An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article

Buying apparel over the Internet

Ronald E. Goldsmith
Professor of Marketing, Marketing Department, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

Elizabeth B. Goldsmith

Professor, Department of Textiles and Consumer Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA Keywords Internet, Online transaction processing, Consumer behaviour, Clothing industry, Marketing Abstract Tests ten hypotheses describing characteristics that distinguish consumers who have purchased apparel online from those who have not. A sample of 263 men and 303 women students completed a survey that measured their online and offline buying behavior, attitudes and predispositions. The results showed that the 99 online apparel buyers had more online buying experience in general. Online buyers did not differ from non-buyers in their belief in how cheap buying online is, in their overall enjoyment of shopping, or in how often they bought clothing by any means. The demographic variables of age, sex and race were unrelated to online apparel buying. A further analysis showed that the online buyers used the Internet more hours per week and were more likely to buy online in the future than non-buyers. The findings are consistent with previous studies of consumer Internet behavior and with consumer theory and provide guidance for ecommerce apparel strategies.

Electronic retailing

Introduction Electronic retailing continues to grow in size and importance as increasing numbers of consumers buy online, and apparel purchases represent a significant portion of online purchasing. Not only does buying apparel online represent a new form of consumer behavior in the ``computer-mediated shopping environment'' (Hoffman and Novak, 1996), apparel e-tailers face intense competition. Thus, consumer researchers wish to extend current theories of consumer behavior into this new consumption realm, and apparel marketers and managers seek to develop effective strategies based on knowledge of their consumers (Goldsmith and McGregor, 1999). Although some research on consumer Internet behavior has begun to appear (e.g. Citrin et al., 2000), little attention has been devoted specifically to buying apparel online. Our study fills this gap by focusing on this new clothing behavior. While the number of online buyers and value of their purchases change constantly, growth is the dominant theme (Goldsmith and McGregor, 2000). Americans spent $184B on total apparel in 1999 with $1.1B or 0.6 per cent attributed to online apparel purchases (Kuntz, 2000). For 2000 the proportion of total US apparel sales online is estimated at less than 3 per cent but still nearly $3.5B (Vickery and Agins, 2001). Apparel spending in the UK was 30B (Wilson, 1999). According to one estimate, approximately 67 per cent of Americans use the Internet and 52 per cent of them buy online (UCLA, 2000). Apparel is an important category of online purchases with new sites constantly appearing (Murphy, 1999). An Internet-based research company estimated online sales in 2000 to be $37B, up from $18.6B in 1999 (eMarketer, 2000, p. 9). One estimate of total weekly online purchases in 2000 puts the number at 3.582 million, with 300,800 or 8.4 per cent of these in the apparel category (Nelson, 2000). Two separate surveys showed
The research register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm

Growth the dominant theme

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clothing among the top six categories of holiday gifts in the USA for the 2000 Christmas season (eMarketer, 2000, p. 30). Thus, apparel is an important consumer purchase category with a significant online component. Unique challenges E-commerce is expensive, however, and many companies have found profits hard to come by (Harvard Management Update, 2000). Selling apparel online presents unique challenges to cybermarketers. Little is known of consumer buyer behavior online, and e-tailers need to attract those consumers most likely to buy in order to cover the costs of e-commerce and make a profit to justify this new form of distribution. The first buyers of a new product or service, however, are likely to be systematically different from later buyers (Eastlick and Lotz, 1999; Goldsmith, 2000; Limayem et al., 2000). Hence, the purpose of the present study was to compare consumers who had purchased apparel online with consumers who had not purchased apparel online with regard to demographics and attitudes toward online purchasing. Several hypotheses about buying apparel online were derived from consumer research and tested using data from a survey of student consumers. Testing the hypotheses not only enhances our knowledge of consumer behavior by extending the scope of theory into the new shopping environment, this information may help online apparel marketers improve their strategies designed to entice customers to buy online. Hypotheses Consumers differ in the extent of online buying in which they engage. According to the standard discussions of buying frequency, relatively few buyers in a product category account for the majority of purchases (Hallberg, 1995). Since online buying is a new consumer activity, we expect that consumers who have previous experience in online buying will be more likely to buy apparel online than those who lack such experience. This is because, as consumers gain experience with online buying, perhaps with small purchases at first, they will be likely to develop confidence and skills that facilitate more ambitious buying (Seckler, 2000). Thus, H1 is that consumers who have bought apparel online will have more experience buying online in general. Consumers who have bought apparel online may likely be those who buy more frequently than other consumers. In other words, consumers who buy apparel frequently are likely involved with clothing as a product category; they not only shop frequently, they probably spend more than less involved, less frequent shoppers. Thus, H2 is that consumers who purchase apparel online shop for apparel by any means more frequently than those who have not bought apparel online. Online buying behaviour Several studies of consumer online behavior have shown that attitudes toward the Internet and toward online buying are systematically related to online buying behavior (Eastlick and Lotz, 1999; Goldsmith and Bridges, 2000; Karson, 2000; Katz and Aspden, 1997). Goldsmith (2000) presents Likert scales to measure five specific attitudes toward e-commerce, describing individual perceptions of its enjoyment, safety, speed, how economical it is, and how much confidence consumers have in their ability to shop and buy online. These attitudes were all related to online buying. Thus, H3 through H7 are that, compared with consumers who have not bought apparel online, those who have bought online feel that the Internet is more fun, safer, quicker, cheaper, and they have more confidence in their ability to buy. Similarly, how consumers feel about shopping in general should influence whether they shop online and specifically purchase apparel online (see
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Previous experience

Solomon, 1999, pp. 311-13). Thus, H8 is that a positive disposition toward shopping should be associated with buying apparel online. Finally, consumers who are more innovative and knowledgeable with regard to the Internet and its uses are more likely to buy online than less innovative and knowledgeable consumers (Citrin et al., 2000; Limayem et al., 2000). H9 and H10 are that online apparel buyers will describe themselves as more innovative and knowledgeable regarding the Internet than non-buyers. Method Survey participants The data came from a survey of 566 students at a large southern university in the USA in the spring of 2000. The students were in either marketing or human sciences classes. Both undergraduates and MBAs participated. Although not representative of all consumers, these young buyers are important, because they are heavy buyers of clothing, influence the clothing spending of many other consumers, and represent the future of e-commerce (Hogg et al., 1998; Silverman, 2000). There were 263 (46.5 per cent) men and 303 (53.5 per cent) women in the sample. Their ages ranged from 18 to 50, with a mean of 22.6 years (SD = 4.9). The modal age was 20 years. Most of the participants were juniors (276, 48.8 per cent) and seniors (195, 34.5 per cent), with the rest being 17 (3 per cent) sophomores, 75 (13.3 per cent) graduate students, and 3 (0.5 per cent) other. There were 419 (74 per cent) whites, 65 (11.5 per cent) African-Americans, 42 (7.4 per cent) Hispanics, and 40 (7.1 per cent) others. This distribution is quite similar to the ethnic distribution on this campus. There was no statistically significant (p < 0.05) difference in mean age between the men and women, nor were the mean ages of the four ethnic groups significantly different. A cross-tabulation of sex by race showed that the proportions of men and women in each ethnic category were nearly identical, with the exception that the sample contained proportionally more African-American women and proportionally fewer white women. Questionnaire An initial version of the questionnaire was pilot-tested with 39 students in a marketing research class for readability, ease of use, and clarity. After correcting obvious errors and making their suggested changes in wording and organization, the revised questionnaire was fielded by requesting student volunteers to complete it. Questions and responses The questionnaire contained demographic questions asking for the participants' sex, age, race, and class standing. Other questions asked whether the respondents had access to the Internet, how many hours they used it per week, and whether they had ever purchased any apparel online. It also contained rating scales to measure their online purchasing behavior, likelihood of future online purchases, and apparel purchase. Table I shows these questions and the responses. For the chief variable of interest to this study, whether a respondent had ever purchased apparel online (termed EVER), 99 or 17.5 per cent of the respondents affirmed that they had so purchased, and 467 (82.5 per cent) said that they had not. This is similar to one report that 16 per cent of Internet users purchased apparel in cyberspace during the previous month (Seckler, 2000). The next section of the questionnaire contained 25 Likert-type statements reflecting attitudes toward shopping over the Internet and enjoyment of shopping in general. A portion of these items appears in Table II. These Internet shopping items were adapted from a set of online buying attitude
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Ethnic distribution

Variable

Questionnaire item

Response

N 562 4 99 467 4 18 119 201 224 3 6 12 30 283 232 83 179 226 55 21 2 5 68 244 164 63 21 1 82 107 208 141 23 5

% 99.3 0.7 17.5 82.5 0.7 3.2 21.0 35.5 39.6 0.5 1.1 2.1 5.3 50.0 41.0 times 14.7 31.6 39.9 9.7 3.7 0.4 0.9 12.0 43.1 29.0 11.1 3.7 0.2 14.5 18.9 36.7 24.9 4.1 0.9

Yes No Yes No Very often Often Sometimes Rarely Never BUY Asked another way, how often More than once a week do you purchase online? About once a week Only about once every two weeks Less than once every two weeks, but more than once a month Less than once a month I never do TIMES How many times have you bought something online since January 1, 2000? MEANS How often do you purchase Very often clothing by any means? Often Sometimes Rarely Never Missing HOURS On average, about how many None Less than one hours a week do you spend One to five using the Internet? Five to ten Ten to 20 More than 20 Missing Definitely will buy LIKELY Regardless of how much you buy online now, how likely are Probably will buy Might buy you to buy online in the Probably will not buy coming year? Definitely will not buy Missing SPEND How much do you spend on clothing purchases in an average month?

ACCESS Do you have access to the Internet? EVER Have you ever purchased any clothing online? OFTEN How often would you say that you purchase online?

Table I. Internet and buying questions

items developed by Goldsmith (2000). Three of the shopping enjoyment items were adapted from O'Guinn and Faber (1989), and one original shopping item was added for this study. Internet innovativeness Finally came a section containing the Domain-Specific Innovativeness Scale or DSI (Goldsmith and Hofacker, 1991). This scale was included to measure Internet innovativeness. A factor analysis of the six items revealed a twofactor solution, with the three positive items forming one factor and the three negative items a second factor. We decided to use only the three negative items as a summed scale, because this subscale (termed DSI) had the higher internal consistency (coefficient alpha = 0.79). The items appear in Table III along with a five-item subjective knowledge scale (Flynn et al., 2000) used to measure knowledge of the Internet. Factor analysis showed that these
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Attitude itema

Fun Shop Safe Conf. Cheap Quick

Buying over the Internet is more fun than buying in a store 0.79 I enjoy buying over the Internet 0.56 I find shopping on the Internet less pleasant than shopping in storesb 0.49 I sometimes shop for goods, but then buy them on the Internet 0.41 I get a real ``high'' from shopping 0.86 Shopping is fun 0.83 I shop because buying things makes me happy 0.80 I do not mind spending a lot of time shoppingb 0.69 Buying over the Internet is no riskier than buying in a store It is risky to buy over the Internetb Buying over the Internet is safer than buying in a store 0.33 I lack the confidence to buy correctly on the Internetb I am confident in my ability to buy successfully over the Internet There are so many dot.com companies out there it's confusingb I cannot get the buying information I want over the Internetb I cannot save much money buying over the Internetb Buying over the Internet is cheaper than buying in a store Buying over the Internet is quicker than buying in a store Buying over the Internet is more efficient than buying in a store It takes a lot of time and trouble to buy on the Internetb Eigenvalue 5.5 2.8 Percent of variance 27.4 13.9 Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy = 0.840 Notes: Only loadings > 0.30 are shown; format; b reverse-coded items
a

0.84 0.73 0.48 0.64 0.55 0.49 0.40 0.89 0.67 0.64 0.39 1.5 7.6 0.32 1.4 1.1 6.8 5.4 0.37 1.0 5.1

using a five-point agree-disagree response

Table II. Factor analysis of attitude items

items formed a unidimensional scale (termed KNOW) with acceptably high internal consistency (coefficient alpha = 0.90). Composite measure Results The first preliminary analysis reduced the three online purchasing questions (OFTEN, BUY, and TIMES from Table I) into a composite measure of the self-reported amount of online buying of each respondent. This was done using a principal components analysis of the three items (Hair et al., 1998, Ch. 3) and computing factor scores using the SPSS regression method. The analysis extracted a single component with an eigenvalue of 2.37 that explained 79 per cent of the variance in the correlation matrix of the three variables. The resulting variable was labeled PURCH. Summary descriptive statistics appear in Table IV.
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Scale itema Internet knowledge (KNOW) When it comes to the Internet, I really do not know a lotb I know pretty much about the Internet Compared with most other people, I know less about the Internetb I do not feel very knowledgeable about the Internetb Among my circle of friends, I am one of the ``experts'' on the Internet Internet innovativeness (DSI) In general, I am among the last in my circle of friends to purchase something over the Internetb Compared with my friends, I do little shopping over the Internetb In general, I am the last in my circle of friends to know the names of the latest places to shop on the Internetb Eigenvalue Percent of variance Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy = 0.865 Notes: Only loadings > 0.30 are shown; format; b reverse-coded items
a

Factor 1 Factor 2 0.88 0.83 0.82 0.81 0.65

0.81 0.79 4.15 51.8 0.62 1.55 19.4

using a five-point agree-disagree response

Table III. Factor analysis of Internet knowledge and innovativeness items

Common factor analysis

The second preliminary analysis examined the structure of the 25 attitude items by submitting them to a common factor analysis followed by an oblique rotation on the assumption that the attitude dimensions would be correlated with one another (Hair et al., 1998, Ch. 3). The analysis was conducted four times, each time identifying items that did not load on a factor with other items or which had small loadings (< 0.03) or sizeable (> 0.30) cross-loadings on more than one factor. Items were retained for factors if they had sizeable loadings (> 0.30) on factors made of items with similar content. These analyses reduced the initial pool of attitude items to 20 items that combined into six easily interpretable subscales that were similar to those reported by Goldsmith (2000). The final analysis results appear in Table II, where the six factors represent the attitudes that shopping on the Internet is fun, safe, cheap and quick, and that the respondent had confidence in his/her ability to shop online, as well as the general ``enjoyment in shopping'' scale. The scales are labeled: FUN, SAFE, CHEAP, QUICK, CONFIDENCE, and SHOP. The individual items were summed to form short scales (see Table IV). Next, the Internet innovativeness and knowledge items were factor-analyzed via common factor analysis, which revealed that the items loaded on two distinct factors, indicating discriminant validity for these items (see Table III). The individual items were summed to form two scales, DSI and KNOW. Thus, the focal variables in the study were amount of online buying (PURCH), how often clothing was purchased by any means (MEANS), the attitudes toward online buying (FUN, SAFE, CHEAP, QUICK, and CONFIDENCE), attitude toward shopping (SHOP), Internet innovativeness (DSI), and knowledge of the Internet (KNOW). Cross-tabulation was used to assess the relationship between EVER (those who had purchased apparel online versus those who had not) and sex and race. These analyses showed no statistically significant relationships between these variables. A t-test showed no statistically significant difference in the mean age of those who had purchased apparel online versus those who had not. The correlations in Table IV provide internal evidence for the validity of the measures. The significant correlations of the DSI with

Focal variables

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Variables 22.6 0 3.44 10.5 7.2 6.1 9.3 13.6 13.2 9.4 18.4 89.3 3.5 3.2 0.05 0.18 0.31 0.16 0.10 0.24 0.09 0.08 0.45 0.04 0.08 0.22 0.11 0.12 0.42 0.01 0.35 0.15 0.02 0.17 0.23 0.05 0.28 0.11 0.03 0.18 0.33 0.02 0.56 0.02 (0.74)c 0.37 0.06 0.44 0.38 0.08 0.44 0.29 0.04 0.47 0.43 0.00 0.46 0.11 0.40 0.16 0.48 0.15 0.42 0.28 0.06 0.26 0.06 0.43 0.01 0.36 0.04 0.31 0.67 0.04 0.59
a

Range 4.9 1.0 0.98 2.7 2.2 1.6 2.7 3.0 3.9 2.7 4.0 74.8 1.0 1.1 1 = male and 0 = female;
b

Mean 0.06 0.02 0.08 0.11 0.08 0.03 0.08 0.10 0.06 0.26 0.04 0.00 0.09 0.11 0.08

SD

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Age Sex Ever Purch Means Fun Safe Cheap Quick Conf Shop DSI Know Spend Hours Likely

18-50 0-1a 0-1b 0.88 - 8.68 1-5 4-20 3-15 2-10 3-15 4-20 4-20 3-15 5-25 0-500 1-6 1-5

(0.76) 0.29 (0.75) 0.29 0.40 (0.58) 0.36 0.43 0.39 (0.70) 0.04 0.21 0.13 0.16 (0.86) 0.29 0.25 0.19 0.47 0.04 (0.79) 0.12 0.16 0.17 0.49 0.05 0.40 (0.90) 0.03 0.08 0.01 0.01 0.30 0.13 0.01 0.16 0.20 0.16 0.34 0.08 0.28 0.47 0.40 0.35 0.37 0.46 0.07 0.47 0.28 1 = yes and 0 = no;

0.04 0.05

0.34

Notes: Correlations of 0.09 and larger are statistically significant at p < 0.05 (two-tailed); coefficient alpha in parentheses

Table IV. Descriptive statistics and correlations

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FUN, SAFE, CHEAP, QUICK, and CONFIDENCE are similar to those reported by Goldsmith (2000). Moreover, the correlation of the DSI with the knowledge measure (r = 0.40) is comparable with that reported by Flynn et al. (2000). Influence of age, sex and race An analysis was performed to assess the influence of age, sex and race on the dependent variables. A MANCOVA with sex and race as the two independent variables and age as a covariate was run with PURCH through KNOW as the ten dependent variables. The correlations in Table IV suggest that age was only significantly correlated with shopping enjoyment, and this was confirmed by the results of the MANCOVA, so age was no longer incorporated in the analyses. The results also showed no statistically significant multivariate interaction between sex and race (F(33, 1500) = 1.14, p = 0.266). There was a statistically significant multivariate effect of race (F(33, 1500) = 1.62, p = 0.014), but the only univariate differences were for SAFE (p = 0.033), where African-Americans rated the Internet as less safe than whites and CHEAP (p = 0.032), where the ``others'' rated the Internet as cheaper than both whites and African-Americans. These differences were few and small in size, and so race was no longer included in the analyses. The multivariate effect of sex was significant (F(11, 498) = 4.8, p < 0.001). Univariate tests showed that women reported purchasing apparel by any means more often than men, they spent more on apparel than men, and they enjoyed shopping more than men; while the men reported purchasing more online than the women and felt that the Internet was cheaper than the women. These differences suggest that sex should be included in the final analysis of the differences between those who have purchased apparel online and those who have not. For this analysis a 2 2 (SEX EVER) MANOVA was run with the ten dependent variables as before (see Table V). The interaction term was
Dependent variables Mean scoresa Men Women Fb p 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.089 0.000 0.032 0.060 0.000 0.601 0.074 0.000 0.784 0.000 0.001 0.245 0.000 0.000 0.422 0.000 0.005 eta2 0.052 0.072 0.025 0.005 0.070 0.008 0.006 0.110 0.000 0.006 0.200 0.000 0.136 0.021 0.002 0.034 0.054 0.001 0.074 0.014 Observed power 1.0 1.0 0.967 0.397 1.0 0.576 0.468 1.0 0.082 0.431 1.0 0.059 1.0 0.934 0.213 0.993 1.0 0.126 1.0 0.798

Univariate main effects for SEX PURCH 0.678 0.126 30.8 < MEANS 3.06 3.75 37.8 < FUN 11.9 10.8 14.5 < SAFE 7.7 7.3 2.9 CHEAP 6.8 5.7 41.8 < QUICK 9.9 9.4 4.6 CONFIDENT 14.5 13.9 3.5 SHOP 11.5 14.8 68.7 < DSI 10.1 10.0 0.3 KNOW 19.2 18.4 3.2 Univariate main effects for EVER H1 PURCH 0.184 0.988 139.1 < H2 MEANS 3.4 3.4 0.075 H3 FUN 10.1 12.7 87.9 < H4 SAFE 7.0 7.9 12.1 H5 CHEAP 6.1 6.3 1.4 H6 QUICK 9.2 10.2 19.7 < H7 CONFIDENT 13.3 15.1 32.0 < H8 SHOP 13.0 13.3 0.646 H9 DSI 9.1 11.0 44.8 < H10 KNOW 18.2 19.4 7.8 Notes:
a

Estimated marginal means;

df = 1,558

Table V. Comparisons of mean scores

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statistically significant (F(10, 549) = 2.4, p = 0.01). Follow-up univariate analyses showed that the interactions, however, were significant for only two of the dependent variables. For PURCH, the amount of online buying, men reported buying more than women, but men who had bought apparel online reported buying disproportionately more online than women who had bought apparel online. The opposite effect was observed for MEANS, buying apparel by any means. Women reported buying apparel by any means more than men, but men who had bought apparel online reported buying disproportionately less apparel by any means than the women online buyers. The multivariate main effect for SEX was significant (F(10, 549) = 14.3, p < 0.001). In addition to significant main effect differences for PURCH and MEANS, women reported that they enjoyed shopping (SHOP) more than men, and men reported that they thought online buying was more fun, cheaper and quicker than the women. These findings are similar to those reported in other studies of online buying. Online apparel buyers The multivariate main effect for EVER, whether a respondent had ever bought apparel online, was statistically significant (F(10, 549) = 20.4, p < 0.001). The univariate analyses showed that, compared with those who had not bought apparel online, those who had bought apparel online had more experience purchasing online in general (PURCH) and thought that buying over the Internet was more fun, safer, quicker, and they were more confident in their ability to buy online. The online apparel buyers also were more innovative and knowledgeable about the Internet than non-buyers. Thus, H1, H3, H4, H6, H7, H9 and H10 were confirmed. There were no statistically significant differences in the self-reported apparel purchase (MEANS), perceptions that online buying was cheaper (CHEAP), or in shopping enjoyment (SHOP). Because Box's test of the equality of the covariance matrices was significant (indicating that the covariance matrices were not identical across the groups of respondents) and because Levene's test of equality of error variances showed that the error variances of four of the dependent variables were not equal, thus violating the assumptions of MANOVA (Huck and Cormier, 1996, pp. 313-15, 374-7), a Mann-Whitney non-parametric analysis was conducted testing whether the observations from the two groups of online apparel buyers were equivalent in location. These analyses were consistent with the parametric tests. As a final analysis, a 2 2 (SEX EVER, with age as a covariate) MANCOVA was conducted comparing the buyers and non-buyers on three additional variables. These were: (1) the number of hours the respondent was online in an average week (HOURS); (2) the amount of reported spending on apparel (SPEND); and (2) how likely the respondent was to buy online in the coming year (LIKELY). The results showed that men averaged more hours online per week than women, women spent more on apparel than men, and the men were more likely to shop online in the future than were the women. Finally, online apparel buyers reported spending more time online and were more likely to buy online in the future than non-buyers.
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Additional variables

Respondent demographics

Discussion The present study compared selected characteristics of consumers who had purchased apparel online with those who had not. The results showed that online apparel buyers purchased online more often, felt that online buying was more fun, safer and quicker than non-buyers. Online apparel buyers were more confident in their ability to buy online and were more innovative and knowledgeable about the Internet than non-buyers. Online apparel buyers did not differ from non-buyers in their belief in how cheap buying online is, in their overall enjoyment of shopping, or in how often they bought apparel by any means. Respondent demographics were also unrelated to buying apparel online. Online apparel buyers further differed from nonbuyers in that they spent more time online than non-buyers and were more likely to buy online in the future than non-buyers. These results reveal a systematic pattern of psychological and behavioral factors that seem to facilitate online apparel purchase. These findings confirm theoretical accounts of consumer behavior and extend their generality into the new realm of cyber-commerce. The findings are consistent with other studies that show that favorable attitudes are related to online buying. From the methodological perspective, the attitude measures appear to be robust across studies and provide valid, reliable operationalizations of these constructs. This should encourage researchers to use them as standardized measures of e-commerce-related attitudes. The findings also confirm the reliability and validity of the innovativeness (DSI) and knowledge scales, consistent with a series of studies that have evidenced their psychometric soundness (e.g. Flynn et al., 2000; Goldsmith, 2000).

Unique consumption activity

The findings suggest that consumers are motivated to buy apparel online by a combination of factors and that the special circumstances of e-commerce make this a unique consumption activity. Online apparel buyers obviously must want and need clothing, so this basic motivation partially underlies their behavior. They seem, however, to be motivated differentially by their attitudes toward the Internet. While online apparel buyers were clearly more positive on the attitudinal and psychological characteristics, they were no more likely than non-buyers to shop for clothes by other means, to enjoy shopping in general, or to spend money buying clothes. That is, they are not disproportionately motivated by clothing as a product category or by interest in shopping, but by the perceived advantages of online buying and their positive predisposition toward this mode of commerce. For managers, the results suggest that their online buyers may be somewhat different from their in-store customers and may represent new customers. Consumers who buy disproportionately more apparel likely enjoy shopping and want the emotional and sensory pleasures of touching, seeing and trying on clothes (see Seckler, 2000; Underhill, 1999). Note the positive intercorrelations in Table IV between spending on apparel and shopping (r = 0.30), spending and buying by any means (0.43), and between shopping and buying (0.40). None of these variables was correlated with amount of online buying (PURCH). Online buyers, in contrast, appear to be motivated by their positive attitudes toward the Internet. Thus, to attract apparel buyers to Web sites, e-marketers might focus on emphasizing the added advantages of fun, speed and safety. They should first ensure that their sites are fun to use, load rapidly with prompt post-sale delivery of ordered merchandise, and are completely safe to use. They might emphasize how different online buying is and not pretend that it is the same as in-store shopping. Joint or cooperative strategies might display apparel online, but suggest that a
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Positive attitudes

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different experience could be had in the store, where unique accessories or combinations of clothes could be seen. Online apparel buyers and nonbuyers did not differ in their perception that buying online is cheaper than offline. Thus, Seckler's (2000) argument that offering price discounts may be a prime way to attract non-buyers is supported. To attract new buyers online, apparel e-tailers may have to change perceptions that online buying is unsafe (see Robinson, 2000). Web sites must be made simple and easy to use, because non-users are not very confident that they can buy online successfully. In-store demonstrations of online shopping might encourage non-buyers to shop online. As online apparel buying spreads beyond the innovative and knowledgeable consumer to the less sophisticated shopper, apparel marketers should cater to their unique tastes, abilities and habits. This is especially true, since the results suggest that many online apparel buyers will buy online again. Snapshot picture The study is limited by the nature of the sample, measures, specificity, and time studied. Lack of randomness in the sample limits generalizability of the point and interval estimates to a larger population; but since the main purpose of the study was to test theoretical hypotheses about online buying, this is a minor limitation (Calder et al., 1981). No conclusions can be drawn about concepts that might be related to online apparel buying, but were not measured; and the results are limited to the measures employed. Similarly, the focal topic was clothing in general and not a specific type (new fashion, sports clothes, work clothes, etc.). Finally, since e-commerce and online consumer behavior are constantly changing phenomena, the present study is only a snapshot picture and not a longitudinal view. Advantages of the study lie in the large sample size and validity of the measures used. Future research should examine online apparel using data from other demographic, socio-economic and national groups of consumers to expand the scope of the findings. The online buyer behaviors studied should be expanded beyond just buying to include browsing, comparison shopping and combining the Internet with in-store consumption, as well as consumption of specific categories of apparel, such as new fashions or unique sizes and needs. As noted in the introduction, growth is a major theme of e-commerce. Thus, replication studies would be a valuable way to track changes in online apparel buying over time. Accumulation of such studies would expand our knowledge of both apparel consumer behavior and consumer Internet behavior to the advantage of both consumer theory and apparel marketing. Finally, other researchers could make use of our measures to study buying behavior in other areas as well.
References Calder, B.J., Phillips, L.W. and Tybout, A.M. (1981), ``Designing research for application'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 8, September, pp. 197-207. Citrin, A.V., Sprott, D.E., Silveman, S.N. and Stem, D.E. Jr (2000), ``Adoption of Internet shopping: the role of consumer innovativeness'', Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 100 No. 7, pp. 294-300. Eastlick, M.A. and Lotz, S. (1999), ``Profiling potential adopters and non-adopters of an interactive electronic shopping medium'', International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 209-23. eMarketer (2000), ``The e-holiday shopping report'', available at: www.emarketer.com Flynn, L.R., Goldsmith, R.E. and Kim, W. (2000), ``A cross-cultural validation of three new marketing scales for fashion research: involvement, opinion seeking, and knowledge'', The Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 110-20. Goldsmith, R.E. (2000), ``How innovativeness differentiates online buyers'', Quarterly Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 1 No. 4, pp. 323-33.
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Expand the scope of the findings

Goldsmith, R.E. and Bridges, E. (2000), ``E-tailing vs retailing: using attitudes to predict online buying behavior'', Quarterly Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 245-53. Goldsmith, R.E. and Hofacker, C.F. (1991), ``Measuring consumer innovativeness'', Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 209-21. Goldsmith, R.E. and McGregor, S. (1999), ``Electronic commerce: an emerging issue in consumer education'', Proceedings of XIX International Consumer Studies and Home Economics Research Conference, Belfast. Goldsmith, R.E. and McGregor, S. (2000), ``E-commerce: consumer protection issues and implications for research and education'', Journal of Consumer Studies & Home Economics, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 124-7. Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. and Black, W.C. (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Hallberg, G. (1995), All Consumers Are not Created Equal, John Wiley, New York, NJ. Harvard Management Update (2000), ``Lessons from the online war for customers'', Harvard Management Update, January, pp. 3-4. Hoffman, D.L. and Novak, T.P. (1996), ``Marketing in hypermedia computer-mediated environments: conceptual foundations'', Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60 No. 3, pp. 153-61. Hogg, M.K., Bruce, M. and Hill, A.J. (1998), ``Fashion brand preferences among young consumers'', International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 26 No. 8, pp. 293-300. Huck, S.W. and Cormier, W.H. (1996), Reading Statistics and Research, 2nd ed., HarperCollins College Publishers, New York, NY. Karson, E. (2000), ``Two dimensions of computer and Internet use: a reliable and validated scale'', Quarterly Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 49-60. Katz, J. and Aspden, P. (1997), ``Motivations for and barriers to Internet usage: results of a national public opinion survey'', Internet Research, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 170-88. Kuntz, J. (2000), ``Age and income play key roles in online sales'', Daily News Record, 27 March, p. 19. Limayem, M., Khalifa, M. and Frini, A. (2000), ``What makes consumers buy from the Internet? A longitudinal study of online shopping'', IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 421-32. Murphy, R. (1999), ``Download: Internet news II'', The Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 3 No. 4., pp. 376-7. Nelson, J. (2000), ``Internet at a glance'', Business 2.0, 12 September, p. 279. O'Guinn, T.C. and Faber, R.J. (1989), ``Compulsive buying: a phenomenological exploration'', Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 147-57. Robinson, E. (2000), ``Click and cover'', Business 2.0, 12 September, pp. 168-80. Seckler, V. (2000), ``Survey says Web apparel buys doubled'', Women's Wear Daily, 12 July, p. 2. Silverman, D. (2000), ``More women wardrobe online than ever'', Women's Wear Daily, 31 July, p. 20. Solomon, M.R. (1999), Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, and Being, 4th ed., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. UCLA (2000), ``The UCLA Internet report: surveying the digital future'', available at: www.ccp.ucla.edu Underhill, P. (1999), Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY. Vickery, L. and Agins, T. (2001), ``Retailers find Web apparel unprofitable'', Wall Street Journal, 6 June, p. B6. Wilson, J. (1999), ``Keynote address'', The Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 3 No. 4, pp. 370-6.

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This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives a rapid appreciation of the content of this article. Those with a particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the research undertaken and its results to get the full benefit of the material present

Executive summary and implications for managers and executives

Retailing online know your customer and learn from mail order marketing E-commerce and especially online retailing have received much attention, a great deal of thought and significant investment. Despite this, we still lack any clear understanding of the business models that can deliver success online. For every apparent e-retailing success, we get a massive and usually very expensive failure. We can say with some safety that the prospects for another Internet trading investment boom have gone. For marketers this situation is a disappointment. We are, after all, the experts on distribution and sales channels. The failure to make e-retailing work sits in our court and we continue to chew away at the e-commerce bone in the hope that it will eventually come good. At the same time we have raised questions about the capacity of the technology to deliver what we want. Doubts persist about the security of money transfers online. Weak links between real world distribution getting the product to the customer and the cosy virtual world get in the way of seamless service. And, while getting the online equivalent of footfall is easy, converting these visitors to customers is a massive challenge. Know your customer the marketer's mantra Goldsmith and Goldsmith observe that, while a great deal is said about online processes, technology and promotion, little is known about the actual online customer. We know too little about the differences between the enthusiastic innovators who buy goods online and the rest who are happy to look but do not buy. The difference between ``innovators'' and ``early adopters'' is well researched and, in general terms, understood by marketers. E-retailing has not taken off, because the chasm between these two groups remains unbridged. As a result the apparent mass market for e-commerce remains a future dream. Two-thirds of Americans might have access to the Internet but they are not using it to buy things at least not in sufficient numbers. Goldsmith and Goldsmith set out to compare clothes buyers who have bought online with those who have not made this sort of purchase. Underlying the study is the assumption (supported by research and largely common sense) that `` . . . consumers who have previous experience in online buying will be more likely to buy apparel online than those who lack such experience.'' We should also note, like Goldsmith and Goldsmith, that the people who matter to e-retailers are those very similar to existing users who, at present, are non-users. Are you frightened of the Web? Goldsmith and Goldsmith find that there are substantial differences between e-buyers and the rest of humanity (I always knew that Web enthusiasts were strange). Some of these differences are pretty prosaic online buyers have fewer security worries, appreciate the ``quickness'' and flexibility of online buying and see the Web as making buying easier. However, the other (more psychological) factors suggest that these preferences are symptomatic of the type rather than definitional. The remainder of Goldsmith and Goldsmith's findings throw up words like ``confident'', ``innovative'', ``knowledgeable'' and ``fun''. Our e-buyers take the view that `` . . . the special circumstances of e-commerce make this a unique consumption activity.'' These people are different and we need to know why and, at the same time, to understand the resistance of others to e-commerce. Part of the resistance appears to lie in fear (characterised as being a lack of confidence). People who do not buy online do not have a great deal of trust in

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the medium. This seems to hold true, even when they use the Internet for a variety of other activities (information gathering, communications, games etc.). Until these issues of fear (or trust, or confidence) are dealt with, marketers will struggle to take the idea of e-commerce into the mainstream of retailing. Removing the fear Two elements are involved in removing consumer distrust of e-commerce. The first is more confidence with the technology involved in buying online. Bear in mind that most of us who use computers take advantage of a tiny part of the capacity of even basic software. Even with comprehensible manuals, on-screen and online help and ``idiot guides'', we still stick to basic processing. Ease-of-use is fundamental to successful e-retailing and, so far, we have failed to achieve sufficiently easy systems to remove the consumer's worry about getting it wrong. But this is just one problem and its solution lies as much in the relationship between the ordinary consumer and Internet technology as in specific marketing actions. The second element is purely promotional and is about securing trial and reducing the distrust. E-commerce becomes accessible when these barriers are removed and there are many techniques available that marketers can use. Mail order and direct marketers have always faced resistance to their channel. Indeed, mail order people appreciate that there remains a large chunk of the population that will never buy mail order, whatever the incentive. Nevertheless, these marketers have developed (and tested) a variety of simple techniques to secure trial and build confidence:
. . . . . . .

product and service guarantees; payment on delivery rather than payment with the order; featuring low-risk entry products; no-quibble return policies; product endorsement by real customers; testimonials; and prize draws, free gifts and other order incentives.

E-commerce represents a new channel and, for some businesses, a different means of delivering product. But for most businesses and especially retailers, the Internet does not change the nature of the product itself (a pair of shorts remains a pair of shorts). Rather than reinventing the wheel, eretailers should learn from direct marketers. E-commerce needs more confidence to sell itself successfully but, in the final analysis, the e-retailer does little that is different from the mail order company. And the direct marketer knows that profits come from repeat business rather than from the first sale. Too many e-commerce operations have floundered, because they ignored the experience of others and tried to run a business without good databases or the strategies to sustain income from existing buyers. Do you want your e-retailing business to succeed? Hire an experience direct marketer and you will stand a better than average chance of success. Pretending that the e-marketers have nothing to learn from old, grizzled (and boring) mail order people is a mistake that is probably costing you money. (A precis of the article ``Buying apparel over the Internet''. Supplied by Marketing Consultants for Emerald.)
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