User Preferences of Application Attributes During Product Browsing : An Investigation of Customer Experience in Fashion E-Commerce

Sammanfattning: In a fast-changing retail environment, including hard competition and demanding consumers, the customer experience of the purchasing service is crucial to gain a competitive advantage. Since consumers are to some extent moving from offline to online, and from desktop shopping to purchasing clothing in a mobile application, there is a need for investigating consumers expectations of their experience of a mobile application. The existing and performance of attributes and functions determines the satisfaction of the user experience, which is why it is reasonable to investigate expectations concerning attributes. The finding and classification of quality attributes in mobile applications in the fashion industry was the main goal of this thesis. Attributes were found using a qualitative study including 16 interviews, where respondents field tested already existing applications. The reasonability to further investigate these attributes was confirmed by a literature research. After finding 35 relevant attributes, these were investigated and analysed using the Theory of Attractive Quality and a 5-level Kano questionnaire. The analysis was conducted using the Theory of Attractive Quality, classifying attributes according to the Kano chart of evaluation. Further, each attribute was analysed using tools such as better/worse diagrams and self-stated importance values. The classification results from the questionnaire were that “Choose product size” was categorised as Must-Be, “Loading speed” as One-Dimensional, eight quality attributes were combinations of classifications, and 25 were classified as Indifferent. A number of 510 respondents answered the questionnaire. The classification of attributes implies that customers are rather indifferent to attributes during their shopping experience. However, further analysis concludes that even though many attributes are classified as Indifferent, many attributes need to be considered, according to the better/worse values and diagrams, which are useful regarding resource allocation. According to the classification and better/worse diagrams, one can distinguish a difference between genders: male respondents proved to be more indifferent to their shopping experience than females. Analysis of the data also shows a difference between age groups. The two youngest age groups including respondents born in 1990-1994 and 1995-2000, had higher better and worse values, implying that younger people expect more from their shopping user experience. Conclusively, this report resulted in an overview of consumers’ expectations regarding their experience when shopping in a fashion mobile application. The Theory of Attractive Quality is a useful method when measuring perceived and expected quality; however, each investigative occasion demands different method setup, adjusting for specific attribute types, as well as business. Some improvements can be made regarding the Theory of Attractive Quality, increasing the chances of a better result.