Testing of Disconfirmation of Expectation Paradigm among Apparel Consumers

The purpose of the research is (1) to identify the usage of Quick Response technologies (QRT) by apparel retailers and the improvement of store attributes by QRT, and (2) to test a conceptual model which examines Consumer Satisfaction(CS) with apparel retail stores. A convenience sample of 32 retailers and 200 apparel consumers participated in the survey research. The most used technology is sales captured at the item level and the store attribute most improved by QRT is fast turnaround of goods. Disconfirmation(DC) (i.e., QRT based, non-QRT based attributes) had significant effects on CS with apparel retail stores. DC of QRT based attributes (e.g. reduced stockout) have more influence on CS than DC of non-QRT based attributes (e.g., location of store).