Online consumer behavior : Web experience elements in online clothing market

Dissertação de mestrado em Marketing, apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra, sob a orientação de Arnaldo Fernandes Matos Coelho.Online shopping in EU has been shown to be a good potential market. Clothing represents a high percent of the individuals shopping. Buying clothes online gives customers the opportunity to find a great variety of products, customers can review a wide selection of products and find special offers with the best deals online. However, the tangible and intangible problems of clothing online shopping still exist and the online store retailers lack the customer knowledge in some extent. Therefore, the intention of the thesis is to explore customer behavior when purchasing clothing online through investigating the factors that can affect online consumer`s attitudes, intention and actual consumers` behavior. The study investigates the main web - experience factors that customer takes into consideration when purchasing clothes online. Yet, the most important online elements are categorized in two main groups: customer - oriented factors and technology - oriented factors. The autor used quantitave research in term of survey to analyze the consumer`s attitutes towards the web experience elements, moreover the autor figured out the relationship between the web factors and the customer`s attitudes, intentions and actual buying behavior. The results will lead to the understanding of the most important web experience elements that influence the purchase decision of the consumers. The final findings show that web elements web content and trust are considered to be the most influencial for the consumer`s online behavior towards online shopping of clothing. The study would help retailers to understand better the customer attitudes and the web factors that influence the purchase intentions. The study can contribute with valuable information ecommerce, especially focused on the sales of clothing online retail. The research suggests and foresees the need of the realization of new investigatigation in this field