Factors Influencing the Intention to Buy Fashionable Apparel via Online Platforms: An Empirical Evidence from Malaysia

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the recent Covid-19 pandemic has further boosted ecommerce activities worldwide, including Malaysia. Past studies have been inconclusive in explaining the ideal factors which underlie the intention of buying fashionable apparel via online platform. Thus, this study investigates as to whether apparel characteristics, platform features, and promotion have a significant positive influence on the intention to buy fashionable apparel via online platforms. A total of 306 samples were collected among Malaysian adult consumers. The results of the analysis showed that apparel characteristics impose the strongest positive influence on the intention to buy fashionable apparel via online platforms, followed by platform features and promotion. The study enriches the body of knowledge by demonstrating the impact of the underlying factors in determining the intention to buy fashionable apparel via online platforms based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. The practical implications reveal that marketers should enhance the characteristic of apparel available online, the features of the online platforms used and the promotional price of their online deals. Limitations and suggestions for future studies are also presented. Contribution/ Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature of consumer behavior by focusing on the intention to buy fashionable apparel via online platforms. Apparel characteristics, platform features, and promotion were found to be important influencing factors. Findings of the study enable researchers to unravel other purchasing predictors underlying online consumer behavior. 1. INTRODUCTION The rapid development of technology has led to increased public reliance on the Internet in various matters of life. In the realm of Industrial Revolution 4.0, the Internet has brought great changes in all aspects especially in the development of the business and marketing world. With a dynamic economy and infrastructure developed for digital technology, Malaysia is an extremely attractive market for e-commerce. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission 2019 (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, 2019) report found that Internet usage in Malaysia has increased rapidly from 24.5 million users in 2016 to 28.7 million users in 2018.