Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-2000

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Textiles, Retail, and Consumer Sciences

Major Professor

Ann Fairhurst

Committee Members

Lin-chun Lin, Allison Young

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether product characteristics can alleviate some of the perceived risks in consumers' minds when they are involved in online apparel shopping. And if it could, to what degree Extrinsic product characteristics will be mostly used in this study. This is because the lack of touching and inspection of the product directly for online shopping makes the extrinsic characteristics dominate over the intrinsic characteristics, and consumers usually rely on the intrinsic factors when they shop in a traditional mode (Levy, 1999). The two most important extrinsic factors' once and brand name, which were indicated in the study of the criteria that consumers use in deciding to buy apparel were chosen to be tested (Eckman, Damhorst, & Kadolph, 1990). Also, the most important intrinsic factor (styling) will be tested because the styling factor is still noticeable, even though consumers do not touch or try on the products. In this study the "fashion" will be referred to as styling. Money-back guarantees also will be tested according to the suggestion of previous research (Van den Poel & Leunis, 1999) that they help reduce perceived risk. This study will also examine the online-apparel shoppers' profile to get to know who they are and what they like. Moreover, this study will measure the perceived risk of consumers when they shop for apparel online.

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