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2013
“A research study on young consumers’ acceptance of online customized apparel shopping in India”
Mahesh Jethwa (12), Firoz Khan (15), Sneha Rathi (25) and Agnes Thomas (30)
Institute for Future Education, Entrepreneurship and leadership (iFEEL), Lonavala
29-Apr-13
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Introduction:
Internet and IT industry has had a tremendous impact on the modern-day business and has played a crucial role in its transformation to what it is today. The rise in use of internet and online commerce has become a major business opportunity. Finding the way on to the loyalty card of an Indian customer is not an easy task. It has taken quite a long time for the people to understand and accept the advantages that e-commerce has to offer. Today every business sees being present online as a business necessity. In the quest to gain “e-market share,” various brands now offer customized products and services to their customers. This is more so in apparel industry. Popular apparel brands are making maximum use of their online presence to increase touch points with their customers. Involvement of the customers is not just limited to filling up feedback forms or placing an online order. These brands offer products codesigned by the customers. Though there is extensive research conducted to understand the acceptance level and the influencing factors on an online purchase behavior, it is very limited when it comes to purchase behavior of customized products. Thus, our research project focuses on analyzing the attitude of Indian youth towards purchasing customized online apparels and what are the influencers which can possibly affect their purchase behavior.
Scope: Though e-commerce is booming in India, it still has a long way to go. According to the survey conducted by The Indian Council for Market Research (ICMR), 98% of 500 respondents across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai indulge in online shopping activities but only 38% do it very often. Even during our data collection, one of the major challenges faced was that only 33% of the respondent youth had made an online purchase earlier. Amongst them, only 25% went for apparels. Thus, understanding the attitude towards customized online apparel purchasing of the other 67% of the total respondents were based on what they assume can affect their attitude rather than on any kind of past experience online. Review of Literature: Reviews of the existing literature on online shopping indicate that after the social media revolution, e-commerce is the next “big thing” to be followed. Increasing internet penetration, rising middle class with high disposable income, availability of safer payment gateways and
A research study on young consumers’ acceptance of online customized apparel shopping in India 2013
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logistics, and the user experience that online shopping provides to a customer are the reasons for this boom. Online consumers of the modern day generation have a sense of individualism, which makes them strive for customization and personalized products (Russell, 1993). Keeping this need in mind, customization is quickly becoming a crucial business principle of the 21st century’s competitive market (Apeagyei & Otieno, 2007), and clothing products have been indicated as the most appropriate product category for mass customization (Goldsmith & Freiden, 2004). Businesses are using flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output which not only enable producing at low unit cost but also the flexibility of individual customization. Including consumers in the design and product development process is an efficient strategy for companies to implement in order to react to the increased individualization of demand (Franke & Piller, 2003). Research Gaps: There has been extensive research conducted to understand the acceptance of e-commerce in general but very few on the acceptance of e-commerce of online customized apparels. This can be as it has still long way to become popular and not much of buyers are available for a research. Even most of the apparel brands which offer customized products online have not based their offerings on customer online requirements and the problems they may face while co-designing the products. One such example is the unavailability of sizes in odd numbers which leads to purchase of an even numbered size that might prove a size larger or smaller to the actual requirement. Thus, the customer would avoid purchasing customized apparels online under the pretext of improper fit or try another brand that caters to this need. In both the cases the band would lose a loyal customer. Our research is a small effort to contribute to the better understanding of the online customized purchase of apparels and what are the possible influencers which may facilitate a purchase or hinder a purchase behavior.
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Proposed research methodology: To begin with, we defined our objective as “a research study on young consumers’ acceptance of online customized apparel shopping.” The hypotheses identified are as mentioned below: H0a – Youngsters have a positive attitude towards co-designed garments H1a – Youngsters have a negative attitude towards co-designed garments H0b – Influencers (fun, brands, time saving etc.) motivates online purchase of customized apparels H1b - Influencers (fun, brands, time saving etc.) does not affect online purchase of customized apparels H0c – Perceived risks (Online payment, quality ordered v/s delivered) hinders online purchase of customized apparels H1c – Perceived risks (Online payment, quality ordered v/s delivered) does not hinder online purchase of customized apparels
We then proceeded to prepare a questionnaire that aimed to collect the required data to analysis each of the above hypotheses. The online survey form which was created is available on http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K2XH28Q. The questionnaire was circulated online to around 315 email IDs of youth who were in the age group of 20 to 28 years. Out of the total people approached only 36 responded. The challenge involved while collecting the data online was the low response we received. Also, out of the total 36 responses only 33% of the youth had made an online payment earlier. The responses of the other 67% regarding the factors that would influence their purchasing behavior of online customized apparels were based on hear-say or what they assumed would affect them and not on any kind of past e-commerce experience.
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Proposed tools and techniques for analysis: To identify whether there exist a positive or a negative attitude of the youth towards buying codesigned online apparels, we used t-test on the variables “past experience of online purchase” and “the willingness to purchase co-designed online apparels.” ANOVA was used to understand which of the factors were most important for the purchasing behavior to occur and Correlation was used to understand the interdependence of each factor on the others to lead to a purchase. Analysis and Proposed outcomes: To understand whether to accept H0a or H1a, t-test (Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances) was used on the variables “past experience of online purchase” and “the willingness to purchase codesigned online apparels.” This helped us identify the attitude towards purchasing online customized apparels rather than asking a direct question of whether or not the respondents would be willing to purchase. Mentioned below is a graphical presentation of the respondents’ reply to the question on their past online purchase experience to be satisfying or dissatisfying and the factor which determined the kind of their experience.
A research study on young consumers’ acceptance of online customized apparel shopping in India 2013
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Past online purchase experience and their influencers
12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Dissatisfying Satisfying
Contribution of items in total sales
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Books Apparels Cosmetics Accessories Electronics & Gadgets Others % contribution
A research study on young consumers’ acceptance of online customized apparel shopping in India 2013
7 Descriptive Statistics: Past Shopping Experience Mean Standard Error Median Mode Standard Deviation Sample Variance Kurtosis Skewness Range Minimum Maximum Sum Count 0.115384615 0.063897107 0 0 0.325812594 0.106153846 4.914933837 2.557707559 1 0 1 3 26 Purchase customized apparels 0.333333333 0.079681907 0 0 0.478091444 0.228571429 -1.544117647 0.738229435 1 0 1 12 36
Mentioned below is the t-test done on the two variables. As observed, the t Critical two-tail value is greater than the t-stat value and thus, we would accept the H0a and reject the H1a.
We can conclude that there is positive attitude in the youth today towards co-designed products. t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances: Past Shopping Experience 0.115384615 0.106153846 26 0 60 -2.133877872 0.018474856 1.670648865 0.036949712 2.000297804 Purchase customized apparels 0.333333333 0.228571429 36
Mean Variance Observations Hypothesized Mean Difference Df t Stat P(T 