M.Com. / The South African apparel industry is growing tremendously with a sales value of R129.9 billion expected by 2019 (Marketline, 2015). This is due to the growth in the middle class, the increase in disposable income, and the fact that the South African economy is focused on technology, finance, and e-commerce (online shopping) (Marketline, 2013:2). Consumers are being exposed to various shopping channel options, both offline and online, which has been found to influence their purchase intention (Voinea & Filip, 2011:17). Retailers should therefore aim to understand how the offline and online shopping channels they offer are affecting consumers, and, in particular, they need to understand consumers’ reasons and motivation for selecting one channel over another. The literature on the subject has found that there are two main factors influencing shopping channel choice: shopping channel attributes – cost, time, convenience, and customer service – and perceived risk factors – delivery risk, product risk, and security risk (Al-Hawari & Mouakket, 2012:641; Lin & Sun, 2009:461; Martin & Camarero, 2008:629; Huang & Oppewal, 2006:347; van Dijk, Laing & Minocha, 2005:1). Thus, by understanding the two sets of factors influencing shopping channel choice, retailers will understand why consumers select one channel rather than another – which will allow retailers to design appropriate shopping channels for their goods. This will improve their efficiency and engagement as they will be offering consumers shopping channels that appeal to them...

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2017 / The continuous growth of e-commerce has led to a keen interest in the uptake of online shopping. This phenomenon is even more prevalent in developed western countries. However, penetration has taken place at a lessor rate in developing countries in most parts of Africa including South Africa. Apart from infrastructural capability and adequate online store reputation, the success of online shopping fundamentally rests upon e-tailers who are able to capture consumers by understanding what variables drive them to shop online. Although several studies have explored factors that drive online purchase intention, few have explored variables of interest as done in this present study. More specifically, this sort of research is scarce within the South African general merchandise online retail sector. This study aims to determine whether data charges, delivery dependability, geographical distance, product risk and information quality have any influence on consumers‘ online purchase intention. The conceptual model adopted in this study selected data charges, delivery dependability, geographical distance, product risk and information quality as predictor variables, online shopping satisfaction and trust as mediating variables and online purchase intention as the outcome variable. This is a quantitative study whereby 20 000 online survey questionnaires were distributed to a base of two renowned South African online retailers who predominately specialize in general merchandise. Of those distributed, 924 were complete and thus deemed useable by the researcher. The findings support all eight proposed hypotheses, therefore indicating that the aforementioned variables indeed influence online purchase intention at varying levels of significance. The study seeks to contribute new contextual knowledge, adding to the existing literature linked to online retailing and to contribute new empirical and theoretical findings. The research findings highlight new insights to marketing practitioners who, with better understanding of consumer decision making theory, will be able to create strategies that can be employed to influence consumers‘ online purchase intention in the South African general merchandise online retail sector. Keywords: E-commerce, online shopping, purchase intention, general merchandise retail. / GR2018

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Clothing purchases represent the largest selling category on the internet at $13.6 billion (US Census, 2008), however return rates are extremely high at 14-50%, almost twice as high as return rates for most other categories (Barbaro, 2007). This has negative implications for consumers and retailers as the cost of returns and lost consumers is extremely high. High return rates force retailers to take on the cost of restocking and reselling merchandise, with an estimated $100 billion lost annually (Blanchard 2005). This research focuses on online product representation with the goal of identifying the method of product representation that most effectively improves a consumers' ability to make accurate size decisions without negatively impacting brand and product quality perceptions. This research uses interviews to assess retailer beliefs about how best to deploy online clothing visualizations. Next an experiment was conducted to compare alternative clothing model visualizations to assess effects on fit satisfaction, return likelihood, brand and quality perceptions. Finally, to understand current use of visualizations by clothing retailers and their effects on consumer satisfaction and sales, a content analysis was conducted. This study can provide a solution that can improve consumers' abilities to make accurate fit decisions, thus reducing return rates and improving consumer satisfaction, at a minimal cost to retailers.

After walking through a decade since the millennium, shopping has been undergoing a remarkable transformation. From the most primitive form of exchanging goods with money on streets to the development of retail outlets and department stores, online shops are rapidly booming as one of the modern shopping preferences nowadays. This paper focuses to investigate the factors affecting shoppers' preference of choice between online shopping and mall shopping. The exploratory study examined 3 groups of shoppers including mall shoppers, online shoppers and cross shoppers to compare and contrast their concerned motives and behaviour as appeared in the two shopping modes. The comparison was based on a theoretical model derived in part from Fishbein and Ajzen.s "Theory of Reasoned Action (1980)"; Cowles, Kieker, and Little "E-tailing Theory (2002)”, Tauber (1972)'s Situational I Personal shopping motives model and a comprehensive literature review. The model identified the theoretical factors anticipated to influence the shoppers' groups shopping behaviors. A total of 297 shoppers in 3 shopping malls served as the purposive questionnaire samples. Factors derived from literatures were incorporated into the survey questions to identify the group of shoppers adopting e-shopping, cross shopping and mall shopping and their respective factors affecting their preference of choice. It was reviewed that apart from the various 'consumer', 'marketing' and 'technology' factors affecting e-shoppers, some of the factors were also found influencing the mall shoppers' preferences of choice in a similar way. Likewise, traditional factors motivating people to shop in mall have also infused with new social elements due to the e-era and people's change of lifestyle. In addition, special features and positioning in various malls were also discovered to exert a different impact on shoppers' option. To further enrich the research, face-to-face interview was also conducted with an online store manager and a shopping mall manager to obtain information from the management perspective. In reviewing their perceived reasons as to affect shoppers' preference to e-shopping and mall shopping, on top of the similar factors as suggested in the literatures, they both put much emphasis on the tactical strategies in business operation. Insights were drawn that online stores and shopping malls may not be direct competitors as one may not substitute the other. Recommendations on future business planning in each shopping mode were also made by frequently reviewing shoppers' desire and wants. The paper was concluded by summarizing the findings and to forecast the future shopping trends. Recommendations were also made to online stores and shopping mall operators to cope with shoppers' preferences and maximise their profit. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

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Thesis (MTech. degree in Business Information Systems.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2011. / This dissertation argues that the use of mobile phones can offer opportunities for local governments and municipalities to effectively render services to citizens in ways that traditional mechanisms, such as vending points, cannot achieve. The empirical evidence has shown that mobile phones could be ideal for improving accessibility of prepaid electricity voucher services notably to consumers in the rural areas. The study utilized a case study using the Thulamela and Makhado municipalities. Informed by the case study, a model for improved accessibility of electricity prepaid vouchers was conceptualized.

The number of people shopping on the Internet has grown rapidly in recent years and it has been suggested that the growth rate of Internet transactions now exceeds that of traditional retailing. Despite the significant growth in the use of the Internet for business transactions, there is evidence to suggest that many customers abandon web sites without completing their transactions. It is clearly important to understand why people buy from the Internet and also the way consumers examine websites. There had been limited research undertaken to investigate the relationships between the various antecedents and the willingness to buy in the Internet environment, especially within a single study. The main trust of this research is to examine the antecedents that influence the willingness to buy from the Internet and also how these antecedents influence one another. The antecedents included in this research were brand image (Dodds, Monroe & Grewal, 1991), perceived risk (Sweeney & Soutar, 2001), trust (Lynch & Beck, 2001), affect (Lynch & Beck, 2001), convenience (Szymanski & Hise, 2000), relative price (Sweeney, Soutar & Johnson, 1999), site reputation (Baker, Grewal & Parasuraman, 1994) and web design (Szymanski & Hise, 2000). Some of the antecedents were found to be unsuitable and they were dropped from the study. The empirical results from the final model suggest that perceived value is positively influenced by affect and brand image. Both brand image and affect also positively influence the trust of the website. Willingness to buy from the website is influenced by perceived value and trust of the website.

Techn. Univ., Diss.--Kaiserslautern, 2004.

Wiss. Hochsch. für Unternehmensführung, Diss.--Vallendar, 2002.