This paper explores the future of the physical store within omnichannel retail and specifically, the prerequisites of the designed retail environment in optimizing customer experience. Adopting an ...exploratory qualitative approach, primary data was obtained using semi-structured interviews with 20 industry experts.
The research makes a valuable contribution to the dearth of extent literature on experiential store spaces of the future, specifically within the fashion field. By connecting three topics of academic research - Omnichannel retail, the role of the physical store and in-store customer experience - it serves to suggest the prerequisites for designed retail environments in optimizing customer experience.
This paper examines consumer intentions towards sustainable fashion in the Spanish fashion industry. It explores consumer knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral response to sustainable fashion. The ...research was conducted using a mixed-method strategy. The quantitative questionnaire examines consumer attitudes towards sustainable fashion, underpinned by the Theory of Planned Behavior. This was supported by a qualitative enquiry using semi-structured interviews to explore consumer knowledge of and attitudes towards sustainable fashion in Spain. Consumer familiarity with sustainable fashion was found to be high and broad in definition scope. Social aspects of sustainability were predominant tangents. A disjuncture between company's sustainable communication and consumer perception was apparent as well as attitudes and actual purchase intentions towards sustainable fashion. Opportunities to foster further sustainable fashion business practices and communication were identified. The findings highlight that fashion retailers should clearly communicate the meaning of sustainability and their proactive response to sustainability. The development of effective communication strategies that clearly highlights retailer's compliance with and efforts to becoming more sustainable is a prerequisite arising from the study. This study contributes to burgeoning research on sustainable fashion within mainstream marketing and management literature. By contextualizing it to the Spanish market, it provides a novel counter-point consumer perspective on attitudes and intentions towards sustainable fashion.
This paper explores changes in technology-enabled omnichannel customer experiences in stores over a five-year period (2014–2019). It contributes to the omnichannel-experience-management literature ...through customer technology-enabled touchpoints within fashion retail. Adopting an exploratory qualitative approach, primary data were obtained using semi-structured interviews with millennial consumers. The findings demonstrate the growing importance of implementing and integrating in-store technologies to improve customer experience. From these, two models are developed: “technology-induced customer experience in-store”; and “technology-enabled customer shopping journey in-store”.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the third-place phenomenon, within a fashion context, through the theoretical lens of servicescape and experiential retailing. It identifies third places’ ...typologies, evolution and adoption and explores the opportunities third places offer to retailers when attempting to connect better with consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking a qualitative approach, research was conducted using secondary data sources, observation of 98 retail stores and the shopping-with-consumers technique with 42 informants. Manual thematic analysis and magnitude coding was conducted.
Findings
Third-place fashion practices are prevalent and growing. Their predominant functions include sociability, experiential, restorative and commercial. Variances inherent in third places are expounded and a third-place-dimensions model is proposed.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the chosen research approach, the results are limited in terms of generalizability to other settings. Several research directions are elucidated, including exploration of fashion third places on consumers’ place attachment within specific sectors; the impact of differing age, gender and geographies on third place meaning; virtual and hybrid forms; retailer motivations; and third-place alliances.
Practical implications
The preliminary study serves to support managers to understand how consumers perceive and experience the fashion third place and the potential of the third place to enhance consumer engagement.
Originality/value
The research makes a valuable contribution to the dearth of extant literature on third place within the fashion field. It offers a new theoretical perspective on form, function and benefits of third places as a conduit of social-, experiential-, and commercial-experience consumption.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to establish the role of the pop-up store within the international location strategy of fashion retailers, second, to identify the factors ...influencing pop-up store location choice and the importance retailers ascribe to it and third, to assess how pop-up locations are sourced and selected.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study was adopted. Research was conducted using secondary data sources, observation and semi-structured interviews with senior executives with strategic responsibility for store/brand development internationally. Manual content analysis was conducted.
Findings
Key findings cover the role of Pop-up stores within international retail location strategy, notably features, forms and function, with the latter highlighting the importance of opportunistic market testing and trial, reduced risk, regeneration, ROI- and CRM-driven decisions; the factors impacting location choice and selection, specifically the trade-offs between reactive and proactive approaches and the importance of networks and intuition, and future pop-up directions.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalization outside of the given sector and marketplaces. Several avenues for future research are elucidated including exploration of pop-up transformations including pop-up rebrand, technology enabled, experiential and third place.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the nascent field of research by providing new insight into the role of pop-ups within international location strategy, the factors influencing location choice and selection and offers a pop-up location taxonomy.
Purpose
Utilizing the stimulus-organism-response model, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of augmented reality (AR) (specifically augmentation) on consumers’ affective and ...behavioral response and to assess whether consumers’ hedonic motivation for shopping moderates this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
An experiment using the manipulation of AR and no AR was conducted with 162 participants aged between 18 and 35. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling and randomly assigned to the control or stimulus group. The hypothesized associations were analyzed using linear regression with bootstrapping.
Findings
The paper demonstrates the benefit of using an experiential AR retail application (app) to positively impact purchase intention. The results show that this effect is mediated by positive affective response. Furthermore, hedonic shopping motivation moderates the relationship between augmentation and the positive affective response.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalizability to other forms of augmentation. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed model using different types of AR stimuli. Furthermore, replication of the study with other populations would increase the generalizability of the findings.
Practical implications
Results of this study provide a valuable reference for retailers of the benefits of using AR when attempting to optimize experiential value in online environments.
Originality/value
The study contributes to experiential retail and consumer purchase behavior research by deepening the conceptualization of the impact of experiential technologies, more specifically AR apps, by considering the role of hedonic shopping motivations.
PurposeContinuous change has long been recognized as a core characteristic of retailing, its recent acceleration unprecedented, yet innovation in retailing remains under-researched, especially within ...fashion retailing. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to generate a deeper understanding of if, and to what extent, fashion retailers across different market segments are innovating in terms of in-store technology diffusion over time by taking a long-term perspective over five years.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on retail change and innovation diffusion theory, the study takes a qualitative approach, using direct observation of 71 fashion stores in London (UK) in 2014 and 2019. In total, 142 stores were tabulated in Excel and qualitatively analysed manually and with NVivo.FindingsThe findings identify the innovation adoption strategies implemented, the types of in-store technologies adopted over time and the fashion retail innovation adopters.Originality/valueThe research offers new knowledge in terms of retail innovation and retail change, specifically on retail diffusion of innovation and the importance of in-store technology integration. Several practical implications for improving technology innovation management are also identified.
PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between key value propositions of luxury fashion smartwatches, consumer attitudes and their purchase intentions, and to explore Millennial ...consumers' overall perceptions of using these wearable technologies.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopts a mixed methods approach. Quantitative enquiry consisting of 312 respondents was followed by two qualitative focus groups in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the issue.FindingsThe findings indicate that functional, individual and social factors influence Millennial consumers' adoption intention of luxury fashion smartwatches. Empirical results reveal that perceived hedonism and usefulness are the most important factors that motivate adoption intentions, followed by subjective norm and perceived conspicuousness, indicating that luxury smartwatches are perceived as both a technological device and luxury fashion accessory.Originality/valueGiven extant research on luxury fashion smartwatches is limited, this study contributes to this unique research stream by exploring Millennial's perceptions towards using these new generation smartwatches. This research develops a theoretical framework building on technology adoption model 2 (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000), theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1975) and luxury perception models (Wiedmann et al., 2007).
Accelerated by the global pandemic, the speed of technology adoption has significantly increased, resulting in new business opportunities, channels, touchpoints and digital toolkits. One such ...burgeoning technology which is generating increasing attention is Nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Adopting an exploratory approach, this study aims to develop a deeper understanding of the value of NFTs from a luxury business and consumer perspective. Taking a qualitative approach, interviews were conducted with luxury experts and consumers, totaling 11 informants. Our findings revealed new technology acceptance and value dimensions in addition to the existing dimensions from literature, within a luxury context, from which two models ensue, NFT value creation and NFT digital strategies. The research makes a valuable contribution to the paucity of existing scholarly studies on blockchain and NFTs and their value creation within a luxury context. It serves to provide preliminary insight into perceptions toward and potential value creation of NFTs for both luxury industry and consumers to inform future luxury digital strategies.
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