Influence of Online Apparel Store and Walk-in Apparel Store to the Customers’

Preference in Shopping in Trece Martires City, General Trias

and Dasmarinas, Cavite
Introduction

As part of the essentials of living, clothing and apparels have become a good source of

business. By that, Filipino entrepreneurs took the chances and walk-in apparels store business

became one of the booming business in the country. Apparel stores with brand are quite popular

for Filipinos which are mostly imported like Bench, Penshoppe, Surplus, etc. however,

Philippine-made duty free apparels are also well favored by the public. As the time goes by,

emerge of internet into the world of garments commences swiftly. Generally speaking, the trend

of e-commerce in the garments industry has been increased rapidly in the recent years with the

development of internet and due to the easy accessibility of internet usage through the

advancement of the technology. It provides good opportunities to the apparel sellers to reach the

customer in a much convenient, faster, and easier way. Nowadays, online shopping holds the

attention of the retail market since millions of people prefer online purchasing due to its

convenience.

On the other hand, walk-in apparels still continue to run since there are still customers

who shop outside the internet and feel the need to examine the product while choosing and

possess it after the payment unlike on the online shopping where the buyers can only depend the

quality of the product on the visuals provided by the seller and requires a lot of time before

acquiring the product which has to be delivered by the store.

The online apparel purchasing is becoming a worldwide progression which leads to the

rapid growth of the clothing industry or also known as the garment industry, especially in the

Philippines. According to the Hoppler Editorial Board, in July 2015, former Philippine President
Benigno Aquino mentioned 20 industries that showed continuous growth in a long term and

garments industry under the retail sector placed second on the list as its increase is as continuous

as to the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry’s growth. The Encyclopedia Britannica

(2017) notes that the industry is known for many terms such as clothing industry, apparel and

allied industry, garments or soft-goods industries, factories and mills producing outerwear,

underwear, headwear, footwear, belts, purses, luggage, gloves, scarfs, ties, and household soft

goods such as drapes, linens, and slipcovers which has the main objective of fashion and

comfortability. It remains to be one of the Philippine’s top foreign exchange earners garnering a

total of US$848.744 Million in exports in the first half of 2009, or 4.93% of the total US$17.225

Billion Philippine exports (Trade Chakra, 2009).

This study focuses on the apparel shopper’s preferences and choices to shop in either

online apparel stores or walk-in apparel stores for clothes and garments. Customers should know

what channel to use either online or walk-in store shopping that best suit the needs and satisfy

one’s wants. Consumer’s preference is important according to Weedmark (2018), because

consumer preference determines what products people will buy within a budget, and

understanding consumer preference will give an indication of consumer demand. This

information will help to ensure that the store have enough product to meet demand and will help

the management determine the price for the product. Buyers definitely have key criteria for the

purchases of apparel in any environment given the factors in terms of the price, quality (color,

texture, and style) and comfortability of the product, and the service offered by the store. Some

go for the traditional shopping, some for online and many go for both kind of shopping.

However, in this modern world, the customer’s loyalty depends upon the ability of the

both online and walk-in stores to provide consistent quality, value and satisfaction to the patrons.
Customer loyalty is the measure of success of the supplier in retaining a long term relationship

with the customer. Thus, customer loyalty is when a supplier receives the ultimate reward of his

efforts in interacting with its customer (Juneja, 2008). With that being said, the distribution of the

customers will be certainly divided in a disproportion number dependent to the customer’s

preferences, demographic profile, technology use and availability as a buyer which will be one of

the targets of this study. Stores have attributes and factors for shopping apparel which the

customers take in for consideration.

In this study, the customer’s preference focuses as influenced by the attribute and

qualities both online and walk-in apparel stores can offer. The researcher will also analyze the

significant difference the consumers who are shopping online only and shopping walk-in only

considering the factors such as the demographic, technology use, and availability of the

consumer. The study is also designed to determine the implication of growing online apparel

stores to the performance of the walk-in apparel store outside the internet. In addition,

advantages and disadvantages of online store shopping and walk-in store shopping will be also

given an answer through the study that will help the beneficiary of this research paper like the

customers or consumers of both online and walk-in apparel store, entrepreneur and aspiring

owners of apparel business, current owners of walk-in apparel store and online sellers, and most

importantly, it will give benefit for the future researchers who will use this research paper as a

basis in the near future.

Objectives

Primarily, the study aims to determine the influence of online apparel store and walk-in

apparel store to the customers’ preference in shopping.

Particularly, the study will:

1. evaluate the consumer’s preference based on the online and walk-in apparel stores

characteristics in terms of the price, quality (color, texture, and style) and

comfortableness of the product, and the service offered by the store.

2. analyze the significant difference between the online and walk-in apparel shoppers in

terms of demographic, technology use, and availability of the consumer.

3. determine the impact of growing online shopping stores to the performance of walking in

stores outside; and

4. distinguish comparatively the pros and cons in both online and walk-in apparel stores

Significance of the study

The study will give emphasis on the preferences and shoppers distribution of the

customer between shopping apparels online or in walk- in stores. However, performance of the

walk-in stores as influenced by the growing industry of e-commerce specifically on online

apparel store will also be given a focus. This study will give benefit to the following through the

help of numerical data to be gathered from the respondents;

a) Customers

This study will make the consumers knowledgeable about which option should be

taken to get more benefit out of it while shopping for apparel. Given the factors that will
 be evaluated in the study, the consumers will know what are the differences from the

online apparel stores and the walk-in apparel stores, from the advantages, the quality,

services offered of each store and so with the disadvantages of shopping in either store. It

can also improve their ability to think critically by calculating the pros and cons of

buying from online and walk-in apparel store.

b) Entrepreneur

The entrepreneurs can be informed of the factors the costumers consider when

buying clothing products. In that way, ideas on how the products should be sold, new

techniques and strategies can emerge or be created by the entrepreneurs.

c) Walk-in apparel store owners

Store owners can improve the strategies on how to attract new customers and how

to maintain the loyalty of long-time customers.

d) Online apparel seller

Online apparel stores can improve the disadvantageous sides based from

comments and recommendations of the customers that may be seen from this study.

e) Future Researchers

Future researchers would acquire more knowledge about the influence of online

apparel store and walk-in apparel store. The researchers can also improve this research or

include some parts of this study in their review of related literature.

Scope and Limitation

The study will give emphasis on the influence of the online and walk-in apparel stores to

the customer's preference in terms of certain factors affecting the choices of the buyer. Relatively,
this will then determine the distribution of the consumers between the online purchase and

traditional purchase of garments and apparels among the said stores which will be helpful for the

owners of both online and walk-in apparel stores. The significant difference between the online

and walk-in apparel shoppers will be given focus in terms of demographic, technology use, and

availability of the consumer and the study was undertaken with the help of 60 respondents from

the area of Trece Martires City, General Trias, and Dasmarinas City. In this study, the behaviors

and attitude of the respondents while shopping online or walk-in are beyond the scope and will

not be given any focus. After the collection of data through survey questionnaires, numerical

data gathered will be treated by as a statistical instrument and will be discussed in the latter part

of the study.

Statement of the problem

General statement, this study will seek the following questions:

1. What is the distribution of apparel shoppers in online and walk-in stores considering the

differences in terms of demographic, technology use, and availability as a consumer?

2. What are the respondents’ preferences in either online or walk-in apparel stores

considering the following product attributes and factors?

o Price o Convenience

o Quality (color, texture, style, and o Variety of choices

comfortableness of the product) o Discreetness

o Tangibility o Gratification

o Trust and riskiness o Authenticity

3. What is the impact of growing online shopping stores to the performance of walk- in

stores outside the internet?

 4. What are the pros and cons of shopping online for apparels and clothes? How about in

walk-in stores.

Hypothesis

The following null hypotheses will be tested:

1. There is no significant relationship between the customer’s preference shopping in online

and walk-in apparel stores considering the products attributes and factors.

2. There is no significant difference between the distribution of apparel shoppers in online

and walk-in stores considering their differences in terms of demographic, technology use,

and availability as a consumer.

The following alternative hypothesis will be tested:

1. There is negative relationship between the growing online apparel businesses to the

decreasing performance of walk-in stores outside.

Conceptual framework

Customer’s preference on shopping apparel online or walk-in

Walk-in apparel store Online apparel store

Factors

Store’s attributes Product’s qualities Shopper’s profile Pros and cons of

store
 Methodology
This chapter explains the methodology employed in this study to answer the overarching

research question of what are the common most influential product and store attributes that

influences customer preference for shopping apparels in online store and walk-in stores,

considering the demographics, technology use and availability of consumers. This section

includes research design, sources of data, data gathering procedure, and research instrument and

data analysis as well as the statistical tool to be used for the next chapter.

Research Design

The research design is the framework which explains how the market research will be

conducted and contains the objectives, constrains of the research and ethical issues (Lewis et al,

2009). Since customers’ shopping preference have been described, the research design can focus

on establishing causal-comparative relationships regards the factors of online apparel and walk-

in apparel store. Also, the online apparel stores’ impact to the walk-in apparel store will be

discussed, thus an explanatory research design has been chosen (Lewis et al, 2009). Nevertheless,

since there are several gaps in the influence of between the online and walk-in apparel store to

the preference of the customers, a more descriptive approach is necessary. Hence, a descriptive-

explanatory research design is needed.

The need to determine the influence of online and walk-in apparel store to the customers,

the survey research strategy is most suitable. The survey strategy allows to gather quantitative

data, obtained by a questionnaire and to use a descriptive to suggest possible reasons for

relationships between variables, Lewis et al., (2009). Surveys are capable of obtaining

information from a large sample of population with the minimal amount of investment, gives
more control on the research process. Thus, the surveys can also obtain information about the

characteristics of the respondents as a buyer that are mostly difficult using observable techniques.

As for the concern reliability of the result of the survey and to prevent the respondents’

error or bias, the anonymity and privacy is well settled and taken into consideration. Furthermore,

the respondents will be given a clear explanation of the study topic and research goals. Also, the

answers of the respondents will not be used in any other way but just for the purposed of

completing this study.

Research Sampling Technique

The method of purposive sampling is used for selecting the participants in this study.

According to this method, sample is selected based on characteristics of population and the

objective of the study. Using this sampling strategy, the researchers will be able to select the

individuals needed to the study. Samples are limited to shoppers of walk-in apparel stores and

online stores in Trece Martires City and General Trias, Dasmarinas, Cavite. The researchers will

go to the apparel stores and will gather the data.

Respondents

In this study, the customers of both walk-in apparel stores and online shopping stores in

Trece Martires City, General Trias, Dasmarinas, Cavite will be given a questionnaire about the

store attributes of the said apparel stores that affects one’s preference in shopping. The goal of

the study was to select 60 respondents by purposive sampling where in sample are who have

experienced buying clothes online and walk-in respectively. These respondents will receive

consent letter form before distributing the research instrument. Questions from the survey

questionnaire will seek to extract primary data from the regarding the preference between the
two store, the distribution of consumers among the two considering demographic, income,

technology use, and availability of the consumers.

Data gathering procedure

In creating the questionnaires for the respondents, the researchers will allot rigorous time,

effort and cooperation. It will include suitable questions modified from other related researches

and individual questions formed by the researchers in line with the topic under consideration.

The questionnaires will be distributed to the selected respondents and will be collected

immediately upon the completion of their answers. An informed consent will be given

beforehand explaining the aim of the study to the respondents. The consent form which will be

presented to the respondents will serve as an agreement for the voluntary participation. One-

week collection period is allotted for the survey starting from ____ to ____. The data gathered

will be tallied and computed for interpretation according to the frequency of items checked by

the participants. Along with the primary resources of data, the researchers will also use

secondary resources (e.g. published articles or literatures) to support the survey results.

Research Instrument

The main instrument of the study will be a questionnaire which included some items

adapted and/or altered from the study entitled “Financial Management Practices and Profitability

of Drugstores in Selected Lowland Areas of Cavite” conducted by Aileen Imperial on

Novermber 2013.

The questionnaire was divided into five parts. The first part will indicate the research

problem of the study, instructions for answering the instrument and the target aim of the paper.
The second part is composed of statement about the customers’ preference in either online or

walk-in apparel stores considering the store and product attributes or factors for it to give

justifications for the first statement of the problem about the influence of store and product to

buyer’s preferences. The third part consist information about the characteristics such as

demographics such as the age, gender, civil status, and income, as well as the technology use and

availability of customers of both online and walk-in apparel stores. This section aims to answer

the second statement of the problem regarding the distribution of customers. Statement problem

#3 will be answered through the result of the second part also of the survey questionnaire. The

last part consisted information on the pros and cons of shopping online and walk-in for apparels

and clothes through a checklist for it to be convenient for the respondents to answer.

Data analysis

After gathering all of the data needed through survey questionnaires, it will be analyzed

through quantitative means to produce favorable results. An essential component of ensuring

data integrity is the accurate and appropriate analysis of research (Begum & Ahmed, 2015). All

of the answers will be consolidated through tallies to show the frequency of the answers. Several

statistical tools will be utilized to give appropriate analyzation of data for each statements of the

problem. These are the Analysis of Variance or ANOVA method, Frequency count, percentages,

correlation coefficient and the mean will also be used to serve as an introductory part of the

analysis. Statistical methods and analyses are often used to communicate research findings and to

support hypotheses and give credibility to research methodology and conclusions. It is important

for researchers and also consumers of research to understand statistics so that they can be

informed, evaluate the credibility and usefulness of information, and make appropriate decisions

(Harshana, 2014).
Statistical Treatment of Data

This study is a quantitative research in its nature thus numbers and significant figures will

be given focus and will represent data to be analyze in a quantitative way using statistical tools.

Frequency count and percentage will be used in determining the preferences of the customers

between the online apparel store and walk-in apparel store considering the factors such as the

product and store attributes. It will also be used in determining the distribution of customers

between online apparel and walk-in apparel stores considering the socio - demographic

characteristics, technology use and availability of the customers, and business characteristics of

the apparel stores in selected areas of Cavite.

Moreover, mean will be used to see the average count of customers buying on online for

clothes and those who buy in the walk-in stores. It will also be used in computations of the

variances needed for the ANOVA. Analysis of Variance is a statistical method used to test

differences between two or more means. Through this, it will give results regarding the

relationship of the factors to the preference of the customer with the use of SPSS for a quick and

accurate findings.

Ranking will be used to determine the order of the most influential factor and the least

influential factor to the preference of the customer. Correlation Coefficient will be used to test if

there is a relationship between the growing online apparel businesses to the decreasing

performance of walk-in stores outside that will be based on the answers that will come from the

second part of the questionnaire, this part will also be computed through the SPSS software for a

better result.
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

SOP1 and HO1 ANOVA Test

https://explorable.com/anova will give the guide for computing the analysis of variance for each.

Ranking will serve as an additional guide for the researchers and additional information for the

research paper beneficiaries

ATTRIBUTES ONLINE WALK-IN BOTH STORE ẋ RANK

APPAREL STORE APPAREL STORE

FREQUENCY P% FREQUENCY P% FREQUENCY P%

Price
Quality of product
Tangibility
Trust and
Riskiness
Convenience
Variety of choices
Discreetness
Gratification
Authenticity
Mean: Mean: Mean:
SD: SD: SD:
Variance: Variance: Variance:
SOP2 HO2 Frequency, mean and percentage

Socio-Demographic Profile of Frequency Percentage

Consumer
Age
20 – below
21 – 35 y/o
36 – 50 y/o
51 – 60 y/o
Range:
Mean:

Gender
Male
Female
Other

Civil Status
Single
Married
Separated
Widow/ widower

Educational Attainment
High School

High School Graduate

College Undergraduate

Bachelor’s Degree
Higher education

Technology Use
1 hr
2-3 hrs
4-6 hrs
 6 and above

Availability
Always available
Sometimes available
Rarely Available

Income
0 - 13 000 pesos
14 000 - 25 000 pesos
26 000 - 40 000 pesos
40 000 - higher

HO3 Correlation Coefficient, comparing the two significant figures from both online apparel

store and walk in apparel store to see if there will be a positive or negative relationship among

the two. This will reflect to the performance of the company as the customers are the provider of

the revenue of a company to continue its operation. Lost in customer means that something is

deficient in the performance of the company. Paul Williams (2011) mentioned in a dissertation

that there are significant, and moderate‐to‐strong associations between satisfaction levels and

a firm's financial and market performance. More specifically, there are strong links between

customer satisfaction, and retention, revenue, earnings per share, and stock price.

ATTRIBUTES ONLINE APPAREL STORE WALK-IN APPAREL STORE

FREQUENCY P% FREQUENCY P%

Price
Quality of product
Tangibility
Trust and Riskiness
Convenience
Variety of choices
Discreetness
Gratification
Authenticity
Mean: Mean:
SD: SD:
Variance: Variance: