Factors driving online apparel shopping in South Africa

Abstract

This article seeks to examine factors that affect consumer attitudes and intentions towards online apparel shopping in South Africa. This is achieved by testing Monsuwé et al.’s (2004) expanded version of the well-known Technology Acceptance Model, which adds consumer, situational, product, trust and past experience contextual factors. The purpose of this article is to better understand this model as it applies to several less-studied contextual factors such as enjoyment, interaction and past buying experiences within a developing market context and focusing on the complex apparel sector. Results of the structural equation models highlight the particular importance of enjoyment and interaction in online apparel shopping, and find vast differences based on differentiation by past buying experience. With the exception of prior experience, consumer, situational, product and trust contextual factors do not moderate the main relationships. These findings contribute to our understanding of online apparel shopping in the South African context, notably informing important managerial possibilities surrounding website design, product offering, market research and other issues.

Keywords

• online shopping
• apparel
• technology acceptance model
• developing countries
• south africa
• consumer psychology