The objectives of this paper are: 1. To understand customers’ value drivers in the on-line fashion shopping experience with regard to the perceived empowerment; 2. To analyze the key factors of an efficient web strategy in the fashion eretailing context; 3. To build an index for measuring the degree of empowerment provided by online fashion retailers; 4. To provide a rank of a sample of on-line fashion retailers based on their ability to offer high levels of empowerment to fashion web shoppers. The adopted methodology is based on an extensive literature review, an online survey distributed to a sample of web shoppers, the definition of an index based on a set of indicators weighted according to the survey results and the evaluation of a sample of website Keywords— On-line retailers, on-line fashion shopping, customers, purchase experience. 1. LITERATURE REVIEW a. On-line fashion retailers The globalization process and the extraordinary growth in the use of Internet is changing retail industry, especially fashion retail, and is creating new growth opportunities for firms [1]. In the actual changing retail environment, online channels are becoming increasingly important [25]. In addition, mobiles, tablets and social media are powering the opportunities for traditional retailers to go online [6, 7]. b. On-line purchase experience The concept of customer experience is valid, and even more relevant, in the online retail context [8]. Novak, Hoffman, and Yung [9] define online customer experience as the “cognitive state experienced during navigation”. Online customer experience is the cumulative outcome of different components of the website company’s offer [10] and is important to deeply understand what are these elements and how significant their role is in shaping the experience. When consumers make a purchase online they do not have perfect information about product quality because they cannot touch, smell or feel the product [11]. In particular, when we talk about fashion products, it can be more critical to present and sell on websites if compared to other types of products, because these are products/articles that need to be experienced, and their quality can only be fully determined after purchase [12, 13]. Thanks to the recent predominance of internet retailing, information available on web sites has become a strategic element to determine whether a company will success or fail in the electronic commerce [14]. c. Tools for web site benchmarking Several papers have been published on web site quality evaluation methodology [15-20]. Many of these publications offer frameworks containing groups of quality dimensions that are similar to the SERVQUAL (Service Quality) model proposed by Parasuraman [21]. Also some publications have proposes evaluation methodologies for specific web sites such as egovernment web sites [22, 23] hotel web sites [24], online library web sites [25, 26], and health care web sites [15, 27, 28]. Kuo [29] presented a new point of view by integrating quality function deployment aspects into web site quality assessment methodology. In a number of publications, quantitative methods for Web site quality evaluation are used. Statistical methods are the most widely used assessment tool [18, 20, 30, 31]. 2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY The baseline research hypothesis is that the information and services provided by online fashion retailers via the web are capable of enhancing shoppers’ empowerment in two key dimensions: information held by customers and control of the purchase process with respect to his/her needs. Starting from literature review, some features of the websites were selected to develop an indicator
A framework for the assessment of online fashion retailers: the fashion shopper web empowerment index
Bellio Elena;
2016-01-01
Abstract
The objectives of this paper are: 1. To understand customers’ value drivers in the on-line fashion shopping experience with regard to the perceived empowerment; 2. To analyze the key factors of an efficient web strategy in the fashion eretailing context; 3. To build an index for measuring the degree of empowerment provided by online fashion retailers; 4. To provide a rank of a sample of on-line fashion retailers based on their ability to offer high levels of empowerment to fashion web shoppers. The adopted methodology is based on an extensive literature review, an online survey distributed to a sample of web shoppers, the definition of an index based on a set of indicators weighted according to the survey results and the evaluation of a sample of website Keywords— On-line retailers, on-line fashion shopping, customers, purchase experience. 1. LITERATURE REVIEW a. On-line fashion retailers The globalization process and the extraordinary growth in the use of Internet is changing retail industry, especially fashion retail, and is creating new growth opportunities for firms [1]. In the actual changing retail environment, online channels are becoming increasingly important [25]. In addition, mobiles, tablets and social media are powering the opportunities for traditional retailers to go online [6, 7]. b. On-line purchase experience The concept of customer experience is valid, and even more relevant, in the online retail context [8]. Novak, Hoffman, and Yung [9] define online customer experience as the “cognitive state experienced during navigation”. Online customer experience is the cumulative outcome of different components of the website company’s offer [10] and is important to deeply understand what are these elements and how significant their role is in shaping the experience. When consumers make a purchase online they do not have perfect information about product quality because they cannot touch, smell or feel the product [11]. In particular, when we talk about fashion products, it can be more critical to present and sell on websites if compared to other types of products, because these are products/articles that need to be experienced, and their quality can only be fully determined after purchase [12, 13]. Thanks to the recent predominance of internet retailing, information available on web sites has become a strategic element to determine whether a company will success or fail in the electronic commerce [14]. c. Tools for web site benchmarking Several papers have been published on web site quality evaluation methodology [15-20]. Many of these publications offer frameworks containing groups of quality dimensions that are similar to the SERVQUAL (Service Quality) model proposed by Parasuraman [21]. Also some publications have proposes evaluation methodologies for specific web sites such as egovernment web sites [22, 23] hotel web sites [24], online library web sites [25, 26], and health care web sites [15, 27, 28]. Kuo [29] presented a new point of view by integrating quality function deployment aspects into web site quality assessment methodology. In a number of publications, quantitative methods for Web site quality evaluation are used. Statistical methods are the most widely used assessment tool [18, 20, 30, 31]. 2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY The baseline research hypothesis is that the information and services provided by online fashion retailers via the web are capable of enhancing shoppers’ empowerment in two key dimensions: information held by customers and control of the purchase process with respect to his/her needs. Starting from literature review, some features of the websites were selected to develop an indicator
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