Using an experimental design, we investigated whether the relationship between apparel product novelty and consumers’ curiosity depends on perceived fashion influencers’ socioeconomic status. In addition, we investigated mediating role of curiosity in the product novelty effect on purchase intentions and intention to use a social shopping service.
Unlike slow fashion that takes workers, consumers and environmental welfare into consideration, fast fashion is criticized for neglecting these. This study investigates attitudes and adoption intention of the slow fashion concept among young adults in South Africa, a highly socio-economically unequal emerging market. An extended information adoption model will be adapted and tested through a self-administered survey of 300 respondents. The results will provide marketing professionals, environmental and consumer interest groups and policy makers with valuable insight into barriers and motivators of slow fashion idea adoption among young adults who are a large, influential and profitable consumer segment.
This contribution focuses on fitting between heuristic rules and the task environment in business to business market. The subject is about evidence-based business decision-making process in the business actors‟ perspective. The empirical setting of fashion business to business markets is considered, focusing on adaptive behavior situated in the interaction processes in customer-supplier relationships emerging from empirical researches. The paper considers two key aspects of the process: (1) the origin and diffusion of the heuristic rules adopted by the actors (adoption) and (2) the fields in which the rules can be used (scope) are discussed. The central research questions are: How heuristics are adopted and diffused in the fashion business to business environment (adoption)? How wide is the context in which the heuristic rule is applied by the actors (scope)? Fashion business to business markets is our setting of analysis. First of all we have to define what are heuristics. Studies of decision-making processes generally divide them into two, mutually exclusive types: rational decision making versus rule-based decision making (March 1994). In the case of rational decision making the approach is to evaluate the consequences of any decision in terms of either pure (maximizing) or limited rationality (satisficing). In rational decision making, consequential choices are adopted, hence an evaluation of preferences and expectations is necessary and decisive to the final outcome. Instead, in rule-based decision making, what counts most is following the rules, the aim being to satisfy and/or define an identity. In rule-based decision making, rules deemed appropriate are adopted, and what then counts are the rules and the identity, which form the basis for taking well-thought-out actions. Rationality requires less „specific‟ knowledge, since it relies on abstract rules. In this approach, following the rules may instead involve understanding them in relation to the specific context in which they are to be applied. The relations between heuristics and interaction in business networks provide a means to study other aspects of the evolution of the relationship between enterprise and business market environment (Artinger et al. 2015; Guercini et al. 2014, 2015). In fact, the network of relationships the actors adopt images of the relationships to be cultivated with the precise aim of formulating an effective representation of the market, enable other phenomena to be examined, not so much in their qualitative aspects, but rather as regards their importance as perceived by business decision-makers. In light of these relations between heuristics and setting, the essential properties of heuristics that we propose to examine herein are: (1) specificity, intended as the field of application and setting in which any heuristic rule is generated and routinely applied; (2) convergence, which concerns how widespread, at least in appearance, any given heuristic rule is amongst actors in a given market setting (Guercini 2012). In other terms, the heuristics of entrepreneurial marketing can be considered specific to this particular setting, in that they concern the degrees to which such rules are generated, are successful, and are confined to the specific setting or context. Looking more closely at the two above-mentioned properties, specificity is high when, for instance, a heuristic refers to a specific, circumscribed matter (for example assessing the opportune moment to purchase certain semi-finished goods) and finds no application in any other setting. Conversely, a rule‟s degree of specificity is low when its field of application is broad: a rule may, since its inception, be applicable to many different fields, or it may be initially applicable only to a limited range of decisions, but subsequently find fruitful application in other, broader matters (Guercini et al. 2014). The degree of convergence instead regards the frequency with which a given heuristic rule is adopted within a population, a community or, in our case, by entrepreneurs. Such adoption may only be apparent, in the sense that what seems to be a single rule may actually represent various, subtly different rules for each individual, given the supremely personal, individual nature of fine mental processes. Evaluating the degree of convergence of a given heuristic within a population obviously involves measuring its dissemination in terms that are recognized as such by the researcher. Convergence is high for rules adopted by everyone, or at least by a large segment of the population in question. Other heuristic rules are instead developed by individuals in forming their personal judgments and seem to be unique to such individuals, in that they do not arise in others. This implies that heuristic rules may be the source of a relative advantage for the entrepreneur, in so far as the heuristic in question proves itself successful, that is, an element that determines a good choice when other methods are ineffective or may even produce negative effects. Specificity and convergence are thus general properties of the heuristics adopted by entrepreneurial marketers, and are strongly tied to the interpersonal relationships and consequent interactions within business decision-makers‟ personal contact networks (Guercini et al. 2015). Heuristic procedures are easily detectable in the descriptions of enterprise top management of the processes they utilize in assessing possibilities and forming judgments. Some of these procedures are highly abstract and applicable to various different settings, for instance, regarding problems typically facing firms as well as purchase decision-makers. In the following we shall briefly present some of the heuristics encountered in our research; a more detailed description and more rigorous modeling of their characteristics will be addressed in future work. Let us consider now a fashion business to business settings, and more precisely the situation in which the decision-maker of a fashion firm is tasked with formulating a judgment regarding the best choice of colors to keep up with the fashion trends of coming seasons. From interviews with representatives of styling divisions, what repeatedly emerged was their conviction that “strong” colors periodically and forcefully come back in fashion. Some even went so far as to specify the duration of this cycle: seven years – that is, the same as the number of strong colors –, which also turns out to be coherent with long-standing observations on the limits of human cognitive function (Miller 1956). No clearly defined explanation was offered of the reasons for, or origins of, this rule, although some hypotheses were advanced: simply that a sort of “law” was first noticed and then became consolidated as its predictions were repeatedly verified over time. A second example is that of the textile firm entrepreneurial marketer called on to provide a forecast of the fabrics that will be most widely utilized in the market over the next few seasons. From the marketer‟s perspective, the price of natural fibers is one element on which to base any judgment regarding future fabric usage trends. Clearly, there are technical time constraints on the purchasing of fibers for spinning, which must naturally precede the sale of the fabric, and may even take place already in the stage of drafting the fabric sample book. Thus, a specific assessment rule is applied: those fibers whose price increases during certain periods of the year are deemed to be those that will be in most widespread use the following season. However, for some years now this rule has begun to seem less reliable than in the past. Workers in the sector speak of greater complexity in the wool market, where supply factors, such as international manufacturers‟ policy of stepping up fiber tops production, have had the effect of upsetting traditional market dynamics. The heuristic rules in these examples can be regarded in the perspective of the attributes they present, in particular, their “specificity” (or field of application) and their “convergence” (or degree of dissemination). A rule that is highly specific to a certain application setting looses much of its value when applied to judgments other than the one for which it has been developed. On the other hand, a rule that is in widespread use in many firms can hardly become a distinctive resource for entrepreneurial marketers. The widespread dissemination of a given heuristic rule amongst the rules “in stock” or the “adaptive toolbox” of firms may influence its effectiveness. Indeed, the fact that a rule is shared by many may justify its adoption in light of the validity that the decision-makers seem to attribute it, even if it is less probable that its use impart a distinctive competitive advantage. The examples of heuristic processes presented in the foregoing seem to enjoy different degrees of specificity and convergence. The association of certain heuristics to specific settings takes on the significance attributed to them by Simon (1979), as rules bound by the task environment and not clearly referable to relatively abstract mechanisms or endowed with autonomy. Mechanisms applicable to less specific settings are instead referable to the heuristics described by Tversky and Kahneman (1974), including representativeness, availability and adjustment/anchoring, identified in relation to the possible distortions and errors associated to them. The heuristics modeled by “building blocks” by Gigerenzer et al. are seemingly cannot be captured by a few categories, given the variety of formal models identified. Briefly, these include (1) recognition heuristic; (2) fluency heuristic; (3) take-the-best; (4) tallying; (5) satisficing; (6) 1/N equality heuristic; (7) default heuristic; (8) tit-for-tat; (9) imitate the majority; (10) imitate the successful; (11) hiatus heuristic; (12) fast and frugal trees; (13) mapping models; (14) averaging the judgment; (15) social circle; (16) moral behavior (Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier 2011, Gigerenzer and Brighton 2009). In the approach proposed by Gigerenzer and his “adaptive behavior and cognition program”, formal models are necessary to evaluate the real contribution of heuristics to cognition, decision-making and behavior. For details, refer to the publications of the adaptive-behavior-and-cognition program (Gigerenzer 2007; Todd and Gigerenzer 2012). Rule-based decision making implies the availability of rules to follow and consistency with an established identity as the driving factors in the decisionmaking process. If the rules satisfy an ecological rationality approach, are such rules then the result of a process of rules selection with which the decision makers are endowed innately or they are formed through a process of learning? And, if the latter is true, what are the characteristics of the decision-making process during the stage that the rules formation schemes are more open? And lastly, when the rules have already been defined, are they necessarily stable or can they be questioned and, if so, in what terms? These research questions are part of the future research stimulated by this first exploration based on case study research.
The concept of „Sustainability‟ has become as major concern and it used by consumers and corporations to convey the concept of taking care of the environment. Environmental concern has led to sustainable consumption in a variety of product categories, such as electricity, textiles, apparel, food, and grocery products (Chan, 2001; Harrison, Newholm, & Shaw, 2005; Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006a, 2006b). Interest of the negative environmental impacts are rapidly increasing in present fashion business and consumer behavior has become a rising concern of the consumption and fashion supply chain to apply sustainable consumption (Birtwistle & Moore, 2007; Fineman, 2001). The environmental and social concern recognized in fashion industry from 1990‟s. However, the complexity of conceptual definition of sustainability and ecologically responsible consumer generates different and mistaken perception to consumer. In addition, in fashion industry, the terms of „eco-fashion‟, „environmentally friendly fashion‟,„green fashion‟, „ethical fashion‟, and „sustainable fashion‟ are frequently used interchangeably to describe the same concept. These interchangeable terminology is leading to confusion of the readers by the non-unified terminology (Choi et al., 2012). Also, consumers seem to have narrow scope and little understanding of sustainable fashion. In general, consumers focuses on environmental aspect not the wide-range of complexity of environment, social, and economical concern (Cervellon, Hjerth, Ricard, & Carey, 2010). The growing number of fashion brands are leveraging on green branding initiatives. Green marketing is increasing rapidly in corporate aspects and for a consumer perspective, global consumers are recognizing a personal accountability to take responsibility for social and environmental issues. Despite the fact many of individuals‟ willingness to purchase green products has increased in the last few years, however, there is limited studies suggest that purchase of green or sustainable products. Consumer research on sustainable fashion has mainly focused on consumer behaviors towards sustainable fashion products (SFPs); however, relevant studies that examined the whole process of the predicting proenvironmental behavior cross nationally value and the eWOM are still scarce. The purposes of research model are 1) to identify the determinants of eWOM intention on consumers' purchase intentions, 2) to examine the information adoption process as precursors of purchase intention of sustainable fashion, and 3) to testify different message types effects to information adoption process.
A firm’s new product success is mainly determined by how well it is accepted by the mass in a short time. Although companies have been adopting various marketing methods, word-of-mouth [WOM] has been regarded as one of the most effective means for customer acquisition (Villanueva, Yoo & Hanssens, 2008), primarily due to its reliability, social support, and support by social pressure and surveillance as Arndt (1967) has suggested (as cited in Woodside and Delozier, 1976). Moreover, online word-of-mouth is being given new significance alongside the advent of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other online channels (Berger and Iyengar, 2013; Dellarocase, 2003; Schafer & Taddicken, 2015). For this reason, researchers have paid a close attention to opinion leaders, who are not only early adopters of innovation themselves (Goldsmith & Witt, 2003), but also information transmitters and influencers (Vernette, 2004). Therefore, this study aims to identify both online and offline opinion leaders, who could adopt new products first, and diffuse the adoption of new products to others. Thus, this study draws upon the innovation diffusion theory conceptualized by Rogers (1995). According to Rogers (1995), innovation is defined as an individual’s or an organization’s perception of an idea as new. In addition, he articulates that if an innovation is transferred through certain communication channels over time within a social system by its members, diffusion occurs (Rogers, 1995; Rogers, 2002).
The main purpose of this paper is to examine the intermediary role of opinion leadership as a quintessential link between consumer characteristics (consumer innovativeness and lifestyle and values) and new product adoption behavior. The research data is collected through survey, which is conducted by distributing questionnaires to a group of users of Apple Watch by Apple, Mi band by Xiaomi, and the products by Fitbit. The model of the study will be tested through structural equation modeling approach. In particular, this paper considers not only regular opinion leadership in offline context, but also online opinion leadership in order to go with the tide of the developing online world. Moreover, this study selects wearable technology as a new product category, which makes the overall research highly fashion-oriented. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effect of involvement of product category on the relationship between lifestyles and values and opinion leadership.
The author anticipates that fashion innovativeness and four lifestyle and values factors (sense of accomplishment, self-fulfillment, excitement, and fun and enjoyment) will positively affect online and offline opinion leaderships, which again will have a positive influence on new product adoption behavior. Moreover, this study predicts that the correlation between lifestyles and values and involvement of product category will have a positive influence on online and offline opinion leaderships and new product adoption behavior.
This study may contribute both to the academia and to the managers within businesses that deal with wearable devices. Theoretically, this study is of particular value in that it adopts consumers’ lifestyles and values as predictors of opinion leadership and new product adoption behavior, which is an uncommon approach within existing research streams regarding opinion leadership and new product acquisition. In managerial terms, by revealing the significant relationships between the consumer characteristics and both offline and online opinion leaderships who are the potential customers of new products, this study enables the managers to identify their targets and differentiate their marketing strategies considering the different characteristics of consumers in offline and online environments. In particular, since this study adopted several wearable technologies as new products, businesses that deal with wearable devices may pay close attention to the results of this study and manipulate their marketing strategies in adequate terms.
With traditional boundaries among culture, technology, finance, politics, and ecology are disappearing (Friedman, 1999), the need of businesses to deliver unusual experiences to the consumers have increased in order to survive and thrive. With consumer’s need diversifying and getting more complex, capturing receiver’s attention is becoming the key issue for brands (Jung & Shin, 2010). Resultantly, the traditional operators are feeling the necessity to co-operate with those in other fields to obtain differentiation. Hence, even without one consensus meaning existing, the emphasis on the word 'convergence' is consistently growing. Its popularity of use reflects the era we live in, where boundaries are fading and unaccustomed ideas are brought together (Lord & Velez, 2013). However, despite its importance increasing, researches on convergence marketing are very limited. Most of the studies focus only on qualitative research, especially on case studies or defining conceptual definition of term convergence. Thus, not much is known of how consumers perceive this new way of approach. Therefore, the main goal of this study is to first, understand how the consumers perceive marketing of technology and marketing of culture, and second, how the convergence of these two influence on brand perception.
The concept of convergence holds meaning in all sorts of fields from telecommunications, computer sciences, mathematics, logic, to economics, sociology, accounting and others (Lord & Velez, 2013). Although it seems that the word convergence is more or only related to the information technology discourse, however in large, although it is true that it was mainly based on the advance of information technology, the concept of convergence is frequently used both in the media industry and the other academic fields. From media industry, it denotes the ongoing restructuring of media companies as well as to describe the various intersections between media technologies, industries, content and audiences. Yet, in academic fields, in the same context of convergence several other terms are frequently used in the literatures, for example as alliance, partnership, sponsorship, and collaboration (Appelgren, 2004) which is all based on the same ‘coming together’ yet differs in specific goal. The convergence marketing that emerged from the intensified competition among brands co-operates with those in other fields in order to create differentiating point.
The convergence in fashion industry is found with two main streams of technology convergence and cultural convergence (Wi, 2013). In line with the fact that convergence in everyday life bases from the improvement of technology, the application of technology in fashion industry is also found throughout the production process, from design to production and distribution. Unlike 2000s where fast fashion changed the fashion system, the impact of technology seems to be the largest in the turn of 2010 (Choo et al., 2012; Ko, Kim, & Lee, 2009). As the convergence of marketing and IT can create rich, technologically enabled digital experiences that engage, delight, and serve the consumer, now it plays a part as a source of innovation (Lord & Velez, 2013). Accordingly, with pioneering advantages that technology appliance can deliver, many luxury brands have adopted new technology in its marketing strategies, including QR code in the magazine ad, hologram technique replacing the plastic mannequin, motion reacting interactive show window are to name a few. Similarly, culture for marketing is found with consumers pursuing more and more cultural and intellectual activities with the improvement of the standard of living. As concept of art exemplified from the marketing standpoint evoke general connotations of sophistication, culture, luxury and prestige (Martorella, 1996), many luxury brands are applying cultural contents to improve brand images (Hagtvedt & Patrick, 2008). In sum, to satisfy consumers’ diverse need, brands are trying to incorporate not only using the novel digital devices, but also conveying the cultural contents to provide emotional stimulus. Thus, this study focuses on the marketing communication using convergence of technology and culture that aims to gain consumers’ evaluation.
This study applies complex model of Technology acceptance model to Pleasure-arousal-dominance theory to better understand how consumers perceived and adopt the new type of marketing strategy. TAM is a widely employed in various studies to predict users’ behavior intentions (Hsu & Lu, 2004). Technology acceptance model suggested by Davis (1989) is agreed as the theoretical background useful to explain individual adoption behavior with the introduction of such relatively new medium like this make users to experience new ways (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988). Yet, in the model application stage, it was suggested that TAM model focuses only on the judgment of the system of technology and lacks the ability to explain other potentially important factors that can influence on users’ acceptance process. Thus, similar to the other previous researches, this study also linked the emotion response to the existing technology acceptance model (Igbaria, Zinatelli, Cragg, & Cavaye, 1997; Venkatesh, 2000). This was due to the fact that the usage of technology is extending throughout the industry, and emotional factors are found to work as an important factor in such work. Many other approaches have been made in order to explain the emotional side of the adoption, yet in this study, pleasure-arousal-dominance theory which is often used to explain in marketing communication discourse and is supported in application for experiential aspect (Holbrook & Batra, 1987). Pleasure-arousal-dominance theory (PAD; Mehrabian & Russell (1974)) suggested by Mehrabian & Russell (1974) explains the three basic emotion status to mediate approach-avoidance behaviors in any environment based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response(S-O-R) paradigm. It explains that individual’s emotional status is aroused by the mediating environment (Donovan, Rossiter, Marcoolyn, & Nesdale, 1994). Yet, interpreting the recent studies arguing that in consumption related emotions situation, dominance is not necessary (Donovan et al., 1994), this study was adopted as a two-dimensional construct that can impact the user’s behavior intention. In sum, this study applies perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, pleasure, and arousal as the determinants of adoption.
In addition, not simply examining the adoption process of the convergence marketing, but this study relates to the actual effect on consumers’ brand evaluation. The appliance of TAM as the part of individual dimension variable was found in recent studies that investigated the effect of adverting with interactive medium (Han & Park, 2010; Shim, 2009). Previous literatures have suggested the perceived usefulness significantly influences on the attitude toward the retailer that provides such experience (Lee et al, 2006). Especially, such studies were made within the e-commerce conditions, such as investigation of consumer behavior towards a non-profit organization’s virtual store (Chen et al, 2002), influence of perceived usefulness positively influencing on attitude towards the online retailer and intentions to use from such retailer (Vijayasarathy, 2004), and determinants of adoption (usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment) on the attitude toward the online retailer (Lee et al, 2006). On this account, brand attitude, and purchase intention was examined.
In this study, survey method in order to investigate how consumers perceive the convergence marketing in the marketing communication context, and further, how they evaluated the brand performing convergence marketing. Preliminary study was first proceed to understand how marketing of technology and marketing of culture is recognized by consumers, and further, manipulate each stimuli. The adoption process was investigated using technology acceptance model combined with pleasure-arousal-dominance theory, as a part of the individual variables. With mediating effect of consumer characteristics found to be important in convergence marketing (Kim, 2007), personal innovativeness, art involvement, and need for uniqueness was applied to see the mediating effect. Therefore, a survey was conducted to see the differences in the degree of convergence. The preliminary research with 183 samples indicated that convergence marketing method was preferred over the dedicated marketing of technology or culture. Thus, the experimental design that was designed in a form of 2 by 2 between subjects factorial design with factors of innovation of technology and classiness of culture, the 513 samples collected a total of 485 samples being used.
The analysis indicated that as the convergence traits of novelty and classic increase, determinant of intentions were strongly generated, followed by the increasing intention to accept, continued to building positive brand attitude and purchase intention. Yet, in specific, novelty trait had direct influences on making emotional feeling, including pleasure and arousal, rather than on generating cognitive reaction. It was the classic trait that had relationship in between cognitive and emotional reaction. Additionally, it was also found that in case of emotional feeling were evoked, pleasure and arousal, it influenced on building positive brand attitude continued to purchase intention even if adoption intention was not made. Moreover, when adoption intention was made, the direct influence on positive brand attitude was found to be significant. Meanwhile, determinants of adoption were found to have the significant influence on adoption intention and on brand attitude. The positive influence of determinants of adoption on adoption intention is in line with a number of researches on ETAM. When perceived to be higher, all resulted in higher adoption intention (Tzou et al., 2009). In terms of brand attitude, it was found that only the emotional variables of pleasure and arousal that had direct influence to have marketing effectance, which coincides with the result of Childers et al. (2001). This study indicates that compared to the perceived usefulness and ease of use, enjoyment was a stronger driver to predict the attitude. In sum, the result implies that convergence marketing can work to satisfy both the cognition dimension as well as the emotional facet. When drivers of determinants of adoption is generated, it strongly influence on the adoption intention.
Yet, in order to have the marketing communication effect on brand attitude and purchase intention, it is necessary to consider the emotional aspect, either pleasure or arousal. Such relationship is not only related to the cultural contents, but technology itself can now deliver emotional feelings to the consumers. Thus, the marketing director should focus on the usage of technology to involve emotional facets.
In addition, all individual characteristics were found to be significantly moderating. Result of the effect of personal innovativeness implies that those of highly innovated tends to not only have strongly influence on adoption intention, but also had significant effect of advertising effect compared to the less innovated groups. The moderating effects of art involvement turned out that those highly involved in art, novelty did not matter much compared to the less involved group. In case of need for uniqueness, the significant relationship of perceived pleasure on brand attitude was found, yet unlike expected, those low in need for uniqueness had significantly stronger adoption intention. Thus, this can be perceived as due to the marketing activity targeting the mass audience, lacking the attractiveness towards those in higher need for uniqueness. Thus, in order to attract both those in high and low need of uniqueness, delivering both usefulness as well as pleasure is important.
The result of this study contributes to understanding on status and recent trend of convergence marketing activities. Further, it is meaningful in that it is in line with the recent studies of applying TAM in combination with PAD theory as well as within the context of marketing communication. Thus, the result of this study is expected to be helpful in understanding the new hybrid consumers and give suggests useful information for establishing future brand communication plans. Yet, to further understand the interpretation process of consumer studies that incorporate variables suggested from the interview should be incorporated in the study.
In a period of crisis and uncertainty as the current, heritage marketing is a suitable
strategic opportunity because it associates values and meanings to products and
services by using corporate heritage or brand heritage in order to communicate
identity, continuity and stability. Heritage marketing seems particularly appropriate
for high symbolic fashion brand that require the ability to transmit identity and to
generate symbolic meanings. In relation to high symbolic fashion brand, an
opportunity for heritage marketing strategies is to narrate the myths associated with
the brand. In fact, literature has highlighted that fashion brand can be associate to the
concept of myth thanks to the presence of symbolic values and meanings. Heritage
and myth are concepts linked to time and progression. Therefore, they should
continually innovate and evolve in relation to the community of reference in order to
find a balance between continuity and renewal. However, a risk of heritage marketing
strategies is to merely celebrating the past thus losing the ability to generate and
regenerate myths and symbolic values. This paper aims to provide a critical
contribution to heritage marketing literature highlighting the risk of obsessive fixation
in the celebration of the past. In order to avoid this risk, the paper proposes that a
possible solution might be the integration of mythopoesis which is the ability to
generate and regenerate myths in order to create and perpetuate sense and meaning
through narrative.
Luxury retailers are said to be leading the way with investment in instore technology (Patel 2013). As consumer decision making has shifted from the rational to the emotional and experiential (Kim et al., 2009), luxury fashion retailers are increasingly investing in experiential retailing to provide a differentiated retail experience and encourage consumers to dwell and consume. However, although academic research has identified the increasingly important role of technology in consumers’ lives (Gilmore and Pine, 2002; Kim et al., 2009; Srinivasan and Srivastava, 2010), there is a lack of research on technology implementation in the luxury context; on how it could be conceived and what beneficial effects it would have on the shopping experience. The aim of this research to explore the adoption of in-store technology within the luxury retail store environment with respect to the motives and methods employed. Motives include the proliferation of e-commerce, the showrooming concept, to increase dwell time and spend instore, to enhance the level of interaction with customers and also that in-store technology can be a PR generator. There are three main methods that luxury brands have been using technology in their flagship stores and these are functional, inspirational and experiential.