Merchandising/Marketing/Retailing: Management

Fashion Shopping With Voice-Activated Assistants: A Phronetic Iterative Approach

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Abstract

As the market of voice-activated assistants (VAAs) is expanding, these voice-based interfaces are penetrating people’s everyday life. While a growing body of research on this topic develops, use of VAAs for shopping activities is largely understudied. To add new insight into the current understanding of this phenomenon, we explore consumers’ experiences, perceptions, and expectations with VAAs for shopping fashion products. This qualitative study took an explorative approach using semi-structured interviews with 21 participants who used VAAs for fashion/apparel shopping in the US. The phronetic iterative method identified six main themes: Retail category comfort, fashion brand loyalty, shopping diary, trustworthiness of the ‘ecosystem’, autonomy, and evolution towards multi-sensory digital commerce. Further, facilitators and barriers relating to each theme are discussed. Our findings lay a preliminary foundation for the theorization of consumer behavior in voice commerce while providing implications on marketing and design of voice commerce for fashion businesses and VAA developers.

Keywords: voice-activated assistants, qualitiative, phronetic iterative approach, technology

How to Cite:

Frankel, S. & Ha, S., (2022) “Fashion Shopping With Voice-Activated Assistants: A Phronetic Iterative Approach”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 78(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.13471