A Study on the Fashion Product Description Appeal Type, the Direction and Type of Consumer Replies on Online Shopping Mall

The purposes of this study is to investigate the attitudes and value of fashion product description and consumer replies used in online shopping malls, and to examine the differences in the perceived reliability(objectivity, expertise, trustworthiness) preference and purchase intention toward the product as determined by the appeal type (evaluation-sentimental vs. factual-information) of the product description, the direction(negative vs. positive) and type(factual vs. evaluative) of consumer replies for the product in online shopping malls. Data was collected from female college students with fashion products purchase experience at online shopping malls by questionnaire survey (N=424) and analyzed by using frequency analysis, t-test and ANOVA. Results showed that consumers respondents tended to read product description and other consumer replies before purchasing, when shopping for fashion products through an on-line shopping mall. They thought that sellers' product description and the consumers' replies were helpful in making their decision; but, they were also skeptical about product description. Respondents showed higher perceived reliability, preference and purchase intention to the factual-information type product description than the evaluation-sentimental type. Positive consumer replies were more effective in yielding higher preferences and purchase intentions. Factual replies tend to yield higher reliability than evaluative replies.