Clothing Consumers' Non-Purchase Shopping Behavior: Browsing Behavior Outside the Purchase Context

의류소비자의 비구매쇼핑행동에 관한 연구

Since most clothing research has still centered around buying behavior, the importance of consumer behavior which exists outside the purchase context has been neglected. This orientation focusing solely on purchase-related processes is deficient as it cannot account for consumer behavior that is recreational or that occurs without a recognized consumption need. In this vein, clothing browsing behavior can be a significant variable that has effects on clothing purchase-related variables. So to speak, browsers do make purchases at times; delayed-action purchases, impulse purchases and browsers may provide other less informed people with product information. In this study, we used definition proposed by Bloch and Richins(1983), which defines non purchase shopping(browsing) as 1,he examination of merchandises of a store for recreational or informational purposes without a current intention to buy. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the dimensions of clothing non -purchase shopping and to determine the causal relationship among clothing involvement, non-purchase shopping, impulse buying, purchase quantity, opinion leadership. The questionnaire method was used and 366 questionnaires were analyzed. Results can be summarized as follows. First, the non-purchase shopping was divided into two dimensions such as recreational non-purchase shopping and informational non-purchase shopping Of the two dimensions, recreational dimension explained the greater part than informational one. Second, it was revealed that clothing involvement was strongly positively related to non-purchase shopping, which influenced considerably on impulse buying, purchase quantity, and opinion leadership. In other words, clothing non-purchase shopping behaivor is very significant concept of clothing product category and has considerable effects on clothing buying though it occurs independently of purchase, so it seems that much more concern will be needed on this concept.