• Human Ecology Research
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.243-253
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• 2014

This qualitative case study examined the experience of middle-aged homemakers with buying and wearing clothes. Clothing benefits and clothing purchase types were observed in the homemakers' daily clothing-related behavior. This study aims to understand clothing consumption values in light of clothing benefits and to determine purchasing methods, purchasing mental states, and personal characteristics according to the clothing purchase types of middle-aged homemakers. The participants of this study were four full-time homemakers and four homemakers with a job outside the home, all in middle age. This study was conducted through in-depth interviews based on an unstructured questionnaire, and the data were collected from January 2010 to October 2010. The results were as follows: first, the clothing benefits were identified as a social stereotype, aesthetic taste, economy, wearing situation, and age perception. The most important clothing consumption values to the middle-aged homemakers based on the observed clothing benefits were, in order: social value, emotional value, epistemic value, functional value, and conditional value. Second, the type of clothing purchase was observed to be planned buying, followed by impulse buying, and compensatory buying. Even when a homemaker planned to shop regularly, when they were exposed to an attractive retailer promotion, they seized on the opportunity on impulse or made a compensatory purchase to divert oneself. Even though homemakers prefer primarily impulse buying, when they went shopping for clothing with their mother-in-law or husband, they made planned purchase also.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.709-721
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to identify different consumer clusters based on clothing involvement and to examine the differences in consumer characteristics related to clothing purchasing. As consumer behavior characteristics, this study included visiting purpose of Internet shopping malls, purchasing situation, consumer confidence, and clothing satisfaction. Data were gathered by surveying university students living in Seoul metropolitan area using convenience sampling, and 321 questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. In analyzing data, cluster analysis and one-way ANOVA were conducted. The cluster analysis identified four different consumer clusters, and there were significant differences in the consumer behavior characteristics among the four clothing involvement clusters.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.907-917
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• 2000

Although interest in the potential and actual usage of the Internet as a transaction medium is increasing, the market for fashion merchandise on the Internet in Korea has yet to take off. As the Internet environment is expected to bring about a transformation of conventional consumer buying behavior, the purpose of this exploratory research is to investigate the buying behavior of fashion products on the Internet to identify relevant concepts and generate hypotheses for further empirical research. The research methods selected for the study were observation and in-depth interview. Twelve subjects who had purchased fashion products on the Internet were selected and interviewed. Those who could not participate in face-to-face in-depth interviews because of the geographic locations were interviewed on-line. The results are as follows: First, subjects went through the stages of shopping motivation stage, site choice behavior stage, in-site behavior stage, and postpurchase behavior stage. Second, a model was extracted for each shopping stage, and a final model was completed based on comparisons with the participants processes. The information content of each phase was discussed. Finally, each participant was classified using their purchasing process, revealing six possible mixed usage patterns of the Internet marketing system and the traditional marketing system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.703-713
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• 2015

Consumers' psychological demands for e-tail shopping have increased as websites have become one of the most dominant retail outlets for various fashion products. The lack of realistic social stimuli in virtual contexts (websites) has been a major limitation for many online shoppers. Prior research has focused on the viable role of technology to improve positive social factors in e-tailing; however, this study tests the role of tone in text in fashion e-tail sites on consumers' trust and choice confidence. We conducted a self-administered online survey with 309 individuals from the U.S.. The results indicated positive effects of casual tone in text-based content of a fashion e-tail site on trust and confidence. Trust also has a significant positive effect on confidence. Both trust and confidence improved purchase intention. Given the high price of employing an avatar or simulated salesperson online, using tone in text to increase positive social effect on shoppers can be a positive alternative when managers plan e-tail strategies contributing to consumers' positive shopping experience online. Discussions and study limitations are provided.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.61 no.5
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• pp.64-76
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• 2011

Consumers attribute human personality to products or stores as well as brands. As brand personality is imprinted to a consumer's mind, in e-commerce, the concept of store personality needs to be examined by comprehending the e-brand personality. Unlike the recent studies that focus primarily on the portal site, we attempt to identify e-brand personality of online shopping malls that sell fashion products. This study also examined the impact of the parent company's attributes on e-brand personality. A survey was conducted to 240 females and 240 males in their 20s or 30s. E-brand personality of three different types of the Internet shopping mall was evaluated by 160 respondents, respectively. As a result, we found that Internet shoppers perceive that e-brands have four distinct personality dimensions: young, reliable, sophisticated, and creative. Among the four dimensions, "young" and "reliable" showed the most significant influence on intention to visit the shopping mall site. Besides, e-brand personality varied with parent companies' attributes such as reputation, credibility, and fashion industry-relatedness. Especially, credibility of the parent company showed a strong positive relationship with e-brand personality.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.73-88
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• 2010

Study aims to identify customer equity drivers and their relative importance, to represent customer lifetime value (CLV) distribution, and to investigate the effect of customer equity drivers and demographics on CLV when shopping apparels at the four big department stores in Seoul. Recently, Korean department stores marked significant decrease in sales volume and it calls for more focus on customer orientation. Customer equity is a managerial concept which considers customers as a valuable asset for business success. Sustainable competitive advantage is attainable when customer equity drivers and CLV are measured, managed and enhanced. results identified four dimensions of customer equity drivers such as 'retail brand equity: 'relationship equity', 'retail service equity', and 'price value equity'. Among them, 'relationship equity' was proved to be the most influencing factor on the customer's store patronage intention. The CLV distribution represented unique characteristics of each department store. The level of CLV depended on such demographics as age and income. Marital status influenced the relationship between perceived customer equity drivers and CLV. It also analyzed competitive structure of the four big department stores in Seoul and offered managerial suggestions. This study provided conceptual framework for the future study of customer equity related to apparel shopping at the department stores as well as managerial implications.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.183-194
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• 2001

The purpose of this study are to systematize the concept on apparel store service and to provide the importance of each service according to the shopping types as well as demographic characteristics of consumers. The data was collected from 628 females and analyzed by factor analysis, reliability analysis, mean, percentage, cluster analysis, ANOVA, Duncan test, paired t-test, and t-test. The results are as follows: 1) All apparel stores consist of two categories, Products and Services. The products obviously entail whatever the store is selling. The services, on the other hand, can be broken down into three different factors of responsibility: public relations service, store environmental service, and promotional service. 2) Consumers can be classified into one of four categories: conventional type, practical type, recreational type, and casual type. 3) A recreational type and a practical type shoppers take into consideration all three service factors. The conventional and casual type shoppers, as compared to the recreational or practical type shoppers, arent really concerned with much of anything, least of the promotional service factor. 4) It has been found that the typical Korean consumer is more concerned with the public relations service factor, rather than the store environmental service factor or promotional service factor. 5) It has been found that the importance of services are significantly different in relation to the demographic characteristics, whether that be age, marital status, or the age of the youngest child.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.36 no.12
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• pp.1318-1329
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• 2012

In-store atmospherics involve quantified physical and social aspects; however, the social quality of a web-based retailing context has largely been under-examined. This study addressed some antecedents and consequences of social ambience in virtual shopping (or e-social ambience) within a web-based U.S. retailing fashion context. This study explored the role of social cues as a viable antecedent to e-social ambience and emotions as its consequence. A conceptual framework was built postulating the effect of social cue for web content, on e-social ambience, emotions, and e-shopping enjoyment. The experimental results (n=488) on a fictitious retail T-shirt website confirmed the positive correlation among the variables; in addition, the level of social cues included within the web content significantly increased the level of customer-perceived e-social ambience of the website and subsequent positive on-site emotions. On-site emotions positively influence purchase intentions. The results expand the current understanding of e-store management by providing novel insight relevant to fashion companies that wish to provide customers with a quality website shopping experience.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.43 no.11 s.213
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• pp.153-164
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of relationship commitment on the female customer's future behavioral intention in relation to the criteria of evaluating cyber stores in internet shopping malls. This study used questionnaire and judgment sampling to survey consumers who have bought product in internet shopping malls. The respondents were 329 women from their twenties to fifties. The data were analyzed by factor analysis, cluster analysis, ANOVA, regression and Duncan test. The results were as follows: 1. The evaluative criteria of cyber stores were product characteristics of the store, convenience and trust, and promotion and information provision. 2. There were significant differences in relationship commitment among groups according to differences of cyber store evaluation criteria. 3. The dimensions of relationship commitment were affective commitment, calculus commitment and normative commitment. 4. Relationship commitment was found to have a significant effect on the customer's future behavioral intention. Especially, affective commitment was shown to have a significant effect on the future behavioral intention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.74-87
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• 2015

It is common for popular products to sell out, and be out of stock. The purpose of this study is to examine the responses of consumers who have experiences of shopping online, and finding their desired products unavailable from being sold out. In order to carry out the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with ten recruits who were recruited from the Internet community, Soul Dresser, which is part of the Korean web portal, Daum. First, the cognitive reaction of the interviewees showed both positive and negative responses when they found out that their desired product was sold out. However, in the case of emotional reaction, all of them showed negative reactions. Observations showed that consumers researched and found similar products including price when they realized that their desired products were not going to be re-stocked. And in cases of similar products not being available, the consumers looked to buy other types of products such as bags, shoes, and other accessories.