Enabling and inhibiting stimuli in young women's clothing shopping journey

Introduction: Today, the development of the Internet and digital platforms has changed customer behavior in marketing channels and increased the number of touchpoints between customers and companies during the customer journey. However, this increase in touchpoints is not always positive for customers. Although providing additional information through different touchpoints may seem like a good idea, it can become ineffective and reduce customer attention, leading to disconnection and less engagement. Thus, analyzing customer journeys has become vital to identifying the enabling and inhibiting factors in both online and offline touchpoints. Personal characteristics such as age and gender can also affect the customer journey as well as channel and touchpoint selection, making it important to address this challenge differently among various businesses depending on their target customers. Young women in the women's clothing industry exhibit unique shopping behavior, spending a lot of time in different stores and channels to evaluate quality and brands. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyze the enabling and inhibiting factors in the clothing shopping journey of young women.
Methodology: The research’s approach was a qualitative and exploratory one. The research strategy was a multi-case study, and interviews were used to collect data. The statistical population of the research consisted of the young women in the provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Qom, Fars and Alborz who had the experience of buying clothes from multi-channel clothing stores. Non-probability judgmental snowball sampling method was used to select the sample. The participants' data were collected from the viewpoints of education level (postgraduate, under postgraduate), marital status (single, married), and income (unemployed, employed with a monthly income of less than 10 million Tomans, employed with a monthly income of more than 10 million Tomans). In this regard, interviews were conducted with 12 people, but, in order to increase the accuracy and accuracy of the data, interviews were conducted with 20 people until saturation was reached. The content analysis method was used to analyze the interviews and the obtained codes. The frequency of the analysis units (codes) served to determine their weight or importance. For this purpose, the data were first read line by line, and primary codes were extracted. As many as 398 codes regarding enabling factors and 245 codes regarding inhibiting factors were identified, and they were categorized into 33 concepts in the form of 12 sub-categories and four main categories in the enabling factors and 22 concepts in the form of 12 sub-categories and four main categories in the inhibiting factors affecting customer interactions in digital, physical and common touchpoints.
Results and discussion: The study revealed that women's purchasing decisions are influenced by various factors at each stage of the purchasing process. For the appeal stage, storefront attractiveness, social media posts, and clothing models were cited as the most enabling factors, while unattractive storefronts and clothing models were found to be inhibiting factors. As customers transitioned to the ask phase, a suitable store environment, appropriate seller behavior, attractive social media content, and a wide product variety were identified as the most enabling factors. Conversely, creating a sense of distrust, inappropriate seller behavior, and poor admin responses had negative impacts on women's shopping experiences.
During the transition from the ask to the act stage, appropriate seller behavior, affordable products, and proper admin behavior in online stores were found to be positive factors. Conversely, inappropriate seller behavior in stores, improper interior design, and inadequate admin behavior in online stores discouraged young women from making a final purchase. In the advocate phase, economical products, appropriate seller behavior, fast and affordable shipping, and trustworthy social media pages were identified as the most common enabling factors for young women to recommend products to others. Inappropriate product shipping, lack of value for money, poor seller behavior, and inadequate admin behavior on the page were noted as the most common inhibiting factors.
Conclusion: The research findings indicate that young women place great emphasis on a variety of factors when making purchasing decisions, both online and offline. For physical stores, the exterior and storefront's attractiveness, as well as the ambiance of the interior environment, are important factors. Additionally, the salesperson's demeanor, provision of relevant information and guidance, and creation of a comfortable buying experience for the customer are crucial. In terms of virtual stores, responsiveness from administrators, the availability of relevant information, building trust with customers, and fast and affordable shipping options are vital considerations. Moreover, product variety, quality, color choices, attractive pricing, and store credibility are significant factors across both online and offline shopping experiences.