Fashion clothing interest and purchase intention of young women consumers of India.

Abstract

The study of consumer purchase behavior is important to understand the consumer purchase pattern, quantity and motivations of purchase. This research therefore tries to understand the role of socio-psychological factors and gender schema in determining the fashion clothing interest, and purchase motivation of emerging adult women consumers of India. Responses tabulated through a self-administered questionnaire from 200 women consumers aged 18-24 across India, were analyzed using structural equation modeling and Hayes's (2017) macro process to establish clothing uniqueness, self-concept, brand image, word of mouth and perceived quality as antecedents of women's fashion clothing interest resulting in positive purchase motivation with price consciousness acting as a moderator between both. The resulting model depicts a significant positive relationship between clothing uniqueness, self-concept and brand image on emerging women consumers clothing interest, while the interaction of word of mouth and perceived quality was not significant on clothing interest. Hayes's analysis described a significant moderating role played by price consciousness on young women clothing interest and purchase intention with price consciousness dampening consumers purchase intention despite having a clothing interest. The output of the study highlights the predictor of clothing interest for young women consumers in an area not well defined until now an will enable brands to establish business strategies to gain patronage and brand loyalty of young emerging generation Z consumers in emerging economies accordingly