| This study attempted to determine facilitating and inhibiting characteristics of consumers with respect to actually making a purchase from a site offering apparel. Specifically, the relationship between the number of apparel products bought through the Internet during one year and selected independent variables was investigated. Independent variables include opportunity costs, price sensitivity, convenience orientation, concerns about privacy and security, shopping enjoyment, product selection, personal fit, computer processing time, and competency in using the Internet as well as demographic factors including age, marital status, spouse's attitude toward online shopping, family income, and the number of preschool children at home. The sample in this study consisted of female Internet users who were employed full time and lived in seven metropolitan areas in the U.S. A mail questionnaire was used to collect the data and a negative binomial regression model was applied to analyze the data.; Based on univariate analyses, concerns about privacy and security, enjoyment of both store and online shopping, concerns about personal fit, household income, and competency using the Internet were found to be important factors affecting online apparel purchases. On the other hand, a multivariate analysis showed that security concerns, enjoyment of online shopping, concerns about personal fit, age, and perceived speed of computer systems contributed significantly to predicting the number of apparel items bought through the Internet. A regional analysis found that there was no significant difference in online apparel purchasing behavior across geographical regions. These findings were consistent with prior expectations based on previous studies of nonstore retailing.; Based on these findings, it is suggested that consumers' skepticism about online security issues is the crucial problem that e-tailers should resolve. It is also recommended that apparel e-tailers consider the capacity of consumers' computer systems to process complex material in the development of any technology intended to facilitate online shopping. For future research, different methods of measuring opportunity costs might be tried. Also, the study of catalog shopping in comparison with online and store shopping is recommended as well as the comparison of nonapparel products with apparel. |
