Fashion Retail Industry Research Articles

A Hyper-Personalized Product Recommendation System Focused on Customer Segmentation: An Application in the Fashion Retail Industry

Providing the right products, at the right place and time, according to their customer’s preferences, is a problem-seeking solution, especially for companies operating in the retail industry. This study presents an integrated product RS that combines various data mining techniques with this motivation. The proposed approach consists of the following steps: (1) customer segmentation; (2) adding the location dimension and determining the association rules; (3) the creation of product recommendations. We used the RFM technique for customer segmentation and the k-means clustering algorithm to create customer segments with customer-based RFM values. Then, the Apriori algorithm, one of the association rule mining algorithms, is used to create accurate rules. In this way, cluster-based association rules are created. Finally, product recommendations are presented with a rule-based heuristic algorithm. This is the first system that considers customers’ demographic data in the fashion retail industry in the literature. Furthermore, the customer location information is used as a parameter for the first time for the clustering phase of a fashion retail product RS. The proposed systematic approach is aimed at producing hyper-personalized product recommendations for customers. The proposed system is implemented on real-world e-commerce data and compared with the current RSs used according to well-known metrics and the average sales information. The results show that the proposed system provides better values.

Feasible Technology for Augmented Reality in Fashion Retail by Implementing a Virtual Fitting Room

Augmented Reality has become a bridge from the virtual to the real world. This technology has been an implementable choice for fashion companies to provide more information and customization for their user's shopping experience. From the COVID-19 pandemic alongside technological globalization, fashion industries have to find a new way for customers to purchase products. All things considered, AR helped fashion industries keep customers attracted and satisfied. This paper is conducted in a Systematic Literature Review manner to review and compare the AR technologies used by fashion industries. Furthermore, the result would be a proposition of which Augmented Reality technology or platform option is feasible and implementable for the fashion industry. After comparing the technologies used in past papers and their technical and economic feasibility, we propose a 3-term plan. The short-term plan with zero cost and mobile platform-focused application, the medium-term plan with an upgraded version of the garment object from 2D images to 3D objects, and the long-term plan changing the platform used from mobile to a new device. We also conclude that artificial intelligence can also support and improve the augmented reality experience for customers in the fashion retail industry by implementing an AI-powered virtual assistant.

AUGMENTED REALITY: THE MODERN DRIFT IN FASHION INDUSTRY

This paper deals with the focus on the anticipated future capabilities, advancements, and limitations of augmented reality, this study examines the evolution and modifications throughout the period of AR adoption in the primary application areas. When it comes to engaging consumers and creating creative ideas, one of the fastest-growing and most innovative industries is without a doubt the textile and fashion industry. Augmented reality (AR), a strong and convincing tool, will improve marketing efforts and increase consumer involvement, which will boost revenue. Anything that is deemed popular attracts early adopters, as shown in the fashion retail industry, either in the physical or online marketplaces. By 2022, approx. 44% of the global populace intends to use AR, according to a Digi-Capital prediction. With a focus on the anticipated future capabilities, advancements, and limitations of augmented reality, this study examines the evolution and modifications throughout the period of AR adoption in the primary application areas. We conclude by thinking about the disruptive effect that VR/AR/MRITF is going to be competent to have in scientific domains as well as in human interaction and communication.

Changes in market organisation due to exogenous shocks – the case of the transformation of the Swedish fashion industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT This study aims to provide insights into the transformation of retail caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, using the Swedish fashion industry as an example. In an institutional perspective, combined with Actor-network theory, both new actors and the changing role of existing ones were identified as influencing how the market was organised. An empirical field study of the Swedish fashion industry has illustrated the changes caused to retail by the outbreak of COVID-19, and the subsequent actions taken to limit its spread. Interviews with and observations of retailers’ actions contributed to a more in-depth understanding of the changes caused to retail. The study finds that the market was subject to two exogenous shocks: Firstly, that a non-human actor, i.e. the COVID-19 virus, influenced the Swedish fashion market in combination with humans and secondly, that new actors entered the market and influenced its organisation. This has led to a situation where digitalisation has accelerated and experience design has stagnated, and there has also been a re-definition of sustainability. Using an institutional perspective, combined with thick descriptions of the empirical material, this study challenges the existing narrow understanding, i.e., that the actors in the field are barely tied together as supply chains or networks, by including non-human actors in its analysis. This allows us to gain a greater understanding of how a virus and its antagonists have had a major impact on the organisation of the field, in turn having consequences on the trends prominent in the fashion retail industry before the outbreak of COVID-19.

Effects of Digital Customer Experience on Malaysian Millennials E-Loyalty: Examining the Premium Fashion Brands Online Stores

Objective: Worldwide, millennials are taking over the online shopping since the first lockdown and the endemic has made changes in customer experience (CX) in the fashion retail industry. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) approach developed by Mehrabian and Russel (1974), the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of experiential state (e.g., cognitive experiential state, affective experiential state) through attitudinal state (e.g., e-trust, e-satisfaction) to behavioural state (e.g., e-loyalty).
 Methodology: A self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) survey (e.g., e-questionnaire) is conducted using convenience sampling. This descriptive study includes the Malaysian millennials (i.e., age between 25 to 40 years old) who are residing in Klang Valley area and have at least one-time online shopping experience via the premium fashion brands’ mobile application (e.g., Zalora, Uniqlo, H&M, Adidas, Charles & Keith, Monki, etc). The structural equation modeling sampling formula are used to determine sample size and 250 e-questionnaires are collected. To data analysis and test the research hypotheses, SPSS 22.0 and Smart PLS 2.0 software are used.
 Findings: The findings in this study offer guidelines on how to utilize digitalization to leverage CX and the relevant suggestions are provided.
 Implications: This study contributes to academia and the industry, discussing both theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

Study of assessment on social media preference and purchase intentions in the fashion retail industry

This study explores the influence of social media preferences on purchase intentions within the fashion retail industry. With the rise of digital platforms, understanding consumer behavior in online environments has become crucial for retailers. This research aims to identify which social media platforms are most preferred by fashion consumers and how these preferences impact their purchasing decisions. Using a quantitative research design, data was collected through an online survey distributed to a diverse sample of fashion consumers. The analysis revealed that Instagram and Facebook are the most preferred platforms for fashion-related content. Additionally, the study found a significant relationship between social media engagement and purchase intentions, with higher levels of interaction on these platforms leading to increased likelihood of purchasing fashion products. These findings underscore the importance for fashion retailers to strategically leverage popular social media platforms to enhance consumer engagement and drive sales. The study contributes to the literature on social media marketing by providing insights into consumer preferences and behaviors, offering practical implications for fashion brands seeking to optimize their social media strategies. Future research should consider longitudinal studies to examine changes in social media preferences and their long-term effects on consumer behavior in the fashion retail sector.

Main product detection with graph networks for fashion

Computer vision has established a foothold in the online fashion retail industry. Main product detection is a crucial step of vision-based fashion product feed parsing pipelines, focused on identifying the bounding boxes that contain the product being sold in the gallery of images of the product page. The current state-of-the-art approach does not leverage the relations between regions in the image, and treats images of the same product independently, therefore not fully exploiting visual and product contextual information. In this paper, we propose a model that incorporates Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN) that jointly represent all detected bounding boxes in the gallery as nodes. We show that the proposed method is better than the state-of-the-art, especially, when we consider the scenario where title-input is missing at inference time and for cross-dataset evaluation, our method outperforms previous approaches by a large margin.

Should firms leverage Social Media usage to enhance Supply Chain Efficiency? A Post Covid-19 Empirical Investigation

With the unavoidable spread of post-covid-19 digitization across the globe, firms have started opting for social media usage to meet the emerging competitive business landscape. Accordingly, this paper intends to investigate the impact of social media usage on supply chain efficiency. Furthermore, it also aims to observe the mediating role of both quality and intensity of knowledge sharing between social media usage and supply chain efficiency. Structured, survey questionnaires along with a convenience sampling technique were used to collect data from 312 active social media users. Appropriate supply chain representatives which majorly includes manufacturers, retailers, and consumers were taken from the Fashion Industry of Pakistan. The overall result depicts that social media usage across the supply chain is significantly related to supply chain efficiency. Results also validate the mediating role of intensity and quality of knowledge sharing, for enhancing overall supply chain efficiency through social media usage. The findings assist supply chain channel members across industries of Pakistan in general, and the fashion retail industry in particular. The study clearly, propagates the integrated and multi-layered social media usage across supply chains, for anticipated SC efficiency and related performance outcomes.

The influence of customer perceived risk on online purchasing intention, moderating effect of electronic word of mouth: with reference to fast fashion retail industry in Sri Lanka

Consumers' lifestyles and behavioral habits have differed considerably due to the origin of digital marketing platforms, which has a big influence on consumption. More significantly, despite the fact that internet buying has many benefits, some consumers are little more skeptical about it. The literature underscores various constraints impacting consumers' inclination toward online retail fashion consumption, with nations such as Sri Lanka exhibiting a less robust inclination for online transactions or shopping. Furthermore, this study delves into the moderating influence of electronic word of mouth, recognized as a versatile factor within the realm of online purchasing culture. Central to this research are the behavioral shopping intentions of online consumers. The findings reveal that time risk does not wield significant influence on online purchases. In contrast, delivery risk and information security risk emerge as the foremost determinants among the pivotal elements. Additionally, the study identifies electronic word of mouth as a moderator, attenuating the correlation between perceived risk and online purchases. Consequently, by alleviating perceived risks, this research serves as a guide for enlightening all merchants on the art of enticing customers to their online platforms.

TO PLAY OR NOT TO PLAY: THE USE OF GAMIFICATION IN THE FASHION RETAIL INDUSTRY

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the world economy, affecting many industries. Given the growing inadequacies of traditional marketing communication channels in the digital age, fashion retailers are looking at innovative ways of communicating with consumers. Gamification’s efficacy as a marketing communication’s tool can be linked to its potential to satisfy users’ intrinsic needs, ostensibly through evoking a pleasurable consumer experience via autotelic use reminiscent of videogame engagement. The goal of this study was to investigate the use of gamification in the fashion retail industry. A qualitative approach was followed by means of an exploratory research design. Judgement sampling was used to identify a total of 25 participants from whom data was gathered by means of conducting three focus groups. Data was analysed by means of the Morse and Field approach using Atlas.ti. The results indicate that consumers are aware of gamification and enjoy using it, describing it as a fun and enjoyable experience. Consumers’ primary motivation for using gamification applications is to gain financial benefit in the form of discounts, vouchers, points or rewards. The dominant challenges identified with using gamification applications are that they do not provide a user-friendly interface, as well as privacy and security concerns and connection issues.

Factors Effecting Omnichannel Customer Experience: Evidence from Fashion Retail

This research work was designed to investigate the changing dynamics of the retail landscape driven by omnichannel retailing, and to determine the effects on the omnichannel customer’s experience. The role of omnichannel customer behavior in the relation between omnichannel retailing and customer experience was assessed through a survey of 265 omnichannel customers of different fashion retail brands in Pakistan. The results of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) showed a strong mediating effect of omnichannel customer behavior in channeling the drivers of omnichannel retailing towards an enhanced customer experience. Omnichannel retailing helps to enhance the customer experience via determinants of omnichannel integration, order fulfilment, usability and seamlessness. The research findings underpin the positive significant effect of all factors of omnichannel retailing on the customer experience. Among the four omnichannel retailing constructs, seamlessness emerged as a major direct and indirect contributor, followed by omnichannel integration and usability dimensions. Notwithstanding the small sample size, this research contributes to the omnichannel retailing landscape of Pakistan’s fashion retail industry by suggesting a functional approach for creating a fully integrated shopping experience and omnichannel strategies for fashion brands. Furthermore, it will also provide brands an opportunity to strengthen their customers’ experience throughout the buying channel.

Reimagining the Fashion Retail Industry Through the Implications of COVID-19 in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the fashion retail industry. The Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) is the home of family-centric shopping malls and brick and mortar stores (B&M). This article aims to provide a critical look at the business strategies which the fashion retail companies need to adopt to provide consumers with an integrated online and B&M service which will be essential to survive in the post-pandemic business environment. This article is based on the rich industry experience of the authors and extensive secondary research on the business strategies being employed by the leading fashion retailers in the GCC region to combat the pandemic disruption. The study highlights the importance of a comprehensive rethink on business strategy for the GCC fashion retailers with adoption of digitalization technologies and an adaptive supply chain as the pillars to survive the post-pandemic normal of business environments. The study concludes with a look to the future strategies for fashion retailers in developing a digitalization blueprint, using cloud technologies and big data analytics, leveraging social media, building an agile and adaptive supply chain with omnichannel capability, and ensuring that future products and services are sustainable and socially responsible.

The strategic drivers of drop-shipping and retail store sales for seasonal products

Retailers that sell seasonal products face significant challenges when planning inventory assortment. The incorporation of drop-shipping into their operations, wherein suppliers own and ship products directly to consumers at retailers’ requests, has only complicated these challenges. This study investigates multichannel assortment planning of retailers that sell seasonal products. We first capture structural properties of multichannel retailing of seasonal products through a simple and parsimonious analytical model. The analytical model uncovers key seasonal product attributes that make it more attractive for retailers to allocate a product for sale in the drop-shipping channel than in the store channel. We then empirically assess the findings of the analytical model. Using a rich and unique dataset from the fashion retail industry, we test relationships between product attributes and retailers’ channel choice. The application of a generalized linear latent and mixed model controls for selection bias by jointly estimating retailers’ likelihood of allocating a product’s inventory to the drop-shipping channel and the allocated volume in each channel according to the product’s characteristics. The empirical findings suggest that retailers are less likely to drop-ship products that are colored, irregularly sized, and offered in more style variants. They also unveil cross-channel effects in terms of inventory amounts allocated for sale in each channel according to those characteristics. Our analytical and empirical assessments jointly demonstrate the complementary roles played by drop-shipping and store channels for seasonal products and offer important academic and practical implications.

An Evolutionary Historical Perspective of Pakistan Retail Fashion Industry

This study seeks to capture the evolution (emergence, diffusion, and transformation) of the retail fashion industry in Pakistan from largely unorganized to modern commerce retail. In particular, it strives to understand this evolution of "collective activity" as conceptualized by Regina Blaszczyk in terms of interactions among enterprise, culture, consumer, and commerce in the context of emerging economies with an emphasis on past two decades 1998-2018. Narrative analysis is built from Project oral histories (16 in-depth interviews from various experts as well as ordinary consumers, who lived through and witnessed the evolution), supplemented by newspapers, magazines, web articles, and archives. The study demonstrates various political, cognitive, socio-cultural challenges and opportunities faced by early designers/retailers. It also establishes popular culture profound influence in the dissemination of fashion and branding the industry despite political upheavals. Although limited to the Pakistani case, this research outlines the founding feature of the flourishing fashion retail industry in emerging economies and the role of popular culture in the nourishment of creative industries. The evolution of fashion retail in South East Asia in general and Pakistan, in particular, has received very little scholarly attention. The historical analysis contributes a unique perspective in understanding drivers of this evolution as not consumers themselves but the ones who played an active role in the creation of the retail fashion industry in Pakistan build through historical narrative.

FASHION CONSCIOUSNESS, BEHAVIORAL INTENTION AND PURCHASING BEHAVIOR IN THE ONLINE FASHION RETAIL SECTOR

Due to the current situation in all over the world, online shopping industry has grown up and fulfilling the needs and requirements of consumers. To understand consumer behavior and their intention in online fashion retail industry with having uncertain situations, marketers and different brands have great opportunity to learn attitude and behavior of potential audience. The paper represents some of the factors that assist in learning their behavior so that brands can increase their sales and helps them in improving their weak points. Fashion consciousness, celebrity endorsement, social influence, time pressure, behavioral intention and purchasing behavior are the factors involved in online shopping. The model was validated using structural equation modeling, and a two-step approach to evaluate the measurement and structural models for the research. The research uses theory of planned behavior to match the conceptual framework with the help of hypothesis and literature review. Closed-ended questions were used in the study to get responses from general public and university students. Furthermore, the study collected data through online and offline with total sample of 208 responses. This paper uses graphical representative that interpret and clarify each questions answers and their ratio of all the participants of the university students. The results shown that time pressure is relatively more effective towards behavioral intention in regards with online shopping as compare to celebrity endorsement and social influence. However, fashion consciousness is very crucial because as per the graphical representation it has a great influence on consumer behavior. The examination results give recommendations to for competitive marketing strategies for online fashion retail organizations working in the developing business sectors. The current investigation utilizes theory of planned behavior to find fundamental connection between the factors

The Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on the Fashion Retail Industry

This paper addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the short-term and long-term outlook on the fashion retail industry. Included are a review of secondary sources such as journals, papers, and articles and the results of two studies (i.e., consumer survey and industry interviews) conducted to recognize the changes seen now and in the future of the fashion retail industry. Combining an assessment of secondary reliable sources with actual consumer self-reported behavior during the pandemic and professional interviews with representatives from prominent retailers in the U.S. gives detailed and valuable ideas of how the industry is going to change in response to and in preparation for changing consumer attitudes and behavior.

FASHION INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS’ VIEWPOINTS ON CREATIVITY AT WORK

The article investigates the attitude of fashion industry managers towards creativity competence and its application in the fashion retail industry. The semi-structured interviews with middle managers allowed distinguishing three categories of activities. In the fashion retail industry, managers need creativity competence: performing technical assignments, working with clients, and working with staff members. For this research, middle managers were chosen because they are the mediators between the company’s general managers and the sales-men. Middle managers play an essential role in bringing organization’s culture, organizing sales-men’s work, and personal development. Therefore, creativity is crucial for managers to have in mind, as the fashion industry is fast changing and dynamic. Creativity competence is effective in a team only if there is proper communication of a manager who can assure all team members understand the organization’s primary purposes and values. The research revealed that managers apply various methods for promoting creativity that includes verbal interactions: discussions, delegating responsibility or tasks, sales promotion games, accumulation and systemization of information, sharing within social networks, provision of feedback, and encouragement of independent search for solutions. This study’s results can help develop job descriptions that would attract the right employees to fashion sales. Understanding the importance of creativity in a salesperson’s day-to-day work can help look at technical or repetitive work differently, increase sales staff’s motivation, and improve sales results.

Conceptual Review of Social Influencer Marketing on Purchase Intention; Dynamics in Fashion Retail Industry

The competition in the fashion retail industry is reaching new heights due to various demands of the fashion consumers. As per the significant growth in the fashion retailing sector, the marketers need to define the strategies to address their customer intentions. With the increase of ad blocking, shift from traditional media to online platforms and especially the rapid growth of the social networking sites (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter), fashion retailers have to align their social media strategies with the online and offline behavior of the consumers. This researcher study mainly focuses upon understanding the impact of social media influencers and the purchase intention among the consumers. Objectives of this study were to understand the effectiveness of social influence on consumer purchase intention for fashion related products, therefore this study has investigated main construct of Influencer Credibility and Information Quality of the content shared by these social influencers and their relationship with both Attitude towards reviews and Purchase Intention respectively. Finally, the researcher further investigates whether there is a mediating effect of Attitude towards reviews on the relationship between effectiveness of social influence and Purchase Intention. The study commences with a general overview into the subject of focus, followed by an in depth review of the literature on the main concepts Influencer Marketing, Purchase Intention and Attitude towards reviews. Based on the understanding of the literature and concepts with regard to the area of study, the conceptual frame work was derived.

Growing with others: A longitudinal study of an evolving multi‐sided disruptive platform

Multi‐sided platforms are becoming increasingly relevant in understanding industry changes. The literature has focused on the inception and growth of platforms, neglecting how entrants develop and grow disruptive platforms. To address this shortcoming, we study an entrant that was spun off from an established catalog retailer and is steering a multi‐sided disruptive platform in the German fashion retail industry. We conduct a longitudinal study on how the entrant leverages the relationships with its multiple platform sides during 2014–2019 by analyzing secondary data using topic modeling and qualitative content analysis. We propose three levers: (1) “guarded inception,” which is the collaboration with a knowledgeable partner unaffected by disruption to quickly overcome the chicken‐and‐egg problem; (2) “activating force multipliers,” which is the strategic orchestration of complementors being contractually tied to the entrant and working to extend the entrant's value network. Enabled by these two levers, the entrant was (3) “building on others” to develop the platform along a disruptive path while circumventing internal limitations and external resistance. We contribute to the intersection of the literature strands on platform and disruptive innovation by showing how the entrant strategically leveraged its different platform sides over time to develop and grow a disruptive platform.

A hybrid decision model for supplier selection in Online Fashion Retail (OFR)

ABSTRACT Multichannel retailing has caused significant disruption in the market. The major credit for this disruption belongs to online retailing, which is proliferating at a high pace. With the immense growth, the online fashion retail sector faces many challenges as well. The majority of these challenges are attributed to the inefficiency of suppliers to deliver the right products at the right time. Thus, supplier selection becomes an important parameter for the success of the online fashion retail industry. This study focused on supplier selection based on seven main criteria, which are Operational Competency, Product Attribute, Logistic Warehousing, Ethics, Status, Business Competencies, and Versatility. An integrated Best Worst Method (BWM) – VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) methodology was applied to prioritise the criteria and select the most feasible suppliers among available suppliers. Out of thirty-eight sub-criteria, those that got most preferences are Just in Time (JIT) Capabilities, Order Flexibility, Return Policies, Technical Soundness, Billing Flexibility. The results of the study disseminated theoretical and managerial implications that can be applied in online fashion retail.