Is this shirt also available online? : an omnichannel research in the fashion industry

Since the last decade, the offline shopping environment has changed. Offline brands in the Netherlands have gone bankrupt like bookstore Polare, fashion brand Mexx, missEtam, SchoenenReus and also V&D is having troubles (NU.nl, 2015). The increasing numbers of online shops and new additional digital channels such as mobile and social media are blamed for this. Especially for the fashion industry, online shopping plays a huge role. Nowadays, it is a must for retailers to combine the online- and offline channels to give the consumer the same experience and to keep their customers. This combination is called: ‘omnichannel retail’. Omnichannel retail goes hand in hand with technology and already a few brands are using this in the Netherlands. This research is focusing on omnichannel technology for the fashion industry. Two studies were conducted to examine the influence of omnichannel retailing on the attitude and the offline experience of the consumer. The first study is an explorative study conducted with fifteen interviews in a real-life setting in a brand fashion store which is already using omnichannel technology. This study showed that most participants did not know what to do with the omnichannel technology and did not see technology as a must in a fashion store. When they know about the possibilities of the omnichannel technology in a fashion store, almost all had a positive attitude. Study 2, an online questionnaire with 239 participants between 16 and 71 years, showed that consumers with a hedonic attitude especially want to use omnichannel technology. Omnichannel technology gives the consumer a positive shopping experience, but consumers do not yet see the usefulness of these technology in a fashion store and they think that atmospherical aspects like the layout of a store and the assortment are more important. The variables which contributed to the intention to use omnichannel technology in a store, were the hedonic consumer attitude and the perceived usefulness. It is remarkable that the demographical data had no significant contribution to the intention to use omnichannel technology in a store. However, age and gender had an indirect contribution, because men had a higher personal innovativeness level. They perceived technology as more useful than women. The older the people are, the lower their utilitarian consumer attitude. For marketers, this research can conclude that they especially have to target hedonic consumers, who like to shop and who like to use omnichannel technology in a store.