• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.251-263
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• 2018

As mobile shopping has increased in the new media age, fashion consumers' decision making and product consumption processes have changed. The volume of consumer-driven information has expanded since media and social networking sites have enabled consumers to share information they obtain. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting information searching strategies and information sharing about fashion products. An online survey collected data from 466 respondents, relating to the influence of product price level and consumer SNS commitment level on information search and information sharing. Experimental design of three product price level and two consumer SNS commitment level was used. Analysis of the data identified factors in fashion information searching as ongoing searching, prepurchase web portal information search, and prepurchase marketing information search. For low-price fashion products, prepurchase product-detail influenced intention to share information. For mid-priced products, ongoing search significantly affected intention to share information. Both ongoing search and prepurchase marketing information search showed significant effects for high-price products. Consumers who are more committed to SNS engaged in significantly more searching in all aspects of information search factors. Significant interaction effect was detected for consumer SNS commitment level and product price level. When consumers with low consumer SNS commitment search for information on lower-priced fashion products, they are less likely do a prepurchase web portal information search.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.285-297
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• 2019

Retail firms have begun to pursue the marketing strategies, which stimulate consumers' sensibility and lead people to purchase their products. The visible effects of visual merchandising (VM) arouse consumers' interest and play an effective role in having busy people efficiently choose products. Apparel retail stores such as SPA use the offline store to be the experiential environment of their branding. Consumers' sensitivity and response toward various visual merchandising strategies needs to be accessed. The purpose of this study is to identify VM consciousness and VM evaluation attribute factors. Relationship of such variables with other variables were accessed. As consequence variables, product satisfaction and unplanned purchase behavior were included in the study. An empirical survey data was collected from men and women of various ages. Results indicated that VM consciousness and VM evaluation attribute factors were not correlated with consumer demographic variables. VM evaluation attributes were factored into appropriateness, attractiveness and functionality dimensions. Clothing involvement and brand orientation significantly influenced product satisfaction and unplanned purchase. The direct and indirect effect (via VM consciousness) were significant. For unplanned purchase, brand orientation only had indirect effect. The influence of VM evaluation attribute factors were significant. Appropriateness had stronger effect on product satisfaction whereas attractiveness had stronger effect on unplanned behavior. Functionality dimension had only indirect effect on product satisfaction but did not show significant direct and indirect effects on unplanned purchase. This study identified the pivotal role of VM consciousness in various shopping and purchasing circumstances in offline retail store of apparel brands.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.356-375
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• 2021

The Generation Z (Gen-Z) consumer has a unique beauty-consuming behavior that is distinct from the previous generations. This study aims to identify the meaning of makeup rituals based on the theoretical framework of the ritual concept. In-depth interviews were conducted with fifteen females in their mid-teens to early 20s. The results showed that Gen-Z has different types of makeup ritual scripts for both ordinary days and special days, which are constantly being re-written and revised based on the experience accumulated. In addition, there are various types of ritual artifacts that play an important role in Gen-Z's makeup ritual, and that they provide psychological comfort and satisfaction. The importance of DIY (Do It Yourself), collecting, and independent brands is emphasized. The role of Gen-Z in the makeup ritual was expanding from a creator for her own ritual to a collaborator for peers' rituals, and sometimes the expansion goes beyond the direct relationships to virtual ones through SNS (Social Network Service). The Gen-Z cohort is found to be a member of beauty knowledge network through which they learn, share, and create the know-how and shopping skills.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.762-776
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• 2020

This study tried to investigate the effect of the service quality attributes of the curation on the satisfaction, trust, and intention to continuous use of consumers in that curation services are derived in various forms and being greatly activated, there are not many academic discussions centered on them. Besides, differences between curation services by each service provider were also verified in this study. Data collection was conducted for one month in August 2019, with 373 men and women in their 20s. The results of the study are as follows. First, according to the result of investigating the variables that make effect on user satisfaction of curation service, it was identified that satisfaction has increased when figures of fulfillment, responsiveness, personalization, design, ease of use, and safety were higher. Second, among the variables that influence the reliability of the curation service, trust increases when user satisfaction, design, ease of use, and safety are higher. Third, satisfaction has a positive effect on trust, and both satisfaction and reliability affect the intention to continue use. Fourth, as a result of examining the difference in quality between the curation services divided by Curating subject, it was found that satisfaction, ubiquitous connectivity, and responsive quality were measured higher in the business operator service than in the user curation service.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.597-603
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• 2022

With the continuation of the pandemic environment, digital transformation is being applied in various fields of the fashion industry. Augmented reality technology is a form of overlapping virtual images on the real world, and as online shopping expands in non-face-to-face environments, the use of augmented reality technology in fashion and beauty fields is affecting consumer satisfaction and sales growth. In this study, the characteristics of augmented reality contents used in the fashion industry following digital transformation were extended to the fields of clothing, accessories, virtual fashion stores, and AR fashion shows to analyze the case characteristics of augmented reality. Augmented reality technology in the fashion industry focuses on promoting clothing and accessory products through SNS or homepage through marketing activities. It is raising positive values such as raising awareness. The range of types of augmented reality used in the future digital fashion environment will continue to expand, and by deriving the usage characteristics of augmented reality technology, it is intended to contribute to presenting a future vision of the fashion industry.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.117-126
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• 2022

This study aims to analyze the sizing information of women's ready-to-wear pants as indicated on online retail websites and to suggest better sizing communication that can assist customers in making successful apparel size selections. We gathered size specifications and size reference information for basic straight pants from 34 online apparel retail websites. Although the Korean standard recommends labeling the body dimension-based sizing code and specification, most websites preferred to use various types of sizing codes. Body measurements were only used by a few websites, and garment dimension descriptions were the most common method to indicate product size. Many websites provided size reference information through customer review boards and fit model images, however, there was insufficient body size information to allow customers to infer the fit of their body type. When using the size guidance tools, the major data input points were stature and weight measurements. However, the waist measurements of pants sizes guided only by stature and weight values revealed inconsistent ease allowance for corresponding body size populations, especially in the overweight group. Based on our findings, we propose a more effective method of communicating the size information of pants online. We expect that this will contribute to the efficiency of online apparel product display and build a better shopping environment that satisfies both sellers and consumers.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.39-48
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• 2023

This study was conducted to provide a solution to the problem of sizing errors occurring in online purchases due to discrepancies and non-standardization in clothing sizes. This paper discusses an implementation approach for a machine learning-based recommender system capable of providing personalized sizes to online consumers. We trained multiple validated collaborative filtering algorithms including Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF), Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), k-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and Co-Clustering using purchasing data derived from online commerce and compared their performance. As a result of the study, we were able to confirm that the NMF algorithm showed superior performance compared to other algorithms. Despite the characteristic of purchase data that includes multiple buyers using the same account, the proposed model demonstrated sufficient accuracy. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to reducing the return rate due to sizing errors and improving the customer experience on e-commerce platforms.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.81-93
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• 2015

Purpose - "Showrooming" refers to the phenomenon where a shopper visits a store to see and compare products but makes the purchase online at a lower price. Surveys on showrooming activities at home and abroad indicate that a significant number of consumers pursue showrooming activities. The advent of "showroomers," who engage in buying activities, hovering both on and offline, while selectively choosing sales channels to suit their needs, is powerful enough to erode the borders between channels and bring about seismic changes in the distribution industry. However, surprisingly, there has been no in-depth discussion on showrooming. This study seeks to theoretically investigate what impact personal characteristics have on showrooming preferences and attitudes in a multi-channel environment. Specifically, assumptions have been made that price perception, perceived performance risk, and trust in online shopping not only have a direct impact on showrooming attitudes but also indirectly affect it through the means of contact motivation. Research design, data, and methodology - To test the hypotheses, this study conducted a survey of male and female shoppers, ages 20 through 40s, who live in metropolitan areas, and have actively showroomed fashion items in the last six months. A clothing item usually purchased after a careful decision-making process was chosen as the target product of the study. The survey was conducted between October and November 2014, using a professional survey service provider. A total of 200 surveys were collected, of which 198 were used for analysis. Conceptual model Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Amos 18.0 were employed for data analysis and model verification. In addition, following the confirmatory factor analysis and measurement model analysis, the theoretical model that corresponds to the research model was analyzed. Results - Analysis results show that price perception, perceived performance risk, and trust in online shopping have a statistically significant and positive (+) impact on showrooming attitudes. In addition, in terms of the indirect influence of price perception and perceived performance risk on showrooming attitudes through means of contact motivation, price perception had a statistically significant and positive impact on means of contact motivation, whereas perceived performance risk did not have a statistically significant impact on it, with the relevant hypothesis rejected. Conclusions - These analysis results imply that the ultimate goal of consumers is to maximize their shopping benefits by selectively and strategically taking advantage of different channels in a complementary manner. This study presents many implications for distributors to encourage a deep understanding of showrooming consumers who have complicated consumption behaviors and to build channel integration strategies. This study has limitations in theoretical and practical implications. Therefore, subsequent studies need to focus on verifying that showrooming activities are based on reasonable and planned decisions by applying the theory of reasoned or planned behavior. In addition, the scope of the study should expand to include web showrooming, where consumers conduct product research online and purchase offline.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.19-34
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences of the general characteristics of subjects, the utilizing realities and the degree of satisfaction in the shopping mall and purchasing intention between group I that specializes in fashion design and group II that doesn't specialize in it. The results are summarized as the following six aspects. First, as a result of the general characteristics of subjects and the utilizing realities, the most different variables were the visiting frequency and the goods purchasing frequency. The result indicated that group II took more interests than group I. Second, as a result of the degree of satisfaction according to the factors of the general characteristics of subjects and the utilizing realities in the shopping mall, both group I and group II showed high degree of satisfaction in factor 1 (variety of event) whereas both groups showed relatively low degree of satisfaction in factor 3 (variety of goods). Third, as a result of the degree of satisfaction according to the general characteristics of subjects and the utilizing realities, group I showed significant differences in the degree of satisfaction according to a monthly allowance of pocket money and goods purchasing frequency and group II showed significant differences in the degree of satisfaction according to grade, the utilizing reason, goods purchasing frequency. Fourth, as a result of purchasing intention of fashion goods according to the general characteristics of subjects and the utilizing realities, group I showed the higher purchasing intention of fashion goods in group that the terms of payment was on-line payment than group that they was credit card. On the other hand, group II showed a significant difference in grade, which showed that group that was above third grade had the higher purchasing intention of fashion goods than group that was under third grade. Fifth, as a result of purchasing intention of fashion goods according to the degree of satisfaction, group I showed significant differences in factor 1 and factor 3 among the degree of satisfaction. In other words, group that had high degree of satisfaction in factor 1 showed the higher purchasing intention of fashion goods than other groups and group that had medium degree of satisfaction in factor 3 showed the higher purchasing intention of fashion goods than other groups. In group II, on the other hands, group that had high total degree of satisfaction showed the higher purchasing intention of fashion goods than other groups. Sixth, as a result of relative influencing power of independent variable with respect to purchasing intention of fashion goods in group I, the higher degree of satisfaction in factor 1 and the lower degree of satisfaction in factor 3 showed, the higher purchasing intention of fashion goods showed. As a result of relative influencing power of independent variable in group II, however, the higher grade and the higher degree of satisfaction in factor 1 showed, the higher purchasing intention of fashion goods showed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.139-156
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to compare the patterns of time use between Korean and USA families. The data for 353 Seoul-based Korean families with two children living in Seoul and 130 USA families with two children living in the State of Utah were collected using a structured questionnaire and time diary. The major findings were as the following: 1. The Korean couples spent more time at personal care, paid work, and travel than the USA couples did, while the USA couples spent more time at housework and social-cultural activities than the Korean couples did. 2. The Korean wives spent more time doing food and clothing related housework than the USA wives did. Compared with the Korean wives, however, the time spent at house cleaning and management, family care and shopping and home management were longer than USA wives. The time U.S. husbands engaged in housework was much greater than by the Korean husbands. 3. Regardless of sex and school level, the Korean children spent less time at sleeping/rest, housework and socio-cultural activities and more time at eating and learning than those of U.S. These time use patterns of the families in both countries may reflect the differences of the cultural contexts, social norms, life styles, and the degrees of urbanization. To fully explain the findings, further study on the differences in social and cultural factors between the two countries is needed.