Retail sales have increased significantly in recent years, posing a major challenge for merchants in maintaining a consistent consumer experience across several channels. Changing consumer behaviors have had a big impact on this shift in buying patterns. Customers and retailers are also contending with the complications of adapting to these developments, which have been compounded by the global COVID-19 outbreak. The Internet retail sector, in particular, has seen significant development, which has surprised many. As a result of the digital revolution, online customers' preferences are changing, as they seek fulfillment amid a variety of available possibilities. The changing environment of customer behavior has been a key focus, formed in part by the distinct patterns that have emerged in reaction to COVID-19. This study seeks to shed light on how the retail phenomenon of COVID-19 has impacted customer purchasing behaviors, with the goal of discovering and validating unique insights that may affect decision-making, particularly among millennials in Sweden and China. In the beginning stages of this investigation, a comprehensive approach integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to attain this goal. The study used a sequential exploratory design with two data gathering gathering periods. Our conclusions were guided by empirical data gathered through focus group meetings and replies to a web-based survey. Two key discoveries have given rise to a novel hypothesis, showing that customers in both Sweden and China enjoyed large benefits from online purchasing. Furthermore, the research has shown previously unknown and unanticipated ways in which COVID-19 continues to influence client purchasing behavior. This exploratory and constructive research seeks to enhance our understanding of these transitions, ultimately providing useful insights into the emerging retail scene in a post-pandemic world.

As live shopping has become more popular in recent years, as seen in China, this concept has slowly spread to Europe and also the Scandinavian countries. However, the purchasing behaviour of consumers varies, which modifies the circumstances and methods in which businesses might apply this concept to achieve results. This qualitative study explores how  Swedish fashion retailers should use live shopping to influence females buying behaviour. The method used for data collection has been through an industry interview with a marketing specialist and consumer interviews. The conclusion is that live shopping can be a powerful tool if implemented with strategic considerations that tailor the preferences and experiences of Swedish female consumers. Companies need to invest in leveraging social media effectively, and focus on detailed, high-quality content. Promotions should balance immediate appeal with long-term value, and live shopping should aim to inspire and inform consumers, fitting seamlessly into their thoughtful purchasing process. By addressing these factors, Swedish retailers in the fashion industry can influence female purchasing behaviour through live shopping.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / Each year, companies spend more money on sponsorship, and consequently the importance of sponsorship as a marketing communication tool has increased significantly. As a result, answering the question of how effective this investment is for a company has become increasingly important. Previous research of analysing the measurement of sponsorship effectiveness has been inconsistent. This research study analyses the relationship between key variables which measure sponsorship effectiveness, namely: brand awareness, corporate image, and purchase intention. In addition, the influence of the variable sports involvement on the other variables has been measured. The data was collected using a questionnaire during the international soccer federation (Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA) World Cup 2010 which was the first international sports event of this dimension on the African continent. This, in conjunction with the fact of inconsistent findings of previous research and the increasing importance of sponsorship for companies, contribute to a unique and new era of sponsorship research. Findings of this research indicate that consumer involvement has a direct positive effect on the perceptions of corporate image, as well as on consumers‟ purchase intention of sponsors‟ products. Purchase intention is also favourably influenced by brand awareness and corporate image of consumers. These findings are to a certain extent different than the results of Ko, Kim, Claussen and Kim (2008: 79-94) who conducted a similar study during the FIFA World Cup 2002. Consequently, this is a further indication that findings concerning sponsorship effectiveness research are inconsistent. The geographical area of data collection also has an influence on the results. In the case of South Africa, it was possible to observe that the different socio-demographic variables, gender and ethnical background had an impact on responses to the different research variables.

Young et al.(2009) report a gap in customers’ buying habits which is referred to a value action gap. This value action gap is typically where customers are concerned about environmental issues but have a hard time interpreting it when making a purchase. In the same way, Peattie and Crane (2005) report that there has been a slight growth on green purchasing since 1990, they also identified a significant gap between concerns and actual purchasing among customers. Datta (2011) states, it is important to increase people’s environmental awareness and consciousness, because as customers, they can impact the environment through their positive purchasing decisions. Datta (2011) further argues that the growing number of customers and consumers who prefer and are willing to buy Eco-friendly products are creating opportunities for businesses that are using “Eco-friendly” or “environmentally friendly” as a component of their value proposition . Considering the fact that printers produce carbon foot prints (Lubick, 2007), the authors have decided to conduct their research on the consumers’ purchasing gap towards Eco printers in Swedish market. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the factors which can influence consumers’ green purchasing intention. More specifically, it aims to find and analyze the factors that can influence consumers’ green purchasing intention towards buying an Eco printer in the Swedish market.  Therefore, the following research question has been formulated: What factors can influence the consumers’ green purchasing intention towards buying environmentally friendly printer? In this thesis both primary and secondary data have been used to establish its findings. A questionnaire of 201 respondents was analyzed to answer the research question. In conclusion the authors h found that there are several determinants which can influence the green purchasing intentions. Among these determinants, green knowledge and Eco literacy, attitude and green belief, environmental laws and guidelines and willingness to pay are indentified as strong influencing factors while demographics found as less stronger factor. However, subjective norms and social influence found as a weak one.

As a result of three decades of rapid economic development, China has become the world’s second largest economy and the second biggest market for luxury consumer products (Chevalier & Lu, 2009; Degen, 2009). The most populous nation in the world is also a leading sports power with strong yet mythical potentials in its sports business market (Chadwick, 2008). This thesis studies the area where luxury consumption and sports business intersect in the market by examining the phenomenon of sports celebrity endorsement of luxury brands and how such endorsements lead to the intentions and decisions by Chinese consumers to purchase the endorsed brands. Employing a mixed-method approach by using qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys, this study adopts a methodological triangulation research design, which involves semi-structured interviews with brand managers and professionals to explore their knowledge and experiences, questionnaire surveys of consumers to understand their demographic characteristics and luxury consumption motives and considerations, and confirmative structured interviews with consumers to ensure the reliability of the research and expand the findings. Research data analysis generated three major findings. Firstly, the purchasing intentions and decisions of the consumers are the result of the synchronised functioning of a triad of social, personal, and commercial factors that define both the endorsers and the consumers. Secondly, the characteristics of the sports celebrity endorsers in terms of their attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise have positive relationships with the represented brand equity, which in turn has a positive relationship with the consumers’ intentions and decisions to purchase the endorsed products. Thirdly, Chinese consumers demonstrate a weak and conditional preference for local sports celebrities to endorse international luxury brands. These research findings explain why it is more difficult for luxury brand owners to sell to the consumers than to impress or interest them, particularly in the context of the Chinese market. This is a pioneering academic study, intended to provide insights into how consumers in China respond to sports celebrity endorsement of luxury brands. It 2 provides an academic understanding of a knowledge gap between the studies of luxury business and sports marketing. It may benefit the strategists and practitioners of luxury brands by providing an empirical understanding of Chinese consumers and their decision-making processes under the influences of sports celebrity endorsements, so they can develop marketing communication strategies more effectively in the emerging market.

What are the key antecedents, factors and moderators that influence environmentally friendly and socially responsible consumer behaviour? Individual consumers buy products and services not only for their intrinsic satisfactory functionalities. They make their consumption choices also because of specific extrinsic products/service abilities to affirm their lifestyle choice, i.e. enhance their self-concepts and satisfy their psychological needs. Given that despite the recent increase of interest in sustainable consumer behaviour, little is known on sustainable consumer aspirations, this study aims at filling the research gap in this area of academic research. This study investigates ad hoc literature in Lifestyle Strategic Marketing, Branding, Social Psychology and Self-Concept Theory applicable in Green and Fair Trade Operational Marketing . Mixed research methods are used in three distinct studies: (a) laboratory experiment, (b) SurveyMonkeyTM online questionnaire analyzed quantitatively, and (c) SPSS and SEM software data management and analysis. They are conducted in France and based on the common research models, i.e. the Theory of reasoned action (TRA) founded by Fishbein & Ajzen (1975) and the Theory of planned behaviour (TPB) coined by Ajzen (1991). Specific attitudes towards environmentally friendly and fair-trade products and services are derived from Value sets, Awareness of Consequences beliefs and Environmental Concern evaluations; therefore in the third partial study we adapt the research model proposed by Hansla et al. (2008). In all of them is employed a convenience sampling method that allows to gather between 109 and 350 respondents. Results allow for identification of salient factors influencing consumer purchasing intention and willingness to adopt and pay for both environmentally friendly and socially responsible products and/or services.

Date: 2022-06-02    Level: Master thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr  Institution: School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University  Authors: Ida Pesiö Linnéa Rossander Title:  The Impact of Consumer Sustainability Values and Companies’                        Sustainability Work on Consumer Attitude and Purchasing The Importance of Product and Price Tutor: Aswo Safari Keywords: Consumer values, Consumer purchasing, Sustainability values,                    Online fashion sustainability, Companies’ sustainability work, Consumer attitude. Research question: How does consumers' sustainability values and companies'      sustainability work affect consumers' attitude and purchasing? Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how consumers’ sustainability values and companies' sustainability work affect their attitude and purchasing in online fashion. Furthermore, the study  aims  to identify what factors may lead consumers to unsustainable purchasing in an online fashion context.    Method: The study was conducted with an explanatory qualitative approach. The empirical data was obtained through semi-structured interviews, and followingly analyzed by combining the study's conceptual model together with a thematic analysis. Conclusion: The findings reveal that consumer values and companies’ sustainability work affects consumer attitude. However, consumer values and companies’ sustainability work do not affect consumers’ clothing purchases online. The most important factors that guide consumers purchasing are product and price. This does not mean that consumers do not care about sustainability during clothing purchases online, however, sustainability is not a priority.

Thesis. (M. Tech. (Dept. of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences)) -- Vaal University of Technology, 2011. / The underlying determinants of how and why people shop has been a topic of study for many years, when typologies of shopping styles were developed. These studies have been successful in demonstrating that some shoppers display consistent shopping orientations that can be diametrically opposed, for example, the functional shopper versus the recreational shopper. This study concentrates on purchasing patterns of consumers by examining the decision-making styles of Generation Y consumers with regard to fashion apparel. The study reports on various stages that consumers undergo when confronted with a decision situation. These stages are outlined as need recognition, information search, pre-purchase evaluation, purchase, consumption and post-consumption. The buying behaviours influencing consumers were categorised into internal and external factors. The internal factor includes perception, motivation, learning, attitudes, personalities, self-concept, lifestyle and demography. The external factors comprised the following variables, namely, cultural background, subculture, family influence, and the social factor. The general characteristics of Generation Y were briefly discussed. Various dimensions used to measure consumer decision-making styles were reviewed in the study related to perfectionism, brand consciousness, novelty-fashion consciousness, recreational consciousness, price-and-value-for-money consciousness, impulsiveness and confusion as a result of overchoice of brands. The study adopted quantitative approach. A structured questionnaire was used to survey 230 students who were selected using non-probability convenience sampling. Seven dimensions measuring consumer decision-making styles were found to be applicable within the Generation Y context. These consumers were profiled as being quality conscious, brand conscious, novelty-seeking, hedonistic, confused by overchoice, habitual, brand loyal and fashion conscious. Differences were found between consumers who are confused by overchoice and younger Generation Y consumers. Younger consumers were found to be more confused by overchoice compared to their older counterparts. It is suggested that apparel retailers should try to use communication channels which will be more understandable by Generation Y consumers, and they should provide information that assists buyers to make a rational decision in the buying process. Differences were also confirmed between habitual, brand-loyal consumers and age. It was found that younger consumers are more likely to be loyal to specific brands as compared to their older counterparts. Differences were noted between brand conscious, confused by overchoice and gender. Brand consciousness was regarded as a reflection of men‟s desire to use shopping as a demonstration of their superiority, as well as being beneficial because they reduce search costs. It was revealed that males were more brand conscious than their female counterparts. It also highlighted that males were more confused by overchoice than females. The study found that the majority of Generation Y does pursue quality, even if it means paying higher prices. It is recommended that retailers should continue to emphasise their well-known brand names and set prices at levels where consumers perceive the quality of the product by its price. Retailers should focus on diverse designs, sizes and colours in their product assortment and range. The introduction of new products through the use of fashion shows, fashion magazines and advertisements may provide added advantages in terms of brand awareness / Central Research Committee of the Vaal University of Technology

Title:  The effects of online third-party opinions toward Consumer Purchasing Decision on cosmetics products in Thai market Seminar date: June 4th , 2012 Course: Master thesis in International marketing, 15 credits Purpose: The overall purpose of this research is to explain the understanding of the effects of online third-party opinions toward consumer purchasing decision process on cosmetics products in Thai market. This includes the investigation of effective used of online third-party opinions with regards to source credibility and product involvement, specifically toward cosmetics products. Theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this research is based on literature concerning online third party opinion, consumer decision journey (CDJ), product involvement and source credibility. Methodology: Both quantitative and qualitative method was applied. And thus a questionnaire with 147 respondents on Thai market and two interviews of expert marketers were conducted. The respondents for questionnaire are Thai women with specific age range and criteria. Conclusion: The online third-party opinion plays the important role in nowadays in the marketing perspective. And it does affect the consumer purchasing decision process both pre-purchase and post-purchase stage. However, it mostly affects in Consider and Evaluation Stage. With regards to the product involvement and source credibility applying to cosmetics products, these two variables affect to the use of online third-party opinion. Online third-party opinion works best with high involvement product. However, low involvement product also be considered as suitable to use with online third-party opinion. For source credibility, both online expert and consumer reviews perform better when using with high involvement product comparing with low involvement one.

Storytelling is one of the most creative, powerful and effective tools of modern marketing strategies and communication. Due to the expansion of social media, storytelling has become a popular marketing and sales tool that may affect consumer behavior. This research has been conducted from a storytelling perspective with the purpose of finding the correlation between consumer reviews and consumer purchasing behavior. This study focuses on consumer stories which are reflected in terms of product reviews and ratings. Where the correlation between these reviews and ratings and their effects on overall product sales are investigated. The study answers the question, “If reviews & rating have a correlation with consumer purchasing behavior in digital marketing, and if so then how this correlation could be defined?” The data collection and tests have been conducted in a practical environment. The German online stores have been used as the main mode of data collection. Depending on the nature of the data, the quantitative analysis approach has been adopted. By conducting real-time sales data tests, this study fills the gap in previous consumer research studies. The in-depth analysis of results show the correlation between consumer reviews and product sales. The results have revealed that consumer reviews may influence overall product sales and help a consumer in purchasing decision. / Storytelling är ett av de mest kreativa, kraftfulla och effektiva redskapen i modern marknadsföring. På grund av den ökande användningen av sociala medier har storytelling blivit ett populärt redskap för att påverka konsumenternas beteende. Denna studie har utförts från perspektivet av storytelling med syftet att finna en korrelation mellan kundrecensioner och kundernas köpbeteende. Studien fokuserar på kundernas historier som reflekteras i recensioner och betyg, där korrelationen mellan recensioner och betyg och övergripande försäljning undersöks. Studien syftar till att besvara frågan ”Om recensioner & betyg har en korrelation med kundernas köpbeteende i digital marknadsföring, och om så hur kan korrelationen definieras?” Datainsamlingen och testandet har utförts i en praktisk miljö. Tyska online butiker har använts som huvudsaklig metod för datainsamling. På grund av strukturen på data har en kvantitativ analys metod använts. Genom att genomföra tester i realtid, har denna studie kompletterat tidigare forskning kring kundbeteende. Den fördjupade analysen av resultaten visar att det finns en korrelation mellan kundrecensioner och försäljning. Resultaten har visat att kundrecensioner kan påverka försäljningen av produkter och hjälpa en konsument i ett köpbeslut.