The document discusses a study that examines factors that predict consumers' intentions to purchase items from private online sale sites, which offer limited-time sales of designer fashion goods at discounted prices. The study surveyed 164 female members of private sale sites. Through regression analysis, the study found that ease of use of the website and consumers' tendencies towards impulse buying and bargain hunting were significant predictors of purchase intention, while other factors like fashion opinion leadership were not significant predictors. The findings provide insight into the motivations of shoppers at private sale sites.
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Predicting purchase intention
for private sale sites
Briana Martinez and Soyoung Kim
Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors, University of Georgia,
Athens, Georgia, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impacts of several consumer characteristics
(fashion leadership, impulse buying, bargain shopping), web site attitude, and visit frequency on
intention to purchase from a private sale site.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 164 female respondents who were
members of at least one private sale site. The sample was selected mainly by using a snowball
sampling technique which relied on chain referrals to recruit eligible participants. Factor analysis
results suggested that fashion leadership consisted of two dimensions: fashion opinion leadership and
fashion innovativeness. Regression analysis was conducted to determine how strongly purchase
intention for private sale sites was predicted by fashion opinion leadership, fashion innovativeness,
impulse buying, bargain shopping, web site attitude, and visit frequency.
Findings – Regression results showed that ease of use was the only dimension of web site
attitude that significantly predicted purchase intention. Impulse buying and bargain shopping also
significantly influenced purchase intention. Implications for future research and limitations were
also discussed.
Originality/value – As private sale sites continue to grow in popularity, insight into the psychology
and behaviors of shoppers at these sites has become more important. There has been, however, no
published research that examines what motivates consumers to purchase from private sale sites.
Keywords Consumer behaviour, Women, Fashion, Web sites, Internet, Internet marketing,
Fashion retailing
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Bargain shopping is an old concept but its meaning has changed over time. There used
to be a stigma associated with bargain shopping as it referred to buying low-priced
items or below-average quality products; now, however, the term has evolved to mean
simply getting the best value for your money. Many consumers today, regardless of age
or class, engage in bargain shopping whether it be in discount stores, off-price retailers
or online. The growing popularity of bargain shopping has prompted the luxury
fashion market, once highly resistant to discounting, due to the potential for tarnishing
its brand reputation and losing exclusivity, to also join this trend (Atwal andWilliams,
2009; Danziger, 2005).
Luxury fashion, comprised of apparel, accessories, handbags, shoes, jewelries, and
perfume (Amatulli and Guido, 2011), not only assumes excellence in quality,
distinctiveness, exclusivity, and craftsmanship but may well also become a part of the
consumer’s identity (Fionda and Moore, 2009). These characteristics normally
associated with luxury brands make it a challenge for companies to market these
brands effectively on the internet. Showcasing the often-tactile sense of quality and
craftsmanship on a computer screen and maintaining a sense of exclusivity even
while making them available to everybody who has internet access requires a delicate
balance (Okonkwo, 2009). Recent trends in luxury consumption, however, have changed
this market and present new opportunities, particularly for fashion companies. As noted
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Received 6 May 2011
Revised 4 September 2011
8 January 2012
Accepted 18 January 2012
Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management
Vol. 16 No. 3, 2012
pp. 342-365
r Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1361-2026
DOI 10.1108/13612021211246080
2. by Yeoman (2011) in his recent article on luxury consumption, a significant number
of consumers across all ages and social grades have now grown less motivated by the
ordinary and would prefer to own a small number of luxury goods than many cheap
things. Additionally, more consumers are now willing to take time to search for
better prices on luxury products, an attitude encouraged by the recession. Observing the
emergence of this new breed of luxury consumer, and in particular the recent bargain-shopping
craze, Lim (2009) states that luxury can now be described as “massclusivity.”
Luxury fashion is now readily available and affordable to far more consumers than it
ever has been due to the ready accessibility of web sites such as bluefly.com and
efashionhouse.com. Even Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, has recently joined
this trend by launching a micro-site called myhabit.com (Miller, 2011).
The old way of finding luxuries for below market value no longer prevails, as
consumers no longer have to be in the major fashion cities to stake out sample sales.
Now consumers can find numerous online sample sale sites also known as private
sale sites. Private sale sites offer short-term sales of a small selection of designer
fashions. This type of web sites allows fashion brands and retailers to rid themselves
of excess merchandise without undermining their brand images (Sherman, 2008). Sites
such as Gilt Groupe, Rue La La, Ideeli, and HauteLook have embodied the experience of
traditional sample sales and have effectively moved the experience online. These sites
have found a way to provide high-end luxury goods at discounted prices while still
keeping the feeling of exclusivity and offering the rush and adrenaline of traditional
sample sales (Miller and Wortham, 2009).
Private sale sites are unique in nature as they have taken the traditional sample sale
format and have translated it to an online world, a task that has taken the luxury
industry years to accomplish and in addition have taken bargain shopping to an
exclusive level with their distinctive operations. Private sale sites are reported to have
generated $2 billion in sales in 2010 and the market is expected to grow to $8 billion by
2014 (Kothari, 2011). As private sale sites continue to grow in popularity, insight into
the psychology and behaviors of shoppers at these sites has become more important.
Although many recent studies have examined the various factors encouraging
consumers to shop online for apparel products, no published research has examined
what has motivated consumers to purchase specifically from private sale sites.
Previous studies in online apparel shopping have been conducted as follows: regarding
online apparel shopping in general but without specifying the type of retail web sites
(e.g. Cho and Workman, 2011; Kwon and Noh, 2010); for web sites the respondents
frequently used for apparel shopping (e.g. Hahn and Kim, 2009; Park et al., in press); for
multi-channel retailers’ web sites (e.g. Hahn and Kim, 2009; Jones and Kim, 2010); and
for mock retail web sites (e.g. Im, 2011; Kim and Damhorst, 2010; Lee et al., 2011). The
growing popularity of and increasing competition among private sale retailers (Miller,
2011) prompt research that could fill the void in the academic literature as well as that
could provide insight into our understanding of shoppers of private sale sites.
By understanding the motivations and behaviors of these shoppers, private sale sites
can better define their target consumers and more effectively tailor their offerings to
meet customer needs. The information may also help the luxury industry to develop
appropriate production and marketing strategies specifically targeted at this growing
market.
The purpose of this study was to determine consumer characteristics that might
predict the degree of intention to purchase from private sale sites. Many previous
studies on luxury consumption have focussed on either product characteristics that are
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3. important to consumers such as brand image, quality, and fashionability (e.g. Husic
and Cicic, 2009; Jung and Shen, 2011) or customer motives for the consumption of
luxury goods such as conspicuousness, snobbery, hedonic motives, materialism,
conformity, need for uniqueness, and social recognition (e.g. Hudders and Pandelaere,
2012; Park et al., 2008; Vigneron and Johnson, 1999;Wiedmann et al., 2007). Rather than
examining which of these motives are important for online shopping of luxury fashion
brands, this study focussed on uncovering consumer characteristics that might predict
intention to purchase luxury goods specifically from private sale web sites. The customer
characteristics identified through the literature review as potentially influencing
shoppers’ purchase intention toward private sale sites were fashion leadership, impulse
buying, and bargain shopping. These three variables are motivational and behavioral
characteristics that are known to explain various fashion and shopping behaviors.
Additionally, two web site-specific variables, attitude toward private sale sites, and
frequency of visiting private sale sites were selected based on the literature on online
shopping as potential predictors of purchase intention toward private sale sites.
To summarize, the specific objective of this study was to compare fashion leadership,
impulse buying, bargain shopping, web site attitude, and visit frequency for their
impacts on purchase intention toward private sale web sites.
Literature review
Private sale sites
Private sale sites originated in 2007 in the USA with the launching of Gilt Groupe.
Since then numerous private sale sites such as Rue La La, Ideeli, and HauteLook have
emerged. The sales of major private sale sites have quickly grown to over ten million
dollars. Private sale sites target aspirational buyers by enticing consumers with highly
discounted, alluring merchandise variety and an assortment of some of the most well-known
luxury brands such as Marc Jacobs and Fendi (Gilt Groupe, 2010; HauteLook,
2010; Ideeli, 2010; Rue La La, 2010).
Private sale sites are similar to the traditional sample sales in that sites are
organized utilizing a limited time format. Limited time formats give consumers a small
opening of time, typically between 24 and 48 hours, during which the merchandise
offered is up for sale. Consumers get a preview of what is going to be offered, but just
enough to build anticipation. Private sale sites provide a list of what designers, lines,
and collections are going to be on the sales floor, and the dates they are offered.
However that is all the information provided; the actual merchandise offering remains
a total secret until the designated start time. The products offered by private sale sites
vary but invariably include a collection of high-end luxury brands. Product offerings at
these companies are centered primarily in fashion and furnishings. Gilt Groupe, Ideeli,
and Rue La La, however, have expanded their offerings to include hotel rooms, vacation
home rentals, and trip packages.
These web sites offer limited, members-only access. This membership-only access
allows an air of exclusivity since other shopping sites and search engines cannot
access the information on these web sites. Some private sale sites such as Gilt Groupe and
Ideeli offer different levels of membership with premium membership being offered as a
way of retaining loyal customers and building loyalty with especially high volume or high-value
shoppers (Karimzadeh, 2010). Premium members receive additional perks such as
being able to access the sales an hour earlier than others (Gilt Groupe, 2010; Ideeli, 2010).
Private sale sites collect information about their members’ preferences and
shopping patterns in order to maintain sales data that allow them to extensively track
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4. valuable data, i.e. the number of consumers continuing to look at a specific product
even after it has sold out. The companies take all of this information into account and
factor it into buying decisions in order to provide more future value for the consumer.
These companies are on board with technology which is obvious through their web
sites alone; however, they have also established a presence in the arena of mobile
technology as many of them now feature their own iPhone or smartphone applications,
thereby ensuring that their members never need miss a sale (Gilt Groupe, 2010;
HauteLook, 2010; Ideeli, 2010; Rue La La, 2010).
While some industry skeptics may take private sale sites simply as a fad, many
other retailers are jumping on the luxury exclusive club discount bandwagon. Neiman
Marcus, for example, took the private sale approach and sent only a selected customer
base an e-mail informing them of limited-time sales on brands such as Gucci and Dolce
& Gabbana (Corcoran, 2009). Even eBay got in on the action by opening Fashion Vault,
their spin on the private sale business (D’Innocenzio, 2010). Naturally there is intense
rivalry between these companies. They are fighting for shares of the market in addition
to brand assortment and depth even while vying to keep their customers from
switching to their competitors (Corcoran, 2009).
The US’ recession has created downturns in many industries and the luxury
industry has been no exception. Deflated wealth brought on by the recession and
economic slowdown has resulted in declining demand for high-end products, and
consequently in a significant increase in inventory levels of unsold luxury goods (Barr,
2011; Fiegerman, 2011). In fact, luxury goods retailers performed much worse than
many other retailers during the recession, only recently bouncing back (Perocchi, 2011).
Somehow, in the midst of all of this, private sale retailers have found a unique niche,
resulting in impressive revenue growth (Khalid, 2011; Rao, 2011a). According to a
recent report published by Inc. Magazine, Ideeli earned the spot as the fastest-growing
private business in the USA with a three-year sales growth of 40.882 percent and
revenue of $77.7 million in 2010 (Mau, 2011). Gilt Groupe posted $423 million in
revenue in 2010, up from $170 million a year ago (Oran, 2011), and recently announced
a major international expansion with private sales now available to consumers in 90
countries (Rao, 2011b). While there are some critics who think the success of these
companies is due to the recession and that these sites will be a fading trend once the
economy bounces back, these companies are for now succeeding in a fast-paced online
market.
Theoretical framework
The purpose of this study is to determine the individual characteristics that influence
shoppers’ purchase intention toward private sale sites. The Engel, Kollat, and
Blackwell (EKB) model of consumer behavior (Engel and Blackwell, 1982) guided our
selection of variables and was used to develop the theoretical model proposed in this
study (see Figure 1). This model focusses on the individual aspect of consumer
decisions and views it as a process instead of a solitary act. As such, it places much
importance on how the consumer comes to make decisions and divides the process
into five stages: problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation,
purchase, and post-purchase evaluation. The EKB model also proposes that the
product evaluation stage that leads to purchase intention is composed of several vital
components such as beliefs and attitudinal and evaluative criteria. Furthermore, all
stages in the decision-making process are influenced by external (environmental)
factors as well as internal (individual) factors such as lifestyles, motives, norms,
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5. values, and reference groups. Although the EKB model has been widely applied in
consumer research, its usefulness in online shopping research has been mentioned in
only a few studies (e.g. Chen, 2009; Darley et al., 2010; Lin et al., 2010; Teo and Yeong,
2003). For example, Lin et al. (2010) used the EKB framework to propose a model that
explains a consumer’s intention to use online information systems for travel products.
In their model, consumers’ motives such as travel preferences and preferred online
features were proposed to influence their perceptions of online information systems,
which in turn affected their overall attitudes toward those systems as well as
ultimately, their purchase intention. Similarly, the current study proposes a model that
incorporates the influences of consumers’ individual characteristics on purchase
intention for private sale sites. The influence of individual characteristics on consumer
attitude and behavior is also highlighted in motivation theory. According to motivation
theory, human motives, whether cognitive or affective, guide individuals to engage in
certain behaviors that will help them achieve individual gratification and satisfaction
(Rohm, 2004). In support of this theory, numerous studies have found that consumers’
motivational characteristics, such as shopping motivations and preferences, are major
determinants of consumer value perception and further influence consumer attitudes
and behaviors. For example, Lee et al. (2009) found that consumer characteristics such
as price sensitivity and compulsive buying behavior significantly affected shopping
value in online auctions, which in turn, influenced preferences toward online auction
sites. Morschett et al. (2005) found that grocery shoppers with different shopping
values formed different attitudes toward retail stores. And again, in the context
of luxury consumption, previous studies have proven that consumers’ motivational
characteristics such as materialism, vanity, need for social recognition, and need for
uniqueness influenced purchasing behavior of luxury fashion brands (Hudders and
Pandelaere, 2012; Park et al., 2008; Vigneron and Johnson, 1999;Wiedmann et al., 2007).
In the current study, fashion leadership, impulse buying, and bargain shopping were
chosen as individual characteristics that might explain why some consumers are more
likely to purchase luxury goods from private sale sites. Researchers have argued that,
in addition to individual consumer characteristics, online shopping research should
also consider store-specific characteristics as one of the key dimensions of purchase
decisions on the internet (Huang, 2003; Lowengart and Tractinsky, 2001; Seock, 2003).
Store-specific characteristics such as web site attributes influence consumer
perceptions of the store and are used, in turn, to evaluate the store from which
consumers want to make their purchase (Lowengart and Tractinsky, 2001). Voorveld
et al. (2009) conducted a meta-analysis of empirical studies to propose a theoretical
Consumer characteristics
Fashion leadership
Impulse buying
Bargain shopping
Site-specific characteristics
Website attitude
Visit frequency
Purchase intention
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Figure 1.
Proposed model
of predictors of
purchase intention for
private sale sites
6. framework for studying consumers’ responses to web sites and argued that web site
characteristics as well as user characteristics are predictors of both attitudinal and
behavioral responses to a web site. Voorveld et al. further suggested that the level
and nature of the users’ exposure to web sites also influence their responses to those
web sites. In the current study, two web site-specific consumer characteristics
were chosen as predictors of purchase intention for private sale sites based on the
relevant literature: web site attitude and visit frequency. Web site attitude represents
a consumer’s attitudes toward various characteristics of a site whereas frequency
of visits to a private sale site reflects a consumer’s degree of exposure to and familiarity
with that site.
Fashion leadership
Fashion leadership is one of the main avenues to the eventual acceptance of
new fashion trends by the masses. Fashion leadership can be broken down into
two categories: fashion innovativeness and fashion opinion leadership. Fashion
innovativeness has been defined as the likelihood to purchase a new fashion sooner
than other consumers (Sproles, 1979) whereas fashion opinion leadership is defined as
the “ability or tendency to convey information regarding a new fashion in a way that
influences successive purchasers to accept or reject it” (Workman and Johnson, 1993,
p. 64). Consumers with high levels of fashion innovativeness are among the first to
wear a new fashion (Goldsmith and Stith, 1993; Goldsmith et al., 1999; Sproles, 1979)
whereas consumers with high level of fashion opinion leadership are more apt to
persuade the masses through communication usually during social groups where they
can discuss why the fashion is acceptable (Gordon et al., 1985; Sproles, 1979).
Consumers with high levels of fashion leadership are more involved in fashion,
enjoy shopping often, are not price conscious, and are not likely to be practical about
their purchases (Goldsmith and Stith, 1993; Gutman and Mills, 1982). Fashion leaders,
particularly fashion innovators, are also more likely to shop at specialty stores and
department stores whereas non-fashion innovators are more price conscious and tend
to shop at discount stores (Lumpkin and McConkey, 1984). Private sale sites, by their
very nature, can be comparable to specialty stores as they specialize in designer-brand
fashions and furnishings; however private sale sites are also similar to off-price stores
in that the merchandise offered is discounted to a degree. Because of the unique nature
of these web sites, and also given that there is no empirical research studying fashion
leadership and shopping at private sale sites, it is of interest to investigate how these
two dimensions of fashion leadership might be related to intention to purchase from
private sale sites. Given that fashionability, innovativeness, and uniqueness are some
of the key product attributes that characterize luxury fashion brands (Amatulli and
Guido, 2011; Fionda and Moore, 2009; Husic and Cicic, 2009; Tynan et al., 2010) fashion
leadership, reflecting increased interest in new and trendy fashions, seems likely to
lead to a stronger intention to buy luxury goods from private sale sites. The positive
relationship between fashion leadership and purchasing behavior of luxury brands is
also supported by a study by Lim (2009) who found that fashion leaders with higher
fashion interest had a higher level of emotional attachment to luxury fashion brands.
Additionally, Shang et al. (2005) suggested that fashion involvement might influence
consumers’ intention to shop online. Accordingly, the following hypothesis was proposed:
H1. Fashion leadership will positively influence purchase intention for private
sale sites.
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7. Impulse buying
Impulse buying has been defined as an instant, compelling, emotion-driven behavior in
which the impulse decision precludes consideration of choices or alternative (Bayley
and Nancarrow, 1998). Similarly, Rook (1987) defined it as the relentless urge to buy an
item instantly. Park et al. (2006) found that apparel shoppers are more likely to be
motivated to impulse purchase by their fashion involvement and positive emotion,
suggesting that impulse buying is strongly related to a shopper’s involvement with the
product and that it also helps the shopper to achieve emotional gratification. The
association between impulse buying and emotional factors is widely accepted and
many researchers agree that impulse buying is motivated by hedonic motivations such
as feelings of excitement and pleasure (Baumgartner, 2002; Sharma et al., 2010). It is
also recognized that impulse buying is triggered not only by internal stimuli such
as hedonic motivations and product involvement but also by external stimuli such
as shopping environment and marketing communications (e.g. coupons, lottery)
(Virvilaite et al., 2011). Dawson and Kim (2010) investigated external cues on apparel
web sites that encouraged impulse buying and found that sales promotions and notice
of new styles are among the various features of apparel web sites that triggered
impulse buying. Because private sale sites offer deals and merchandise that change on
a daily basis, impulse buying may play a significant role in increasing the shopper’s
intention to purchase from private sale sites:
H2. Impulse buying will positively influence purchase intention for private
sale sites.
Bargain shopping
Bargain shopping is motivated by the shopper’s belief in the importance of obtaining
price-related bargains, whether through shopping efforts, bargain vigilance, or using
coupons (Hill and Harmon, 2009). Moye and Kincade (2003) sought to segment US
female apparel shoppers based on their shopping orientations and found bargain
shoppers to be one of four distinct market segments. In their study, bargain shoppers
liked to shop around for bargains, tended to shop on sale days, and tended to look for
advertisements that focussed on low pricing, coupon sales, and clearance merchandise.
This segment significantly differed from other segments in their store patronage
preferences and attitudes toward their preferred store. Although a majority of bargain
shoppers chose department stores as their preferred store the researchers argued that
this shopping segment would not be a viable market for department stores because of
shoppers’ reluctance to pay full price. Hill and Harmon (2009) found that bargain-hunting
activities are more common among females than males and that males were
more concerned about the time and image implications of bargain-related behaviors.
Previously, bargain shopping was viewed mostly from an economic perspective as
a way for lower-income consumers to achieve economic benefits (Bardhi and Arnould,
2005). However, it is now widely acknowledged that bargain shopping occurs across all
income levels (Kwon et al., 2009) and for reasons beyond economic value (Cox et al.,
2005; Schindler, 1998). In an experiment conducted by Darke and Dahl (2003), the act
of returning the money that participants saved through bargaining did not reduce
their satisfaction, proving that values beyond the financial had been achieved through
the experience. Schindler (1998) noted feelings of pride and satisfaction among
those consumers who engaged in bargain shopping, and found that consumers
expressed more positive feelings when they felt responsible for the bargain. For luxury
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8. consumers particularly, bargain shopping can be a way to measure how much they
have won in the game of bargain shopping; for luxury consumers it is not about the
financial savings but the thrill of the hunt (Danziger, 2005). Lim (2009) coined the term
luxe-bargain shopping and defined it as “purchasing a luxury brand at a bargain,
which generates values in association with both the product (luxury brand) and
process (bargain shopping)” (p. 4). Given that one of the major attractions of private
sale sites is bargain shopping, it was proposed:
H3. Bargain shopping will positively influence purchase intention for private
sale sites.
Web site attitude
Because web sites provide the only means for many pure online retailers such as
private sale sites to communicate with their customers, the quality of their web sites
serves as a significant environmental cue affecting consumer behaviors (Chang and
Chen, 2008). Researchers have argued that web site characteristics influence users’
online experiences and their evaluations of site performance, ultimately affecting their
decision making at any given site (Huang, 2003). Consumer evaluations of a site
performance or attitudes toward a site reflect their reactions toward many different
site characteristics such as product information, enjoyment level, and ease of use,
handling of transactions, and design. Accordingly, web site attitude is a multi-dimensional
concept with the number of dimensions ranging anywhere between five
and 12 for transaction sites (Loiacono, 2000). The characteristics that are deemed
important for web site attitude will vary since the information and relationship
preferred by a consumer can differ by product or service (Burke, 2002; Elliot and
Fowell, 2000; Lynch et al., 2001). Lynch et al. argue that web site attitude is more
important for retailers with high-touch goods such as apparel.
In Chang and Chen’s (2008) study, web site attitude was proposed to influence
purchase intention through trust as a mediating variable. The researchers found that
customers’ perceptions of the web site quality for the online retailers they frequently
browsed positively affected their trust toward those retailers which, in turn,
significantly increased their purchase intentions. Jones and Kim (2010) examined the
influence of brand trust, offline patronage, clothing involvement, and perceived web
site quality on online apparel shopping intention. The researchers focussed on apparel
multi-channel retailers such as Banana Republic and Urban Outfitters. In their
study, perceived web site quality was divided into three dimensions, of which two
factors, usability and information quality and visual appeal and image, were found to
be significant predictors of online apparel shopping intention. Interactivity and
innovativeness did not significantly influence online apparel intention. The influence
of perceived web site quality or web site attitude on purchase intention or satisfaction
is well supported in other previous studies on online apparel shopping (Alhasoun,
2010; Kim and Jones, 2009; Kim and Lee, 2006; Kim et al., 2003; Kim and Stoel, 2004;
Seock, 2003). Seock (2003) examined the impacts of attitude toward a favorite apparel
web site on purchase intention. In her study web site attitude was measured using
Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1980) expectancy-value model of attitudes and consisted of five
dimensions: product information, customer service, privacy and security, navigation,
and auditory experience/comparison shopping. The results of her study revealed that
attitude toward a favorite apparel web site was positively related to intention to search
for information at that site as well as to intention to purchase from the site. Recently,
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9. Alhasoun (2010) investigated the relationship between web site attitude and purchase
intention for three different retail web sites, including one apparel web site, and
observed that overall web site attitude was a significant predictor of purchase intention
for all three web sites. In her study, overall web site attitude was determined by
the shopper’s perceptions of web site attributes such as ease of use, usefulness,
informativeness, and entertainment. Even though private sale sites have a web site
layout that differs from typical online apparel sites, previous work on retail web
sites provides enough evidence to support the relationship between customers’
web site attitude and purchase intention. Therefore it was proposed:
H4. Consumers’ positive attitudes toward private sale sites will significantly
increase purchase intention for these sites.
Visit frequency
The frequency with which shoppers visit stores or shopping centers is an important
behavioral characteristic of shoppers and has been a key topic in retailing research
(Roy, 1994). Most of the research, however, has focussed on exploring motivational
and demographic characteristics of shoppers who frequently visit certain stores and
shopping centers. For example, Roy examined the characteristics of shoppers who
made frequent trips to shopping malls and identified the frequent mall shopper as an
individual in the age group of 40-60 years who had relatively high income, was not
particularly sensitive to deals, and considered shopping an enjoyable recreational
experience. Visit frequency has also been treated as one of the indicators of store
patronage and studied in conjunction with such variables as demographic
characteristics, store image, store attitude and satisfaction (Gustafsson et al., 2005;
Korgaonkar et al., 1985; Pan and Zinkhan, 2006). For example, Pan and Zinkhan
conducted a meta-analysis of empirical findings on the predictors of store patronage as
measured either by store choice or shopping frequency and observed that the two
dimensions of store patronage were explained by two different sets of predictors.
Personal factors such as demographics and store attitude seemed to be the dominant
predictors of frequency of visit whereas market and product relevant variables were
more likely to influence store choice. Web managers have argued that a person who
tends to visit a web site often can be considered to be loyal to the web site and that
repeat users tend to spend much more than non-repeat users (Bhatnagar and Ghose,
2004). For members of private sale sites, however, frequency of visiting the sites may
not be just a simple manifestation of their loyalty to the site but may represent
a behavioral characteristic more complex in nature. As private sale sites feature daily,
limited-time sales with short advance notice only on brands, but not on specific
merchandise to be on sale, this tends to encourage shoppers to visit these sites more
frequently than other retail sites. Some shoppers may visit private sale sites frequently
simply because they are checking to see if their favorite brands will be featured or
because they enjoy browsing constantly changing merchandise. Accordingly, frequent
visits to private sale sites may not necessarily indicate that a shopper neither holds
a strong loyalty to those sites nor makes frequent purchases from them. Even so, it is
expected that frequent visits to private sale sites might increase users’ willingness to
purchase from the sites due to change in their attitudinal and behavioral responses
resulting from increased exposure to the sites (Voorveld et al., 2009). Gefen et al. (2003)
found that familiarity with an online retailer and with its web site reduces uncertainty
while increasing the user’s purchase intention. Similarly, Flavia´n et al. (2006) observed
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10. that familiarity with a web site leads to a strong loyalty. Additionally, Pavlou and
Fygenson’s (2006) study found that getting product information from a retailer’s web
site positively influenced purchase intention for that retailer’s site. Accordingly, those
who visit a private sale site more frequently, even if those visits are motivated mainly
by information search or entertainment value, may reveal a stronger intention
to purchase from the site. Accordingly, it was hypothesized:
H5. Visit frequency will positively influence purchase intention for private
sale sites.
Methodology
Survey description
The scale for fashion leadership included 12 items measuring fashion opinion
leadership and fashion innovativeness on a seven-point Likert scale (1, strongly
disagree; 7, strongly agree). Fashion opinion leadership was measured with six items
developed by Flynn et al. (1996) (e.g. “I often influence people’s opinion about
fashionable clothing” and “I often persuade others to buy the fashions that I like”) and
fashion innovativeness was measured with six items developed by Goldsmith
and Hofacker (1991) (e.g. “I am the last in my circle of friends to purchase a new outfit
or fashion” and “I do little shopping for new fashions”). Impulse buying was measured
with seven items developed by Rook and Fisher (1995) (1, strongly disagree; 7, strongly
agree). Examples of the scale items included “I often buy things without thinking” and
“If I see something I want, I buy it.” The reliability coefficient was 0.92. Bargain
shopping was measured using three items adapted from Cox et al. (2005) and one item
developed by Lim (2009) (1, strongly disagree; 7, strongly agree). Example items
included “I enjoy hunting for a bargain” and “I get a thrill out of finding a real bargain.”
The reliability coefficient was 0.87. Purchase intention was measured using three items
adapted from Lim (2009) on a seven-point Likert scale (1, strongly disagree; 7, strongly
agree) (e.g. “I would purchase luxury merchandise at private sale sites in the future”
and “The probability that I would consider buying luxury merchandise from a private
sale site is high”). The reliability coefficient was 0.94.
In measuring web site attitude, Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1980) expectancy-value model
of attitudes was applied. The model explains that a person’s attitude toward an object
or an entity is based on the person’s belief about the object’s performance on various
attributes as well as the importance the person attaches to those attributes.
Accordingly, web site attitude in this study was measured as a shopper’s beliefs about
the performance of the web site on different attributes (belief) weighed by the extent to
which these attributes are important to the shopper (importance). A total of 16 items
adapted from a study by Kim and Stoel (2004) were used to assess various web site
attributes such as aesthetics, ease of use, and information quality. Example items
included “The website adequately meets my information needs,” “The website design
is innovative,” and “I find the website easy to use.” The belief component of the
web site attitude scale was measured with a seven-point Likert scale asking
the respondents to rate their perceptions of web site attributes (1, strongly disagree;
7, strongly agree). The importance score was measured by asking the respondents
to indicate the level of importance for each web site attribute (1, not important; 7, very
important).
The survey also covered demographic questions including age, income, and
ethnicity, frequency of visiting private sale sites, and the names of private sale sites
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11. that the respondents were familiar with. Survey participants were asked in the
beginning of the survey to identify all private sale sites of which they were members.
Then prior to the completion of the section for web site attitude, respondents were
asked to name the private sale site they were most familiar with and to keep this site in
mind when answering the questions followed.
Data collection
The sample for this research included females aged 18 and older who were members
of at least one private sale site. The sample was selected mainly by using
a snowball sampling technique which relied on chain referrals to recruit eligible
participants. The researchers also posted the survey link on their personal
facebook pages as well as the facebook pages for several private sale sites such
as Gilt Groupe, Rue La La, and HauteLook. Twitter was also utilized to aid in snowball
recruiting. The sample for this study targeted female private sale sites’ members;
having purchased an item from a private sale site however was not a requirement for
participation.
A total of 214 respondents who met the criteria for participation in the study agreed
to take part in the survey. Of these, however, 50 respondents failed to complete the
questionnaire, resulting in a total of 164 usable surveys for analysis. The demographic
characteristics of the sample were presented in Table I. Over half of the respondents
were in the age range of 18-24 (58.2 percent) while 27.4 percent were in the age group of
25-34. Almost three-quarters of the respondents (74.5 percent) classified themselves as
Caucasian and 7.6 percent as African American while approximately half (51.8 percent)
stated that their annual household incomes were less than $70,000. A total of 30
respondents (18.3 percent) reported an income of less than $10,000 indicating
a substantial proportion of students included in the sample.
Results
Factor analyses
A principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that the scale
of fashion leadership consisted of two factors with an eigenvalue of one or greater
(see Table II). The first factor, composed of five items reflecting fashion opinion
leadership, explained 44.87 percent of the variance with an eigenvalue of 5.38. The
second factor included three items representing fashion innovativeness and explained
13.16 percent of the variance with an eigenvalue of 1.58. The two factors together
accounted for 58.03 percent of the total variance. Both factors had a high internal
reliability with Cronbach’s a values of 0.89 and 0.81, respectively.
Factor analysis was also performed separately for the two components of web site
attitude: belief and importance statements. Three factors with an eigenvalue of one or
greater emerged for the belief component whereas a four-factor solution was obtained
for the importance component. The results were then reviewed to find common factors
between the two components. Three factors were identified, each containing two items
and they are: web site innovativeness, information quality, and ease of use. The
two belief and importance statements loaded on each factor were multiplied to
produce a web site attitude score. Accordingly, three web site attitude scores (web site
innovativeness, information quality, and ease of use) were calculated and used in all
subsequent analyses. Because these factors contained only two items each, correlation
coefficients were examined as a measure of reliability. The factor items and correlation
coefficients are presented in Table III.
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12. Frequency (%)
Age
18-24 85 58.2
25-34 40 27.4
35-44 10 6.8
45-54 7 4.8
55-64 2 1.4
65þ 2 1.4
Gender
Female 164 100
Race
White/Caucasian 108 74.5
African-American 11 7.6
Hispanic 9 6.2
Multi-racial 8 5.5
Asian/Pacific Islander 9 6.2
Native American Indian 0 0
Other 0 0
Income
o$10,000 30 20.7
$10,000-$29,999 21 14.5
$30,000-$49,999 24 16.6
$50,000-$69,999 10 609
$70,000-$89,999 12 8.3
$90,000-$109,999 9 6.2
$110,000-$129,999 9 6.2
$130,000 or more 30 20.7
Frequency of access to private sale sites
Daily 58 39.7
2-3 times a week 30 20.5
Weekly 25 17.1
2-3 times a month 8 12.3
Once a month 15 10.3
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Table I.
Demographic profile of
sample
Factors
Factor
loadings
Fashion opinion leadership
I often influence people’s opinion about fashionable clothing 0.89
People I know pick fashionable apparel based on what I have told them 0.82
I often persuade others to buy the fashions that I like 0.82
Other people come to me for advice about choosing fashionable apparel 0.75
I know more about new fashions before other people 0.65
Fashion innovativeness
I am the last in my circle of friends to purchase a new outfit or fashiona 0.87
I do little shopping for new fashionsa 0.87
I am the last in my circle of friends to know the names of the latest designers and fashion
trendsa 0.67
Note: aReverse-coded items
Table II.
Factor analysis results for
fashion leadership
13. Correlation coefficients
Factors Belief Importance
Website innovativeness 0.77 0.70
The web site is innovative
The website design is innovative
Information 0.68 0.68
The web site adequately meets my information needs
The information on the web site is effective
Ease of use 0.72 0.71
It would be easy for me to become skillful at using the website
I find the web site easy to use
Correlation analyses
Correlation analyses were conducted to examine bivariate relationships among the
variables (Table IV). Impulse buying was positively correlated with fashion opinion
leadership (r¼0.21, po0.01) and purchase intention (r¼0.32, po0.001) but was not
related with any of the three factors of web site attitude. Bargain shopping was
positively correlated with web site information (r¼0.21, po0.05) and purchase
intention (r¼0.32, po0.001). Fashion opinion leadership was strongly correlated
with fashion innovativeness (r¼0.44, po0.001) whereas the three factors of web
site attitude were positively correlated with each other (r¼0.44, po0.001 for web
site innovativeness and information; r¼0.38, po0.001 for web site innovativeness
and ease of use; r¼0.68, po0.001 for information and ease of use). Purchase intention
was positively correlated with all three factors of web site attitude (r¼0.27, po0.01 for
web site innovativeness; r¼0.43, po0.001 for information; r¼0.56, po0.001 for ease
of use). Frequency of visiting private sale sites was positively correlated with fashion
opinion leadership (r¼0.27, po0.01), fashion innovativeness (r¼0.26, po0.01),
bargain shopping (r¼0.19, po0.05), information (r¼0.37, po0.001), ease of use
(r¼0.25, po0.01), and purchase intention (r¼0.25, po0.01).
Regression analysis
Multiple regression analysis using the enter method was conducted to examine
how strongly purchase intention was predicted by individual characteristics (fashion
opinion leadership, fashion innovativeness, impulse buying, bargain shopping),
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Table III.
Factor analysis results for
web site attitude
V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8
V1: fashion opinion leadership 1.00
V2: fashion innovativeness 0.44*** 1.00
V3: impulse buying 0.21** 0.11 1.00
V4: bargain shopping 0.06 0.03 0.10 1.00
V5: web site innovativeness 0.02 0.08 0.09 0.07 1.00
V6: information 0.02 0.10 0.01 0.21* 0.44*** 1.00
V7: ease of use 0.08 0.13 0.15 0.14 0.38*** 0.68*** 1.00
V8: visit frequency 0.27** 0.26** 0.15 0.19* 0.14 0.25* 0.25* 1.00
V9: purchase intention 0.23** 0.13 0.32*** 0.32*** 0.27** 0.43*** 0.56*** 0.37***
Notes: *po0.05, **po0.01, ***po0.001
Table IV.
Correlation analyses
14. frequency of visiting private sale sites, and web site attitude (web site innovativeness,
information, ease of use). The four individual characteristics were entered into the
regression model as the first block (Model 1), followed by visit frequency as the second
block (Model 2) and the three factors of web site attitude as the third block (Model 3).
The regression model between four individual characteristics and purchase intention
was significant with F(4, 137)¼10.75, po0.001. As shown in Table IV, the variance
explained by the model increased from 24 percent to 29 percent with the addition of
visit frequency (Rdiff
2 ¼0.05, po0.01) (F(5, 136)¼11.06, po0.001). Further addition
2 ¼0.20,
of the three web site-attitude factors also significantly improved the model (Rdiff
po0.001) (F(8, 133)¼15.90, po0.001). Examination of the tolerance and variance
inflation factor (VIF) values indicated that tolerance values ranged from 0.86 to 0.98
and all VIF statistics were below 1.17 for Model 2. For Model 3, tolerance values ranged
from 0.90 to 0.95 and all VIF statistics were below 1.11. These two indices suggested
that multi-collinearity was not present in the models as multi-collinearity is generally
considered present if tolerance is less than 0.20 and if VIF is larger than four (Fox,
1991). The results showed that purchase intention was significantly predicted by
bargain shopping (b¼0.23, po0.01) and impulse buying (b¼0.27, po0.001), thereby
supporting H2 and H3, respectively. Of the three web site-attitude factors, ease of use
positively influenced purchase intention (b¼0.41, po0.001), lending partial support
for H4. Neither fashion opinion leadership nor fashion innovativeness was significant
in predicting purchase intention, therefore rejecting H1. Frequency of visiting private
sale site was significant at first, resulting in support for H5, but became insignificant
when the three factors of web site attitude were added to the model (Table V).
Discussion
Despite the rapid growth of online private sale businesses no published study has
examined shopping behaviors at private sale sites. The current study attempts to fill
the void in the literature on luxury consumption by investigating the extent to which
several consumer characteristics affected shoppers’ intention to purchase luxury goods
from private sale sites. The study framework is based on the EKB model and includes
three consumer characteristics (fashion leadership, impulse buying, bargain shopping)
and two site-specific variables (web site attitude, visit frequency). From the practical
Purchase intention
Model 1 Model 2 Model 3
Independent variables B b B b B b
Shopping characteristics
Fashion opinion leadership 0.09 0.11 0.06 0.08 0.08 0.11
Fashion innovativeness 0.06 0.05 0.00 0.00 0.05 0.04
Impulse buying 0.20 0.31*** 0.18 0.28*** 0.14 0.22**
Bargain shopping 0.26 0.34*** 0.22 0.29*** 0.19 0.25***
Visit frequency 0.16 0.24** 0.09 0.13
Website attitude
Web site innovativeness 0.01 0.08
Information 0.01 0.05
Ease of use 0.05 0.40***
R2 0.24 0.29 0.49
Notes: **po0.01, ***po0.001
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Table V.
Regression analysis
results
15. perspective, this study’s results provide suggestions for more focussed marketing
strategies in targeting private sale shoppers in the US market.
In this study the concept of fashion leadership was found to consist of two factors:
fashion opinion leadership and fashion innovativeness, consistent with findings of
Kang and Park-Poaps (2010) and Workman and Johnson (1993). As in these previous
studies, fashion opinion leadership and fashion innovativeness emerged as strongly
correlated yet distinguishable factors. The finding that purchase intention was
significantly correlated with fashion opinion leadership but not with fashion
innovativeness is particularly interesting. The level of intention to purchase from
private sale sites increased with the level of desire to express opinions about fashion
and to influence others, but not with the level of desire to seek new fashions and trends.
This finding may be reflective of the perceived trendiness of merchandise at private
sale sites. Although private sale sites set themselves from many other bargain fashion
sites by focussing on the latest fashion merchandise, thus attracting fashion
opinion leaders, their merchandise may still be not considered innovative enough for
fashion innovators. Another possible explanation deals with different primary
shopping motivations for fashion opinion leaders and fashion innovators. According to
Kang and Park-Poaps, fashion innovativeness is positively associated with hedonic
shopping motivations such as adventure and excitement and negatively with
value shopping motivations whereas fashion opinion leadership is positively related
to utilitarian shopping motivations. Considering this argument, one may conclude that
fashion opinion leaders are more drawn to private sale sites than fashion innovators
for practical reasons such as the source of fashion information and the convenient
place to purchase new fashions at a large discount. These findings imply to private
sale retailers that fashion leadership is an important element to consider for the
identification of their target consumer segments. Considering that these sites may
be considered a good source of fashion information for opinion leaders, private sale
companies may want to feature a weekly column on their sites describing current
fashion trends or any other information that could be viewed as extremely valuable by
these shoppers. On the other hand, if they wish to make their sites more attractive to
fashion innovators, they should perhaps make efforts to include a selection of highly
interesting and unusual merchandise and also incorporate some degree of adventure
and excitement into the shopping experience at their sites.
When considered along with other important independent variables, however, the
predictive power of fashion opinion leadership weakened to an insignificant level and
H1 was therefore rejected. Therefore, it can be concluded that if everything else were
equal an individual’s likelihood of purchasing from a private sale web site would have no
association with whether the shopper were a fashion leader or a fashion follower.
Although fashion leadership was not a significant predictor of purchase intention in the
current study, it could be interesting to examine how and if fashion leadership is related
to the use of private sale sites as a source of information. By separately offering different
brands each day private sale sites may provide a convenient and exciting venue for
window shopping and therefore some shoppers may frequently visit these sites just to
browse with little intention to buy. This possibility is supported by the strong correlation
between two dimensions of fashion leadership and visit frequency. The positive
correlations suggest that those with high levels of fashion opinion leadership and fashion
innovativeness visit private sale sites more frequently. Accordingly, a further exploration
of fashion leadership in association with motivations for visiting private sale sites may
provide an increased understanding of the shoppers of these web sites.
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16. In support of H2 and H3, both impulse buying and bargain shopping were found to
be significant predictors of purchase intention for private sale sites. Because private
sale sites operate under a limited time sales format, members who are prone to impulse
buying may be more stimulated than others to make a spontaneous purchase decision
in such a shopping environment. Additionally, private sale sites only have a limited
quantity of each product and, knowing this, impulse buyers may feel a stronger urge to
buy immediately in order not to lose the chance. On the other hand, individuals driven
by bargain shopping may find financial value and satisfaction in buying from private
sale sites due to the extreme discounts offered, thus resulting in a stronger intention to
purchase from these sites. The significant impact of bargain shopping on purchase
intention for luxury goods at private sale sites has interesting implications. Prestige or
premium pricing has traditionally been an important strategy for the marketing of
luxury fashion brands as consumers use a price cue as a surrogate indicator of prestige
with a high price indicating high levels of quality and status (Fionda and Moore, 2009;
Wiedmann et al., 2007). However, the results of this study suggest that private sale sites
may attract a different set of luxury consumers for whom bargains and deals do
not necessarily decrease the value of luxury goods but instead can make them more
attractive.
When the three factors of web site attitude were considered simultaneously, ease of
use was the only factor that significantly predicted purchase intention, thus partially
supporting H4. This finding suggests that individuals who held more favorable
attitudes toward the usability of the sites were more likely to purchase in the future.
Despite the significant correlations with purchase intention, web site innovativeness,
and information quality were not significant in predicting purchase intention when
considered along with other variables. These results contradict a recent study by Kim
and Jones (2009) on online apparel shopping which found appearance-related qualities
and usability to be almost equally important in predicting purchase intention. It should
be noted, however, that Kim and Jones investigated web sites of multi-channel apparel
retailers and the different results may be therefore due to the difference in category of
the targeted retail sites. It should also be pointed out that Kim and Jones studied the
influence of web site quality in terms of perceptions of web site attributes whereas
the current study examined the influence of web site attitude as measured by
perceptions multiplied by the importance given to web site attributes. The findings of
the current study suggest that when allocating their limited resources, private sale
sites should focus on improving usability before addressing other aspects of the
web sites. An interesting topic for future research regards the possible existence of
a hierarchy clarifying the importance of different aspects of web site quality. As with
Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs, it is possible that various aspects of web site
quality are rank-ordered; certain web site attributes (e.g. usability) may be
prerequisites which need to be satisfied before higher-order attributes (e.g. web site
innovativeness) can be fully appreciated and hold influence over the user’s ultimate
behavioral intention. The establishment of such a hierarchy of web site-quality
dimensions should help companies devise a specific strategy as to how to prioritize
their resources and efforts yielding web sites that deliver maximum benefit.
The hypothesis suggesting the relationship between visit frequency and purchase
intention (H5) was supported. When two dimensions of fashion leadership, impulse
buying, and bargain shopping were controlled, visit frequency positively predicted
purchase intention suggesting that those who visit private sale sites frequently showed
a stronger intention to purchase from the site. This finding demonstrates that the
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17. widely argued notion that repeat visitors of a web site are more likely to make
purchases from the site (Bhatnagar and Ghose, 2004) is also applied to private sale
sites. The correlations between visit frequency and other variables also provide
interesting insights into shoppers of private sale sites. The frequency of visiting
private sale site was positively correlated with bargain shopping but not with impulse
buying. Visit frequency was also positively correlated with information and ease of use
but not with web site innovativeness. The results suggest that those who frequently
visit private sale sites are also likely to be drawn by bargains and that they are also
likely to have more favorable attitudes toward information quality and usability of the
web sites. Favorable attitudes toward information quality and usability may reflect the
shoppers’ familiarity with the web sites based on their frequent visits to the sites. It is
noteworthy that bargain shoppers are more likely to visit, as well as to purchase from
private sale sites whereas impulse shoppers are likely to purchase from the sites but
not more likely to frequently visit the sites. Additionally, bargain shoppers are more
likely to hold favorable attitudes toward information quality and usability whereas
impulse shoppers showed no tendency toward favorable web site attitudes. The lack of
correlation between impulse buying and web site attitude is not surprising because in
that impulse shopping is an emotion-driven behavior, impulse shoppers may not base
their purchase decisions on rational evaluations of a web site. These results suggest
that bargain shoppers and impulse shoppers represent two valuable and distinct
market segments for private sale retailers to target. It may be easier to target bargain
shoppers as they are relatively easier to locate online. Companies might wish to place
advertisements on other bargain sites, both fashion or non-fashion related, targeting
bargain shoppers by encouraging repeat visits and emphasizing savings to be had.
In contrast to this, with respect to impulse shoppers companies should focus on how to
evoke an emotional response to their site offerings. Additionally, despite their
propensity to buy from private sale sites impulse shoppers do not often visit these
sites. Therefore, it will be important for retailers to find a way to encourage these
shoppers to visit their sites more often, possibly yielding further sales.
As this study was the first step toward better understanding shoppers of private
sale sites, some of the key issues in luxury research have been left out of the scope. One
such issue is how shoppers of private sale sites evaluate luxury goods offered at
discounts and how the format of private sale retailing affects their perceptions of
the value of the goods. Selling luxury brands on the internet presents a complex
challenge for retailers (Okonkwo, 2009). Luxury brands represent images in the
consumer’s mind that suggest a high level of price, quality, aesthetics, rarity, and
specialty and they are differentiated from each other not merely through the functional
benefits of the products, but more importantly through the symbolic benefits or
personalities they communicate (Heine, 2009). Luxury companies have found it difficult
to effectively translate over the internet the image, identity, and lifestyle associated
with a luxury brand (Okonkwo, 2009). The difficulty of communicating the symbolic
benefits of luxury brands is compounded by the inherent challenge of the internet in
effectively showcasing functional benefits of luxury goods such as high levels of
craftsmanship and quality of materials (Seringhaus, 2005). An additional challenge
of the online luxury retailer is that of maintaining perceived exclusivity and rarity
among consumers, two of the key attributes often defining the value of luxury (Tynan
et al., 2010) while simultaneously taking advantage of the accessibility offered by the
internet. Private sale retailers attempt to preserve the notion of exclusivity and rarity of
luxury brands by making access to their sites exclusive to their members and by
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18. making every product available in only limited quantity and for a limited period of
time. Nonetheless, their memberships are not difficult to obtain and their discount
pricing makes it difficult to evoke this feeling of exclusivity, as consumers have
historically used the high price of luxury goods as an indicator of their exclusivity
(Husic and Cicic, 2009). Authenticity, another key attribute of luxury brands (Yeoman,
2011), is another challenge faced by online luxury retailers, and in particular discount
retailers. Online auction sites such as eBay have found that buyers are hesitant to
purchase luxury goods from their sites because these buyers are unable to determine
the authenticity of the goods (Qin et al., 2009). Although many private sale sites have
attempted to address such concerns by offering a 100 percent authenticity guarantee,
some of them still suffer from the perception that damaged, secondhand, or even fake
luxury goods are sometimes sold at private sale sites (Sherman, 2010). As such, private
sale sites present a complex yet unique retail environment for researchers of luxury
retailing to study and should therefore warrant more extensive studies.
The current study was conducted with a US sample. As some US private sale sites
such as Gilt Groupe, Myhabit, and Modnique ship internationally, it would be of great
interest to see if the same findings would be observed in comparable samples from
other countries. A few recent studies have noted differences between mature markets
(e.g. USA, Canada, Italy, France) and emerging markets (e.g. Russia, India, China) for
luxury purchase intentions (Christodoullides et al., 2009; Jung and Shen, 2011; Shukla
and Purani, in press), suggesting the importance of the location factor in luxury
research. Several studies show that consumers in emerging markets are more likely to
purchase luxury goods to display their wealth whereas western consumers purchase
luxury goods to communicate their individual styles (Amatulli and Guido, 2011).
Accordingly, future studies are needed to compare shoppers of private sale sites in
mature markets with their counterparts in emerging markets. Additionally those
studies should examine other consumer characteristics such as conspicuous
consumption in order to better capture cultural or national variations.
There are several limitations to this study that should be considered in interpreting
the results. Foremost, the current study did not require respondents to have made a
purchase from a private sale site and instead only required that they be members of at
least one private sale site. Although visit frequency was investigated as a measure of
the amount of experience a respondent had with the web site, this variable does not
reflect the level of the respondent’s purchase experience from the site. Previous
purchase experiences measured either by frequency of purchases or by satisfaction
with previous purchases might have shed additional light upon this subject. Another
related variable that might play a role in predicting purchase intention for private sale
sites is frequency of general online shopping. It would be particularly interesting to see
if frequency of visiting private sale sites would still influence purchase intention when
online shopping frequency is considered as the controlling variable. Furthermore,
although in this study product characteristics were not considered as factors
influencing purchase intention, future studies may want to incorporate this component
into their theoretical framework to determine how product-related attributes (e.g. brand
and merchandise selection, uniqueness, fashionability) influence shoppers’ perceived
value of the web site and ultimately their purchase intention. In addition, there are
other methodological problems that limit the generalization of the findings, including
the small size and the unique composition of the sample. The sample for this study
included a substantial proportion of young female consumers with a low household
income. Although the respondents indicated that they were members of private sale
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19. sites, these sites tend to target shoppers with higher income levels despite the large
discounts offered and, therefore, it may be difficult to view the sample as representative
of the target population. Future research employing a different sampling strategy may
achieve a better sample representative of the target population. Previous research has
shown that shoppers’ demographic characteristics such as age, income, and family
composition affect their perceptions of the benefits of online shopping (Dholakia and
Uusitalo, 2002). Future studies with larger samples are needed not only to corroborate
significant findings of this study but also to investigate the impacts of demographic
variables on shopping behaviors at private sale sites. Finally, future research
employing qualitative methods such as interviews is also recommended to uncover
other variables that might have an impact on shopping on private sale sites.
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Further reading
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About the authors
Briana Martinez received a Master’s of Science in Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors from the
University of Georgia. Her research interests are in the luxury market and online apparel
shopping.
Soyoung Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and
Interiors at the University of Georgia and her research interests are in online apparel shopping.
Soyoung Kim is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: soyoung@uga.edu
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