Asian Marketing

1. Introduction

In recent years, online apparel retailing has become a popular form of non-store retailing. This new shopping alternative allows consumers to shop at their convenience, and more importantly, provides consumers with the opportunity to conduct extensive information search via the Web. Hence, as usage of Web technology increases, more organizations are investing resources to stake their claim on the Web. For example, companies such as American Apparel or Urban Outfitters have established online stores to broaden their target market and expand their business opportunities.

As companies experiment with Web technology, it is essential to understand how the elements of the Web influence its users. Various academics have studied the influence of factors involved in Website success and have examined how atmospheric variables can create a satisfying consumer purchase experience.

The purpose of this study goes beyond past research; builds upon what has been investigated and explores the factors related to Website design that affect the customers purchase intention for stores in the online apparel retail setting.

6. Conclusion

While SOR-model has traditionally been used to examine brick-and-mortar shops, this study has gone beyond that by applying the model on online apparel shopping- where emerging articles have shifted their attention to. 14 variables were adapted from previous studies. From our research, we have pointed out the variables that need to be improved on in determining purchase intention. Although prior studies have highlighted that other variables do affect purchase intention, we are unable to consider their impact on our results due to restrictions. As such, the results of our studies are not representative of all the factors that affect purchase intention.

8. References

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* C. Ranganathan and Shobha Ganapathy. (2002), "Key dimensions of business-to-business web sites", (International Journal of) Information & Management, Vol. 39, pp. 457 - 465.

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