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Chong Hor Yee, Lim Hooi Huang, Muhammad Hafiz, Kho Hock Seng, Margaret Yong Shu Wen.

(DIM Friday 830-1130)


Task 1

Topic : To determine the influences of social media and its tools for online
shopping purchasing behaviour for fashion apparels.
Introduction
The ideology of fashion was imposed mainly as a luxury item or status before the birth of the
digital age and internet era. Before this, people had to wait on the day of launching to actually
witness the latest designs, but now, people could access the latest fashion from the palm of
their hands. With the birth of the internet coupled with the economy of scale and with ease of
access to the internet, fashion is no longer an elites game. Technology has helped the fashion
industry grow tremendously over the past years. This research essay is undertaken to analyse
the influences of social media and its tools towards online purchasing behaviour for fashion
apparels.
Research Rational
The main discussion of this research is to identify the effects of social media towards
consumer online purchase behaviour. In addition, this research explores how influential
social media can be towards customers fashion purchase decision. This research also
explores the psychological and behavioural drivers of online fashion purchasing. Moreover,
the research argues on how fashion brands use social media to promote online shopping
apparels. Last but not least, the research analyses the changes in trends of purchasing fashion
apparels before and after the birth of online shopping.

Task 2
Research Questions
1. To what extent does social media and its tools influences customer online fashion
purchase decision?
2. What are the psychological and behavioural drivers of online fashion purchase?
3. How do brands promote their online shopping of fashion apparels?

4. What are the changes in trends of purchasing fashion apparels before and after the
birth of online shopping?

Research Objectives
1. To explore the extent of the influences of social media towards online fashion
purchase decision.
2. To explore the psychological and behavioural drivers of online fashion purchase.
3. To identify marketing strategies used to promote online shopping of fashion apparels.
4. To identify the changes in trends of purchasing fashion apparels before and after the
birth of online shopping.
Task 3 : Literature search
Title: Information availability on US apparel merchant Web Sites
Journal :
http://elib.segi.edu.my:2057/journals.htm?issn=13612026&volume=6&issue=2&articleid=85
8521&show=html
The research problem of this journal is online merchant Web Sites provide only limited
product information to the customers, hence, increase the risk perceived to purchase clothing
on the Internet. The objective of this journal is to explore the availability of product and
customer service information of a Web Site affects the intention to purchase on the Internet.
According to Lin and Lu (2000), the main finding of this journal is the quality of a Web Site,
which described by information quality, response time and system accessibility. Therefore,
this journal is related based on to explore the extent of the influences of social media towards
online fashion purchase decision.
Title : Psychological and behavioural drivers of online clothing purchase.
Journal: http://elib.segi.edu.my:2057/journals.htm?issn=13612026&volume=8&issue=1&articleid=858569&show=html
The research objective of this journal is to examine psychological characteristics that lead
consumers to buy clothing online. The main findings of this journal imply that online apparel

buying is motivated more by Internet innovativeness than by clothing innovativeness. This


journal is related based on the objective of the research, which is to explore the psychological
and behavioural drivers of online fashion purchase.
Title : Social network online communities: information sources for apparel shopping
Journal : http://elib.segi.edu.my:2057/journals.htm?issn=07363761&volume=29&issue=6&articleid=17050939&show=html
The research objective of this journal is to understand the effects of social network online
communities towards information seeking behaviour and purchase decision for online apparel
shopping. The main findings of this journal confirms the positive effects of social network
online communities towards consumers purchase decision. This journal is related based on
the objective of the research, which is to explore the extent of the influences of social media
towards online fashion purchase decision.
Title : Online Branding Strategies of UK Fashion Retailers
http://elib.segi.edu.my:2057/journals.htm?issn=10662243&volume=19&issue=3&articleid=1795284&show=html
The research objective of this journal is to explore the strategies of online branding by UK
fashion retailers. This article analyses how online channels are used, including
communicating brand identity and presence, as well as building brand relationships. The
main findings of this article is, fashion retailers offer online transactions and able to achieve
consistency on visual identity for both online and other channels. However, these fashion
retailers have an underdeveloped online channel. This journal is related based on the
objective of the research, which is identifying marketing strategies used to promote online
shopping of fashion apparels.
Title: Understanding designer clothing purchases over the internet
Journal : http://elib.segi.edu.my:2057/journals.htm?issn=13612026&volume=14&issue=3&articleid=1875533&show=html
The research objective of this journal is to understand designer clothing purchases over the
internet. Based on (Lee and Littrell, 2005; Park and Kim, 2007) , the article discussed that by
having a competitive price and having product in stock, it influences the attitude and buying

perception of customers over the internet. Designs of clothing can contribute to purchase
through internet but there are only several studies that are researching on the similar topic.
The article states also states that individual are most likely to search for information if they
have the intention of buying. This proves that intention to purchase over the internet is mostly
based on the behavior of an individual and how they judge the product. This journal is related
to the objective of the research, which is to identify the changes in trends of purchasing
fashion apparels before and after the birth of online shopping.

Title : Internet retailing: the past, the present and the future
Journal :
http://elib.segi.edu.my:2057/journals.htm?issn=09590552&volume=38&issue=11/12&article
id=1895952&show=html

With the growing popularity of the Internet, online retailing has become a new electronic
market place to promote products and services. Online retailing is a part of marketing channel
which regularly used by most of the marketers to extend product lines, improve cost efficient
and customer relationships. Besides that, the research objective of this journal is to determine
how online retailing transforms the shopping habits of the society based on the traditional
promotional strategies. Meanwhile, online retailing has become a vehicle for promoting
products and services and capturing sales. The main finding of this journal is to identify the
advancing of social media nowadays is replacing the one-to-one marketing strategy. This
journal is related based on the changes in trends of purchasing fashion apparels before and
after the emergence of online retailing.

Task 4 : Literature Review


Online Fashion Purchasing
In this millennial era, the internet and technology has made it possible to purchase fashion
apparels from home. The total amount of spending on the Internet has increased
tremendously and is expected to reach $3 trillion by 2003 (IDC, 1999). The percentage of US
Internet users reporting they have purchased clothing online has grown rapidly, doubling
from 8 percent in September 1999 to 16 percent in May 2000 (Pastore, 2000). Despite the
rapid growth in online sales of apparel, some consumers are reluctant to shop for clothing on
the Internet (Park and Stoel, 2002).
A recent trade study showed that these non-purchasers perceive risk to exist due to their
inability to try on garments, feel the fabric, and read information on care and content labels
(Pastore, 2000). Research has shown that intention to search for information on the Internet
has a direct effect on intention to purchase on the Internet (Shim et al., 2000). If a customer is
satisfied with the information provided by the retailer, they are more likely to make a
purchase (Park and Stoel, 2002). The Internet can be used to provide consistent and
comprehensive product and customer service information (Park and Stoel, 2002). In addition,
customer service over the Web is likely to be more consistent than traditional retailing
because the online retailer can provide more detailed and extended information to any
shopper at any time (Silverman, 1998).
Perceived Risk for Online Fashion Purchase
Simpson and Lakner (1993) found that four dimensions of risks may exist when consumers
make decisions regarding apparel selection and purchase apparel using mail order:
social/psychological risk (e.g. concerns with fashion innovation, acceptance, planning
purchases, conforming to others), economic risk (e.g. concerning prices of apparel, possible
financial loss), performance risk (e.g. style, durability, or wear life of a garment), and
physical risk (e.g. bodily comfort, discomfort, appearance). ). For the most part, consumers
perceive more risk associated with in-home shopping than with in-store shopping (Donthu
and Garcia, 1999; Schoenbachler and Gordon, 2002; Vijayasarathy and Jones, 2000).
Psychological and Behavioural Drivers of Online Fashion Purchase

In 1999, clothing accounted for 13.3 percent of retail sales online (US Census Bureau, 1999).
In 2001, more than one third of online purchases were clothing (Goldsmith and Lynn, 2004).
Nowadays, retail merchants focuses more resources on the Internet in an effort to increase the
protability of their Web sites (Grimes, 2002). For the most part, consumers perceive more
risk associated with in-home shopping than with in-store shopping (Donthu and Garcia, 1999;
Schoenbachler and Gordon, 2002; Vijayasarathy and Jones, 2000). However, this risk lessens
with experience of shopping through direct channels (Hawes, 1986). This scenario seems to
be playing itself out with regards to online shopping as well (Miyazaki and Fernandez, 2001;
Vijayasarathy and Jones, 2000). A recently published study (Goldsmith and Goldsmith, 2002)
found that online apparel buyers could not be distinguished by their demographics or their
purchase of more apparel by other means. They shared similar attitudes toward online
shopping with non-buyers but were not more innovative toward clothing and fashions than
the non-buyers. Online apparel purchasers, however, did use the Internet more and were more
innovative toward using the Internet than non-buyers were. These ndings imply that online
apparel buying is motivated more by Internet innovativeness than by clothing innovativeness
(Goldsmith and Lynn, 2004). It appears that being an Internet innovator and an experienced
catalogue shopper are more predictive of online clothing shopping than an interest in fashion
(Goldsmith and Lynn, 2004).
Influence of Social Network on Online Fashion Purchase
Social network online communities, such as Facebook.com and Instagram.com, serve as
platforms where millions of consumers all over the world are connected with one another and
exchange opinions, ideas and information (Park and Cho, 2012).
In the case of Facebook.com, there were 55 million users as of December 2008 (Arrington,
2009) and the number increased to over 500 million in 2011(Facebook.com, 2011). Shared
information among community members forms strong e-word of mouth effects that
signicantly inuence retail sales and brand images (Brown et al., 2002; Flavian and
Guinaliu, 2005). Utilizing the social network online community, retailers keep track of
changes in consumers demands and shopping behaviors (Flavian and Guinaliu, 2005).
Particularly, fashion and apparel shopping is suggested as one of the most popular discussion
topics among social network online community members and apparel retailers could gain
direct feedback from consumers while monitoring the discussions in social network online

communities (Thomas et al., 2007). Many consumers visit a social network online
community to gain apparel shopping information (Thomas et al., 2007).
Social network online community as an information source
Online community was rst dened by Howard Rheingold (1993) as a social aggregation of
people carrying out public discussions long enough, with sufcient human feeling, to form
webs of personal relationships in cyberspace (p. 146).
Bagozzi and Dholakia (2002) explained that an online community is the computer-mediated
social space in which content is produced by members through continuous communication
processes. A brand community, often established in virtual spaces, is developed by admirers
of a specic brand, which can be either individuals or the company (e.g. Harley-Davidson,
Apple Computer, i-Village, Nike, etc.)(Park and Cho, 2012). Brand communities for apparel
products were often hosted by retailers who target for young generations (Kim and Jin, 2006).
The major interactive communications tools in the communities were bulletin and message
boards which induce the consumers participations (Park and Cho, 2012). Discussions about
brands, designers, and retailers make the online community as an information center by
creating strong word of mouth effect (Park and Cho, 2012).
The importance of a social network online community as an information source will be more
signicant because of the current size of the community users and the growth (Park and Cho,
2012). To current consumers especially those who are savvy to technology, a social network
online community may serve as a major place to share and garner shopping information. One
good example of this would be lowyat.forums.com.my where the users exchange information
within their community.
Marketing Strategies of Online Fashion Apparels
An online brand is defined as a brand that has an online presence (Rowley, 2009).
Chaffeys (2008) denition of online branding to propose that online branding is: How online
channels are used to support brands, which in essence are the sum of the characteristics of a
product, service or organization as perceived and experienced by a user, customer or other
stakeholder. The growing recognition of the value of brands, especially in the retail industry
(Ailawadi and Keller, 2004) and the status of brands as one of the four most popular
discussion topics within a fashion and style discussion forum (Thomas et al., 2007) suggests

that it may be timely to explore online branding in fashion retailing in more detail(Rowley,
2008).
There is evidence to suggest that brand knowledge has a direct and positive effect on
intention to adopt an online retailer (Chen and He, 2003) and that brand familiarity inuences
purchase intention (Park and Stoel, 2005). Online branding more generally (or e-branding,
digital branding, internet branding, or i-branding as it has variously been labelled) has also
received relatively limited attention (Rowley, 2008). Online branding requires a review of
established branding principles coupled with an understanding of the specic opportunities
offered by the online channel (Rowley, 2008).
The majority of research in the area of online fashion retailing has been concerned to better
understand consumer behaviour, including the identication of online shopper characteristics
and the examination of cross channel shopping behaviour (Rowley, 2008). Goldsmith and
Flynns (2004) research on the psychological and behavioural drivers of online clothing
purchase, showed that being an adventurous online buyer and a heavy catalogue shopper had
the most impact on online clothing buying. Kim and Kim (2004) found that their
transaction/cost factor and their incentive programs factor were important predictors of
purchase intention. Similarly, Kim and Stoel (2004) conrmed the importance of transaction
cost factors (e.g. credit card security, fast delivery time, privacy assurance, money back
guarantees) over web site design features in perceptions of online clothing shopping attributes
(Rowley, 2008).
Park and Stoel (2005) found that familiarity with brands offered online, together with
previous experience of shopping online, inuenced perceptions of the risk associated with
shopping online, as well as intentions to purchase online.
All of the UK non-value fashion retailers now have transactional web sites, and all top UK
value fashion retailers have a web site that they use for communication and to establish an
online brand presence (Rowley, 2008). Rowley (2008) also found that brand visual identity
online is consistent with visual identity through other channels, and is applied consistently
throughout web sites.
Trends of Purchasing fashion apparels before and after the birth of Online Shopping
It is now widely recognised that the internets power, scope and interactivity provide retailers
with the potential to transform their customers shopping experience (Evanschitzky et al.,

2004; Wolnbarger and Gilly, 2003), and in so doing, strengthen their own competitive
positions (Doherty and Ellis-Chadwick, 2009; Levenburg, 2005).
The internets capacity to provide information, facilitate two-way communication with
customers, collect market research data, promote goods and services and ultimately to
support the online ordering of merchandise, provides retailers with an extremely rich and
exible new channel (Basu and Muylle, 2003). In so doing, the internet gives retailers a
mechanism for: broadening target markets, improving customer communications, extending
product lines, improving cost efciency, enhancing customer relationships and delivering
customised offers (Srinivasan et al., 2002). By and large, consumers have responded
enthusiastically to these innovations (Eng and Kim, 2006; Soopramanien and Robertson,
2007), and online retail sales have grown signicantly over the past 15 years and are
predicted to continue rising into the future (Ellis-Chadwick et al., 2002; Ho et al., 2007).
From the very beginning, the potential of the internet as a radically different and a highly
effective communications channel appeared obvious: global reach, ease of access, enhanced
interactivity, exibility and speed, ability to communicate large amounts of information, cost
efciency and ease of maintenance (Pyle, 1996; Jones and Vijayasarathy, 1998). It was
quickly recognised that it was amongst retailers that the most signicant impact of the
internet was likely to be experienced (Doherty and Chadwick, 2010).
Retailers soon realised the internets potential to provide information, facilitate two-way
communication with customers, collect market research data, promote goods and services and
ultimately tos upport the online ordering of merchandise, provides an extremely rich and
exible new retail channel (Doherty et al., 1999).
The commercial liberation of the internet networks in 1989 started the goldrush era of the
internet (Brown, 1995). Auger and Gallaugher (1997) envisaged that the typical internet
consumer would be better educated and more afuent than the average shopper. Burke (1997)
suggested that internet shopping might be most appealing to those consumers who did not
have much time or desire to go shopping. Other authors predicted that in an internet world,
the balance of power may shift to the consumer (Bakos, 1991; Hagel and Armstrong, 1997),
and in so doing, this would make internet shopping appeal to those who wanted to get the
best value from their retail spend (McWilliam et al., 1997).

Effective one-to-one marketing requires the capture of signicant quantities of customeroriented information, so that their needs and preferences can be inferred, and then elements of
the marketing mix can be specically tailored to these requirements (Arora et al., 2008).
Online retailing is now providing retailers with the rich source of individualized customer
data, that allows them to undertake effective one-to-one marketing (Frow and Payne, 2009)
and in doing so make a very real contribution to improved organisational performance (Gurau
et al., 2003; Schoder and Madeja, 2004; Warrington et al., 2007). A successful internet
business must always be able to cover its xed costs and may often benet greatly from
having a rst mover advantage (Earl and Mandeville, 2009).
The Future of Internet Retailing
In the UK, it has been estimated that the number of customers being served by the UK online
and catalogue retail industry, which currently stands at 26.9 million active online consumers,
will rise to around 30 million by the year 2013, representing over half of the UK population
(IMRG, 2010). Although Weltevrenden (2007) was clear that, as yet, the internet has had a
limited impact on city centre stores, Doherty and Chadwick (2010) argued that it would seem
inevitable that, in the longer term, the size and composition of the high street will be
signicantly impacted, as online shopping becomes a far more mainstream activity.
Given the consumers desire to use the internet as a exible tool for researching products and
locating stores, as well as purchasing merchandise, it would also seem likely that the multichannel format will be the preferred design (Hahn and Kim, 2009). Established retailers will
inevitably continue to face stiff competition from the successful and high-prole virtual
merchants and disintermediators, such as Amazon.com, Apple.com and Dell.com
(Doherty and Chadwick, 2010). Kaufman-Scarborough et al. (2010) suggest that in future,
this wealth of consumer-oriented data, will also allow retailers to better predict their
customers requirements, and, in so doing, provide a better level of customer service.
Social Media Influences on Online Fashion Purchasing
According to Brown et al. (2007), word of mouth [WOM] has greater impact on product
judgements, attitude formation, and decision making than formal marketing
communications. This view is strongly supported by Trusov et al. (2009) who nd that word
of mouth referrals have a more signicant impact on new customer acquisition, than
traditional advertising mechanisms. An alternative, and perhaps more likely, scenario is that

in the Web 2.0 era (Wirtz et al., 2010), in which social networking plays an increasingly
powerful role, consumers will become less susceptible to the power of one-to-one marketing.
Doherty and Chadwick (2010) argues that it is very likely that the power of social networking
will continue to expand, and have a far greater effect on the modern consumers online
shopping behaviour. as social networking is but one element of the Web 2.0 environment,
retailers will also face increasingly intense pressure from consumers to: deliver a more
authentic dialogue; provide opportunities to customise the interface and allow consumers to
generate their own content (Wirtz et al., 2010). Doherty and Chadwick (2010) also stated that
retailers will also face growing pressure from consumers to allow their services to be
accessed exibly from a growing array of mobile devices, as they want to be able to shop on
the move.
It was prophesised that, at the very dawn of the online era, that the Internet would represent
the most important wave in the information revolution (Evans and Wurster, 1997, p. 70).
From the perspective of the here and now, and looking forward, there is plenty of evidence to
suggest that this internet-enabled revolution has got much more life in it yet (Doherty and
Chadwick, 2010).

Task 5
SECTION A:
Personal Details
Instruction: Please thick as appropriate that most closely match your personal
opinions.
1) Age:

17-21
22-26
26-30
30 ++

2) Gender:
Male
Female
3) Monthly Income Range:
Below RM 1000
RM 1001 RM 2000
Above RM 2000
4) Are you a frequent user of social media (Twitter,Instagram,Pinterest,Facebook)?
Yes
No
5) Do you have any experience through online shopping/ E-shopping for Fashion
apparel?
Yes
No
6) Do you have E-banking or cash deposit experience?
Yes
No

Section B:
Please tick on the box on each line to indicate how much you agree or disagree with each of
the following statement

No.

Strongly Disagree Neutral


Disagree

Do you consider yourself a constant user


to social media (such as Facebook,
Twitter, etc.)?

You are more likely to shop online than


going to an actual store.

You think that online store/ E-shopping


could provide information in more detail
regarding the products than an actual
store.

Products sold online are much cheaper

Online store/ E-shopping is a convenient


option for you to shop.

Any enquiries are easy to make via


online.

You can get immediate respond from the


customer service online.

Section C:
1. Do you think social media creates trustworthiness to the society?

Agree

Strongly
Agree

Yes
No

2. Has social media influenced your buying decision/ behavior toward a product?
Yes
No
Why? (Please defined in specific terms)

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

3. In your opinion, online shopping/ E-shopping has becomes the stronger competitor than a
store owned.
Yes
No

4. Do you think social media is replacing the traditional marketing methods (such as personal
selling, direct marketing, etc.)?
Yes
No

Why? (Please defined in specific terms)

_________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

Task 6

Limitations and Implications


There are several limitations and implications in this research. The first main limitation
would be the limitation of time. There is not enough time for the questionnaires to be given
out to the students in SEGi College Subang Jaya. The online questionnaires were shared on
social media such as facebook but the scopes of respondents were not wide enough. Only 60
respondents gave input towards the questionnaires thus this research needs more time to be
completely filled. Another limitation would be that this research has limited resources. The
exact social media that is being used to influence online fashion apparel purchasing cannot be
detected. The data is only collected by survey, there was no actual interview or observation
on respondents.

Conclusion
Park and Cho (2012) mentioned that social network online communities serves as a platform
for millions of consumers to connect with each other and exchange opinions, ideas and
information. Based on the research objectives and questions, the results of the survey has
shown that social media heavily influences the decision to purchase an online fashion
apparel. Entrepreneur.com (2014) stated almost every small business is on social media, and
94 percent of them use these social platforms for marketing purposes (attracting clients and
building a brand), As social media usage becomes ubiquitous, the rate will only continue to
grow, as more small businesses use Facebook pages and Twitter as their main platforms for
communication, even more so than their websites. Many if not millions have already
acknowledged the usages of social media towards not just online fashion items, but with
other items as well that are available in the internet. With social media sites such as
Instagram and Pinterest and many more to name, social media will be a big influence towards
the online fashion retail industry.

Task 7
REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Park, J. H., & Stoel, L. (2002). Apparel Shopping On The Internet: Information
Availability On US Apparel Merchant Web Sites. Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management, 6(2), 158-176. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from the Emerald Insight
database

Goldsmith, R. E., & Flynn, L. R. (2004). Psychological and behavioral drivers of


online clothing purchase. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 8(1), 84-95.
Retrieved March 24, 2014, from the Emerald Insight database.

Park, H., & Cho, H. (2012). Social network online communities: information sources
for apparel shopping. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(6), 400-411. Retrieved
March 25, 2014, from the Emerald Insight database.

Rowley, J. (2009). Online Branding Strategies Of UK Fashion Retailers. Internet


Research, 19(3), 348-369. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from the Emerald Insight
database.

Fogel, J., & Schneider, M. (2010). Understanding designer clothing purchases over
the internet. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 14(3), 367-396.
Retrieved March 24, 2014, from the Emerald Insight database.

Doherty, N. F., & Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2010). Internet Retailing: The Past, The Present
And The Future. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management,
38(11/12), 943-965. Retrieved March 24, 2014, from the Emerald Insight database.

Post Smarter: The Best Times to Use Social Platforms (Infographic). (n.d.).
Entrepreneur. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/2326

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