The factors influencing consumers' perceived complexity of online apparel mass customization service usage

Abstract

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. AbstractMass customization is a marketing strategy to meet consumer needs for variation and uniqueness of products. Although there are quite a few studies quantitatively investigated the options provided by mass customization process, scholarly work related to mass customization has provided mixed results on consumer perception of complexity and their responses. The purpose of the study is to derive the factors that influence consumer complexity perception in online apparel mass customization process and consumers' needs to enhance mass customization services. Data were collected by conducting focus group interviews of which 29 participations in 4 groups. The results of the study suggested that consumers perceived complexity through mass customization process due to too many choice options. However, the effect of number of options on respondents' complexity perception was different depending on consumer characteristics such as consumer expertise and fashion involvement, and the characteristics of consumer preference development. Shopping context such as shopping purpose is another moderating factor. This study also suggests that a variety of marketing strategies which can enhance mass customization services affect the relationship between the number of options and consumers' complexity perception. The findings of the study provide academic and managerial implications.

Online consumer behaviour of mass-customised apparel products

“…For example, personality characteristics, such as the optimum stimulation level, need for uniqueness, involvement, innovativeness, enhancement of individuality, experimenting with appearance and status aspiration (Fiore et al, 2001(Fiore et al, , 2004Latter et al, 2010;Choy and Loker, 2004;Kang and Kim, 2012;Park et al, 2013;Wang and Liu, 2009;Moon and Lee, 2014). Other types of factors were also identified, such as knowledge and previous experiences (Lee and Park, 2009;Lee and Chang, 2011), beliefs related to trust, perceived risk, perception of costs benefits, perceived security and intangibility or even variables related to user experience like perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and complexity (Cho and Fiorito, 2009;Dellaert and Dabholkar, 2009;Moon et al, 2013;Moon and Lee, 2015;Park et al, 2013). Finally, others (e.g.…”

Determinants of perceived internal service complexity

“…In this respect, Choi et al (2001) hold the unpredictability of interactions among customers and service providers responsible for increasing service complexity. The resulting uncertainty occurs especially due to differences between the information necessary for evaluating services and information currently available on the situation (Hobday et al, 2000;Moon et al, 2013;Mikolon et al, 2015). This effect is further strengthened by low levels of routine and conflicts in interactions (Dwairi et al, 2007), which applies not only to external service encounters but also to the internal supplier-internal customer interface (Walton and Dutton, 1969).…”