App Attributes and Perceived Values Determining Chinese Consumers' Intent to Reuse Fashion Shopping Apps

Abstract

Over the last few years, the number of Chinese consumers who purchase fashion products via mobile apps has been increasing. This study aims to identify the app attributes which significantly influence Chinese female consumers' perception of utilitarian and hedonic values of fashion shopping apps, and their intention to reuse such apps. Another objective of this study is to clarify how app attributes influence the reuse intention of the apps, using the S-O-R model. The research data for this study were collected from Chinese female consumers via a survey, and a total of 304 usable data were analyzed. The respondents in this study were in their 20s (36.2%), 30s (33.9%), 40s (22%), and 50s (7.9%). Most respondents were employees (85.9%) and married women (75.7%), and college graduates (75.4%). Approximately half of the respondents (54.3%) reported their household monthly income to be from 5,000 yuan (US$ 723) to less than 10,000 yuan (US$ 1,446). Metropolitan residents (48.3%) from places such as Beijing (14.1%), Shanghai (15.8%) and Guangdong (18.4%) accounted for about half of the respondents. The measurement items used to assess the attributes, perceived values and reuse intention of fashion shopping apps were selected from previous research and modified, or were newly developed based on the focus group interviews conducted prior to the survey. The data were analyzed by exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis. As a result of factor analysis (principal components, varimax rotation, extracting factors with eigenvalues above 1.0), the attributes of fashion shopping apps were categorized into twelve factors: payment, privacy/security, app design, entertainment, real-time communication, fashion information, customer reviews, live streaming sales, photo sharing through SNS, product assortment, money-saving price, and delivery. Based on the results of regression analysis, attributes such as app design, fashion information, and product assortment were seen to significantly influence the perceived utilitarian value of fashion shopping apps (H1). In addition, five attributes, namely payment, customer reviews, entertainment, product assortment, and money-saving price, were observed to have significantly positive effects on perceived hedonic value of the apps (H2). This means hypothesis 1 and hypothesis 2 were partially supported. Real-time communication, live streaming sales, photo sharing through SNS and money-saving price were determined to have significantly positive effects on the reuse of fashion shopping apps (H3). This implies that hypothesis 3 was partially supported. The perceived utilitarian value (H4) and hedonic value (H5) of fashion shopping apps were also ascertained to have positive influence on the reuse intention of apps, supporting hypothesis 4 and 5 were supported. Based on analyzing the significance of the indirect effects of the app attributes on the reuse intention of the apps, the app design, fashion information, and product assortment were seen to indirectly influence the reuse intention of fashion shopping apps through perceived utilitarian value, though the three attributes had no direct effect on the reuse intent of the apps. Similarly, four attributes, namely payment, entertainment, product assortment, and saving-money price, also indirectly influenced the reuse intention of the apps through perceived hedonic values. However, the indirect effect of customer reviews on the reuse intention of fashion shopping apps was not significant. On the contrary, two attributes, namely privacy/security and delivery, had no both direct and indirect effects on the reuse intent of fashion shopping apps. The findings of this study can help to understand consumers' shopping app choice behavior by determining which and how app attributes influence the reuse intention of fashion shopping apps. The research findings can serve as a guide to companies planning app-marketing and app-commerce targeted at Chinese consumers who use apps for fashion shopping.