ROLE OF ONLINE VISUAL MERCHANDISING AND PERSONALITY ATTRIBUTES ON PURCHASE INTENTION OF CUSTOMERS IN THE APPAREL INDUSTRY.

Abstract

The visual merchandising sector on the online platform has considerably impacted the sales as online visual merchandising (OVM) strategies have become a relatively new concept. The tremendous growth of electronic retailing has led to the adoption of new visual merchandising concepts which are digital. A web space which is visible and aesthetically not appealing distracts the customers across all the generations, which makes them switch to other websites. Online retailing is a competitive and dynamic area, which is created based on the artificial brick and motor concept. This artificial brick and motor concept has to be created on an online shopping platform in terms of attracting the end consumers. Moreover, to do this there needs to be a trigger, or in other words a stimulus which causes an action which leads to a response (reaction). Based on the past theories by psychologists the stimulus and response is not the only factor that serves as a basis for decision making, there is a third essential and integral dimension, organism. Organism simply means a system consisting of interdependent parts which are interlinked. Therefore, personality attributes considered the organism is said to be vital in attracting prospective customers. Current research aims at analysing such prospects on an equal sample size of 400 each from generation X, Y, Z who have engaged in the online purchase of apparel. Responses were obtained equally from male and female respondents based on a web survey. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used for analyses of data. The study proposes a research framework of Stimulus-Organism- Response(SOR) model. Results of the study suggest different personality characteristics of generations considered as organisms mediate the relationship between online visual merchandising cues and play a vital role in purchase intention. Therefore, it is imperative to distinguish between ages and generations to cater to the needs of generation X, Y and Z segmented as customers. Also, offline and online visual merchandising cues unification is necessary for successful selling of products on an online platform.