an impact on purchase intention. Managers should engage customers to increase their willingness to buy fashion apparel brands. The paper only looks at Pakistani fashion clothing brands. Future studies could use a longitudinal approach and compare nations and other industries with diverse cultures

Deciphering the impact of responsiveness on customer satisfaction, cross-buying behaviour, revisit intention and referral behaviour

PurposeThe ease and convenience of online shopping are shifting the customers to e-tailers. This has prompted offline retailers to re-examine behavioural patterns along with a reconfiguration for a responsive retail model. The paper investigates the influence of responsiveness on customer satisfaction, cross-buying behaviour, revisit intention and referral behaviour.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via a survey answered by 793 fashion customers from India, and for data analysis, partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed. Path analysis was used to determine the interrelationships amongst the constructs used in the study.FindingsThe standardized path coefficients depict competitive responsiveness as the highest contributor of retailers' responsiveness followed by service responsiveness, employee responsiveness and customer responsiveness. The findings suggest that customer satisfaction acts as the biggest contributor to referral behaviour followed by cross-buying behaviour and revisit intentions.Originality/valueThis study has made a substantial contribution to fashion apparel retailing. The findings revealed that responsive retailing influences the customers' post-purchase behaviour as they engage in more cross-buying, revisiting and referral behaviour. The retailers are encouraged to carefully monitor their preparedness to deliver a combination of sensory, emotional, cognitive and social experience to their customers.

Lot-sizing and pricing decisions for perishable products under three-echelon supply chains when demand depends on price and stock-age.

In economics, a demand curve is almost always downward-sloping, reflecting the willingness of consumers to purchase more of the commodity at lower price levels. In addition, the demand for seasonal products (such as fashion apparels, beverages etc.) or perishable goods (such as meat and seafood, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, pharmaceutical products, and chemicals) decreases over time. Hence, demand is a function of price and stock-age. With large business transactions, a seller usually demands a down payment (i.e., an advance payment) to ensure that the buyer is making a serious offer. Conversely, a buyer frequently requests to hold a fraction of total purchase cost until the business transaction is completed and satisfactory (i.e., a credit payment). As a result, a combination of advance, cash, and credit (ACC) payments is commonly used in business transactions. This paper develops a supplier–retailer–customer chain in which the retailer receives an upstream ACC payment from the supplier while in return offers a down-stream cash-credit (some in cash and the remainder in credit) payment to customers, the demand is influenced by the combined effect of selling price and stock age, and the deterioration rate is time-varying. The retailer must determine optimal unit price and replenishment time to maximize the present value of total profit, which is strictly concave in selling price and strictly pseudo-concave in replenishment time. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is performed, and several managerial insights are obtained. For instance, an increase in the fraction of advance payment forces the retailer to raise selling price.