Analysis of consumers' visual perception of garment fit: an eye tracking study

Date
2011
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University of Delaware
Abstract
The current online apparel retailers are not able to provide enough visual information about garment fit to online apparel shoppers, even though various visual product presentation techniques have been developed. The present study was designed to analyze consumers' visual perception of garment fit in order to provide managerial suggestions for online apparel retailers. This study used self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) as a theoretical base. The purposes of this study were to examine the effect of subjective factors (body image discrepancy, body satisfaction) and objective factors (body sites) on consumers' visual perceptions (duration of fixations and number of fixations) of garment fit, and to examine the effect of visual perception on consumers’ concern with fit judgment, confidence in fit judgment, and purchase intention for the garment. Forty-five college women participated in this study for extra credit and incentives. Eight photos (front view and back view of blazers of four sizes worn by a human model) were created as visual stimuli. Participants' duration time and number of fixations on the visual images of blazers when making judgments of fit of blazers were measured by an eye tracker. Participant's body image discrepancy, body satisfaction, concern with fit, confidence in fit judgment, and purchase intention were also measured. Using descriptive statistics, one-way univariate analyses of variance and simple regression analyses, the results of present study indicated: 1) there was a significant relationship between female college consumers' body image discrepancy and their body satisfaction-Hypothesis 1 was supported; 2) female consumers' body image discrepancy and body satisfaction significantly predicted their visual attention over the garments (how long and how often they looked at the garments) when making garment fit judgments-Hypotheses 2 and 3 were supported; 3) no relationships was found between female consumers’ visual attention and their concern with garment fit-Hypothesis 4 was not supported; 4) there was no significant relationship between female consumers' concern with garment fit and their confidence in fit judgments-Hypothesis 5 was not supported; 5) female consumers' concern with fit was a significant predictor of their purchase intent for the garment- Hypothesis 6 was supported; 6) there was no significant relationship between female consumers' confidence in fit judgments and purchase intention- Hypothesis 7 was not supported; 7) Consumers attended to some human body sites more than others -Hypothesis 8 was supported.
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