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Fashion online
Company web sites are ubiquitous ([52] Sheehan and Doherty, 2001). The purpose of some is informational, while others have a commercial purpose and also sell products. Online consumers can browse for and purchase products on commercial web sites globally. When shopping online, it is easy to switch from one web site to another, so it is critical for firms to attract browsers' attention. Thus, visual merchandising (VMD), the presentation of a firm and its merchandise to attract potential customers and facilitate purchasing ([10] Diamond and Diamond, 2003), assumes an especially important role in the online context.
However, in spite of the strategic importance of VMD, research has not investigated online VMD in a comprehensive manner. Academic research ([19] Eroglu et al. , 2003; [40] Menon and Kahn, 2002; [43] Park and Ku, 2002) shows that web site characteristics can affect shopper behavior and shopper attitudes toward web sites ([36] McMillan et al. , 2003). However, specific stimuli leading to those effects have not been identified ([19] Eroglu et al. , 2003). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to:
- examine VMD elements of apparel retail web sites to describe the state of online apparel VMD using an analogy between online VMD and traditional in-store VMD; and
- develop a taxonomy of online VMD cues whose effects can be studied empirically.
Content analysis of apparel retail web sites is used to provide online VMD information. We focused on the USA and South Korea because they are world leaders in internet usage and internet shopping ([24] Greenspan, 2002; [53] Shin, 2002). We focused on apparel because it sells well online in both countries ([24] Greenspan, 2002; [32] KRNIC, 2003).
Literature review
Model of online store atmospherics
[18], [19] Eroglu et al. (2001, 2003) have recently developed and tested a model of online store atmospherics that builds from a stimulus-organism-response framework and research from environmental psychology ([39] Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). The model holds that characteristics of an environment such as a store affect consumers' internal states (e.g., pleasure, arousal), which in turn affect their behavior in that environment (e.g., purchase intent, purchasing, satisfaction, patronage). [18] Eroglu et al. (2001) suggest that images of the merchandise, music, icons, color, background patterns, animation, and fonts...