A Study On Purchase Intentions Of Consumer Towards Shopping Of Online Apparel

Deepali Manjrekar

Pacific Academy of Higher Education & Research University, Udaipur

deepali.mphil@gmail.com

Under the guidance of

Dr. Nitin Joshi

Director

Dr. V.N. Bedekar Institute of Management Studies

Abstract

Due to growth of internet E-commerce has becomes a new mean for business organizations to sell the products online. Many people like to purchase various products online because of the ease in shopping. The Indian Apparel industry is one of the largest in the world with a huge raw material and manufacturing base. The industry is a major contributor to the economy in terms of its domestic share and exports. Online shopping of apparel has been widely accepted as a way of purchasing products. It has become a more popular means in the Internet world. Fashion-loving consumers today spend their time in searching product online. The study emphasizes on consumer behavior and their impact on purchase intentions toward fashion apparel in reference to brand image and discounts. Sellers today have to face challenges to attract worldwide potential shoppers to Websites and increase their confidence towards online shopping. This study is relevant today as people are shifting from offline shopping to online shopping. This study will help to understand the criteria people use for shopping apparel online.

Keywords: Apparel Industry, online Shopping, Fashion products, Challenges.

Introduction

Online apparel is a form of electronic commerce. There is a noticeable growth in online shopping. Due to advancement in technology and changing lifestyle of urban population there is also a change in the buying pattern. People have started buying online rather than going to a physical store. This change is due to changes taking place in present generation. Today’s generation is well equipped with latest technology like laptops and smartphones .With the kind of lifestyle they have adopted today, they don’t find enough time for going to shopping in physical store so they find it convenient to buy online. As in online shopping by sitting at one place the customer can hunt for all the options available in the market and can also do a comparative study of different brands in terms of features, price and design options.

Fashion has reached every area of modern consumers all over the globe. Marketers are using recent trends in fashion to develop new sales strategies, consisting of the promotion, advertising, and retailing features of the fashion industry. Fashion marketers analyses recent trends in the fashion industry and study the reason behind the popularity of the trends. Fashion Marketing integrates designing, promotion as well as administration and vast knowledge of the fashion world. Successful marketers understand that identifying consumer wants, needs, preferences are all essentials for building a successful and momentous marketing campaign. Fashion retail industry has transformed rapidly due to growth in the organized retail sector, and increase in fashion awareness among consumers in India. Apparel sector in India has shifted from offline to online which was never thought before. Rising urbanization has given rise to fashionable consumers having attitude of spending huge amount of money to look stylish.

Trends in online fashion apparel

Personalization
The retailers are taking advantage of advancements in technology for a more targeted and personalized shopping experience. Customers now have longer digital footprints, including shopping histories, social media profiles and interests. Retailers are also offering monogrammed apparels to meet the consumer’s individual customer style preferences.

Athleisure
Another growing, changing trend is the overall casualization of fashion, which has most expressed itself as athleisure. It is a trend in fashion at workplace, schools and colleges. Many brands have launched active wear and athleisure lines. That updated idea of collaboration may also be a way to bring back some maturing customers who are aging out of the trend.

Subscription services
So many customers today are wearing relaxed clothing, so it is not surprising that more and more of them are choosing to shop at home. In addition to the desire for more personalized services and number of tailored subscription services has begun to rise.

The phone as store
People today are choosing their mobile devices over their desktops for all Internet-based activities, including shopping. As the smartphone becomes the dominant platform, retailers are relying on social media. Mobile is becoming a key to brands that want to enhance their user-generated content, especially through platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. Smartphones have become the bridge between physical and digital channels.

Objectives
To understand the emerging trends in fashion apparel
To study the motivations for consumers to purchase the products online.
To study the frequently of people surfing internet for online shopping

Hypothesis

H0 There is no positive motivation among the consumers to purchase apparel online
H1 There is positive motivation among the consumers to purchase apparel online

Research Methodology

Data is collected from:

Primary source: Sample size was of 100 people, and non-probability convenience sampling method of data collection was used with the help of open and close ended questionnaire.
Secondary Source: Books and websites

Analysis of Data:-

You prefer online shopping or offline shopping
Your experience about going online for shopping of apparel
Your frequency of going online for shopping of apparel
Do you feel motivated to buy online apparel?
Factors motivating you to purchase online apparel

Findings

The primary data have been collected from 100 respondents from the Mumbai suburban for which both open and closed ended questionnaire. The data has been collected from respondents between the age of 18 and 45 years with open and closed ended questionnaire. Analysis shows the following:-

Majority of respondents shopping apparel online were from the age group 20-30 years
Myntra.com is the most popular online shopping website followed by limeroad.com
Ethnic wear and western wear are 2 categories under which majority of the people shop online
57% of the respondents like online shopping and 43% of the respondents like offline shopping
With regards to experience about going online for shopping of apparel 54% people have good experience, 38% respondents have average experience and 8% people have bad experience about online for shopping of apparel.
With regards to frequency of going online for shopping of apparel, 28% of the respondent shop less than once in 3 months, 22% of the respondents shop once in 3 months, 32% of the respondents shop twice in 3months & 18% of the respondents shop more than twice in 3 months.
With regards to motivation to buy online apparel, 81% of the respondents feel motivated to buy online apparel & 19% of the respondents don’t feel motivated to buy online apparels.
With regards to the factors motivating to purchase online, 45% of the respondents are motivated due to convenience in shopping, 32% are motivated due to economical method of shopping and 23% are motivated due to availability of variety in online apparel.
H1 There is positive motivation among the consumers to purchase apparel online is proved as convenience; economical price and availability of variety are the motivating factors for the respondents shop online apparel.
Conclusion

Based on the finding it has been concluded that online shopping of the apparels is more popular among the younger generation. Sellers of online apparels need to design proper strategies to attract all the age groups as the sales at present are concentrated more towards a specific age group. In case of online apparel shopping problems are arising in case of quality of apparels not matching with the expectations of some people. So the marketers need to conduct proper research and to fill the gap between expectations of consumers and actual to match the quality of products with their expectation

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