• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.7-18
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine how clothing retail buyers (i.e., retail buyers, merchandisers, and storeowners), who are involved in assortment planning and retail buying use assortment criteria in their decisions. Comparisons are made between criteria used by men's wear and women's wear retail buyers as well as criteria used by male and female retail buyers. Research design, data, and methodology - A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data both in English and Korean. After conducting two pilot tests, the survey was conducted in Seoul, South Korea. Mantrala et al.'s 17 inputs of product assortment planning model with 23 assortment criteria from other previous studies were used. Results - Significant differences existed in consideration of assortment criteria between men's wear and women's wear retail buyers as well as between male and female retail buyers. Men's wear retail buyers rated the importance of sales history criteria (i.e., sales history, previous year's sales of same/similar styles) significantly lower than women's wear buyers did. Female retail buyers rated sales history criteria and weather criteria (i.e., unpredicted weather change, forecasting information of weather) significantly higher than male retail buyers did. Conclusions - This study provides guidelines for retail buyers regarding what criteria to use in what situations and how to organize assortment criteria from the most important criterion to the least one. In addition, the findings help them understand other retail buyers' buying behavior.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.70-79
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• 2010

There has been some research conducted that addressed immoral consumer behaviors in Korea; however, most of this research focused on purchasing counterfeits or shoplifting. High return rates of apparel and used apparel returns have been acknowledged as problem areas within the fashion industry. However, very few researchers have addressed this issue. Therefore, the goal of this research was to explore consumer's retail borrowing experience using a mixed methods approach. In study 1 Korean consumer's retail borrowing experiences was explored through focus group interviews. Findings informed study 2 an examination of apparel consumers' attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior via an online survey. Findings assist both researchers' and practitioners' understanding of retail borrowing behaviors and provide insight into retail borrowing issues in the apparel retail industry. For study 1, five focus-group interviews were conducted with seven panels of individuals that had retail borrowing experience within the past year. Thirty-five Korean consumers who lived in a metropolitan area participated in the focus group interviews. Most of consumers were in their 20's (n=21) and were women (n=24). Most participants purchased apparel items from a retail store and returned the worn items for either a full refund or exchanged the worn item for another item. Motives underlying retail borrowing behavior included social needs, job-related needs, fashion needs, and "smart shopping." Similar to existing research findings from other countries, social needs were the most frequently mentioned cause of retail borrowing in fashion stores. Consumers' moral values, attitude toward large corporations, and prior retail borrowing experience were mentioned as possible factors affecting consumers' retail borrowing behavior. For study 2, the questionnaire used to gather the data was developed based on the findings of part I and existing research. Questions concerning consumers' moral beliefs, sensation seeking tendencies, self-worth, past retail job experience, retail borrowing experience, and some demographic characteristics were included in the questionnaire. The data were collected via an online survey using an online panel provided by a commercial online research company located in Seoul, Korea. In order to obtain various consumers, a quota sample was (male: female=1:1, 20's:30's:40's=1:1:1, retail experience: no retail experience=1:3) obtained from the company. A total of 401 consumers who had shopped for apparel items during the prior 6 months participated in the online survey. The results indicated that 19.7% of the respondents reported they had experience borrowing fashion merchandise. Among these individuals, male borrowers (57%) outnumbered female borrowers. In terms of age distribution, x2 revealed that there was a statistical difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experiences: 41.8% of the respondents with retail borrowing experience were in their 40's, while respondents without retail borrowing experience were evenly distributed between their 20's to 40's. There was also a significant difference between respondents with and without retail borrowing experience in terms of income: respondents with retail borrowing experience tended to have higher incomes than those without retail borrowing experience. T-tests were performed to compare respondents' fashion shopping behavior, moral beliefs, sensation-seeking tendencies, and attitudes toward retail borrowing behavior between participants with and without retail borrowing experience. As compared to those with no borrowing experience, respondents with experience tended to shop for fashion items more frequently and spent more on shopping for fashion items. Consumers with experience borrowing tended to have higher sensation-seeking tendencies than consumers without retail borrowing experience. A regression analysis revealed that attitudes toward fashion retail borrowing were negatively related to consumers' moral beliefs, but positively related to monthly fashion shopping frequency, sensation-seeking tendencies, and past fashion retail borrowing experience. Among these variables, past retail borrowing experience was the most significant predictor, followed by moral beliefs. This research serves as an initial attempt to address the motives that underlie retail borrowing behaviors and the factors affecting those behaviors. The findings of this study may facilitate an understanding of the consumer's retail borrowing, which will provide a basis for approaches that may help decrease retail borrowing and inappropriate returns at fashion retail stores. The findings may also provide materials for consumer education over the long term. In order to better understand fashion retail borrowing behavior, more research is needed in the future.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.736-744
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• 2010

Alliances, collaborations and partnerships are essential practices in today's business. The purpose of this study was to understand the trends in retail alliances by analyzing the patterns of alliances in the Korean retail market. Retail alliance cases were collected from the published news article database in a major internet portal. A total of 1,061 retail alliance cases for the first decade of the 2000s were categorized into the alliances: 1) within the same retail format and 2) across different formats within the retail industry; and 3) with service industries and 4) with manufacturing industries outside the retail industry. The study described the patterns on the characteristics of participating retailers and partners, industries involved, and alliance types for each of the four categories.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.452-466
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• 2023

This study focused on how retail tech promotes differentiated customer experiences in offline fashion stores. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of the characteristics of fashion retail tech stores on consumers' flow and satisfaction. We surveyed Koreans aged 10 to 50 who had experienced offline fashion retail tech stores. The survey was conducted from April 28, 2023, to May 21, 2023. The total number of survey respondents was 200. The quantitative data collected through questionnaires was analyzed using SPSS 25.0. To reveal the effects of fashion retail tech store characteristics on consumer's flow and satisfaction, frequency analysis, we conducted frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. The results of this study, figured out that fashion retail tech store's characteristics, including playfulness, efficiency, interaction, and information provision, have a significant impact on behavior flow, emotional flow, and satisfaction. As a result of analyzing the influence of consumers' flow led to satisfaction, it was confirmed that emotional flow positively influenced satisfaction, but behavioral flow had no meaningful effect on satisfaction. The results of our study can be used to make a successful marketing strategy and can serve as foundational data for consumer research on retail-tech-applied offline fashion stores.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.217-235
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• 2015

The study has analyzed the determinants of retail rents for the franchised coffee shop with the Multi-Regression analysis in Seoul. Central place, agglomeration, and demand-externality theories provide the basis for empirical models. The data used in this study consisted of 2,000 retail units in Seoul. As the results, the results show that coffee shop of retail sales per $3.3m^2$ and characteristic of retail trade-areas, and characteristic of coffee shop affects on the coffee shop's rents per $3.3m^2$. Coffee Shop's sales are the major determinant of coffee shop's rents. Also, coffee shop's goodwill per $3.3m^2$ and rental bond per $3.3m^2$ are positively correlated with a coffee shop's rents. Additionally, number of wholesale company and manufacturers in the retail trade-areas influences coffee shop's rent per $3.3m^2$. In summary, the study shows that coffee shop's brand identity, location and retail mix in the retail trade areas affects a coffee shop's rent per $3.3m^2$.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1063-1070
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• 2021

The study aims to investigate the role of consumer's social risk perceptions in retailing private label brands. Since private label brands are exclusively available at retail stores, consumers make their purchase decisions regarding them based on the image of that retail outlet. While buying them, risk perceptions are influenced by the retail store's image. The study identifies various retail store dimensions. For this purpose, primary data was collected using a survey questionnaire that was administered to a representative sample of retail store consumers in Riyadh. The data was analyzed and exploratory factor analysis was applied using SPSS 25 version to extract store image dimensions. The results showed six significant dimensions of retail store image namely 'Sales Staff', 'Promotion', 'Store Environment', 'Store Services', 'Product Assortment', and 'Customer Convenience'. Regression Analysis was performed and the effect of these retail store image dimensions was tested on social risk perceptions of consumers. Results indicate that store image dimensions significantly influence consumer's perceived social risk perceptions. However, the relationship is not consistent across all the six identified store image dimensions. The study brings forth several valuable consumer insights and the findings of the study have some very interesting and practical implications for retailers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.15-27
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of the study is to examine the relationships among the following retail operations variables: retail store operations (i.e., store management, sales personnel, promotion of merchandise), success of assortment planning, firm performance (i.e., market share, overall competitive position, profitability, product quality, consumer satisfaction), and retail buyer's demographics and firm's characteristics. Research design, data, and methodology - After conducting a pilot test, the survey was conducted in Seoul, South Korea. With using the listwise deletion method, 378 usable data sets were analyzed. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methods were employed. Results - As evidenced from the path diagram, the relationship between retail store operations and the success of assortment planning is strong and significant. Retail store operations affect firm performance, though at a weaker significance than it affects the success of assortment planning. The relationship between the success of assortment planning and firm performance, is the strongest relationship observed by this research. Conclusions - The findings of this empirical study contribute to the retail/fashion buying/management field by confirming (a) the importance of assortment planning for retail firm performance and (b) the role of store operations for successful assortment planning and firm performance for fashion retailers.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.72-80
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to identify the latest trend and type of retail space, and the features according to type of retail space of global prestige brand. To do this, literature analysis was executed by related books, articles, and theses. As a result, the latest trend of fashion retail space which has appeared after 2000 is as follows: 1) The differentiation of fashion brand through collaboration between fashion designers and architects, 2) retail space extension strategy, 3) retail space as a cultural space, 4) bold investment for retail space. The type of fashion retail space which has appeared after 2000 is as follows: 1) Spectacular flagship retail space of monumental scale, 2) global type retail space which exhibits common features through the whole world, 3) localization retail space which shows different features according to store location 4) innovative retail space out of traditional store form. The result of this study will be utilized when a domestic fashion brand establishes global marketing strategy of retail space.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.41-57
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• 2010

DongDaeMoon fashion retail market, or so-called the new western market, has been playing an important role in DongDaeMoon area's success from 1997 to early 2000's. However, the unique and successful fashion merchandising system of DongDeaMoon retail market has been seriously threatened by consumer need changes as well as by an increased competition from new types of retail stores such as discount stores and online shopping malls. Moreover, its performance has been deteriorated due to the increased number of undifferentiated, small and medium-sized retail stores within the area. In this paper, attempts are made in building revitalization strategies for DongDeaMoon fashion retail market on the basis of analyzing fast fashion and consumers. As results, we found that DongDaeMoon fashion retail market needs cooperated area management plan from related market members. This will help DongDaemoon's image change from deal-oriented market to relationship-oriented market with consumers. Through Focus Group interview, we found DongDeaMoon fashion retail market is confronted with insufficient shopping infrastructure and new challenge from global fast fashion brand. Moreover, to overcome this situation, consumers require repaired communication activities by DongDeaMoon fashion market members on consumer relationship management basis. At the end, this paper try to provide strategic implications for DongDeaMoon fashion retailers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.69-77
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• 2015

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine whether the cash policies of retail firms listed on Korean stock markets are consistent with the evidence provided in the study of Almeida et al. (2004). Liquidity management is an important issue for financially constrained firms relative to financially unconstrained firms. Because there are few sources of external funding, the optimal liquidity policies of financially constrained firms should reflect their own earnings or cash inflows to create opportunities for current and future real investments. According to this simple idea, we estimate the sensitivity of cash to cash flows and simply check whether the estimated sensitivity to cash flows of the cash retained by constrained retail firms is greater than that of the cash retained by unconstrained retail firms. Through this work, we aim to explain why the cash policies of the retail firms listed on the Korean stock markets differ from those of listed manufacturing enterprises. Research design, data, and methodology - To explain a firm's cash holdings, we use only three explanatory variables: earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), Tobin's q, and size. All the variables are defined as the value of the numerator divided by aggregate assets. Thanks to this definition, it is possible to treat all the sample firms as a single large firm. The sample financial data for this study are collected from the retail enterprises listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ markets from 1991 to 2013. We can obtain these data from WISEfn, the financial information company. This study's methodology has its origin in Keynes's simple idea of precautionary liquidity demand: When a firm faces financial constraints, cash savings from earnings or cash inflows become important from the corporate finance perspective. Following this simple idea, Almeida et al. (2004) developed their theoretical model and found empirical evidence that the sensitivity of cash to cash flows varies systematically according to different types of financing frictions. To find more empirical evidence for this idea, we examined the cash flow sensitivity of the cash held by Korean retail firms. Results - Through several robustness tests, we empirically showed that financially constrained Korean retail firms display significant positive propensity to save cash from earnings before interest and taxes, while the estimated cash flow sensitivity of the cash held by unconstrained retail firms is not significant. Despite the relatively low earnings of retail firms, their sensitivity is three times greater than that of manufacturing enterprises. This implies that Korean retail firms have greater intentions of facilitating future investments rather than current investments. Conclusions - The characteristics of the cash policies of Korean retail firms differ from those of manufacturing firms. This contrast may be attributable to industry-oriented policy planning, regulations, and institutional differences. However, the industrial policymakers should observe signals of the long-term growth options of retail firms based on their high propensity to save from their cash inflows.