Consumer Behavior

An Exploratory Eye-Tracking Study of Consumers’ Online Purchasing Behaviors of Sustainable Apparel Products

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Abstract

This eye-tracking study explores the relationship between consumers’ online apparel purchasing behaviors and their existing environmental concerns of the negative impact of the apparel industry. A two-phase, mixed research method was employed. In phase I, an electronic questionnaire was utilized to measure participants’ demographics and their baseline levels of environmental concerns on the negative environmental impact of the apparel industry. In Phase 2, there were an eye-tracking experiment and a post-experiment survey. In the eye-tracking experiment, each participant wore a pair of Tobii Pro Glass 2 eye-tracker when they were evaluating two pairs of leggings from two well-known brands online. The brands and leggings were carefully selected to ensure the ones from one brand were more sustainable than their counterparts from the other brand, and the leggings were compatible in terms of price and style. Upon completion of the eye-tracking study, each participant also completed a post-eye tracking survey for indicating which pair of leggings they would be most likely to purchase. This study found no correlation between consumers’ online purchasing behaviors and their existing environmental concern levels of the negative impact of the apparel industry. Two possible explanations are 1) participants did not trust the sustainability information provided by the brand; and 2) most of the sustainability attributes appeared at the lower part of a webpage, which caused the loss of attention from consumers, particularly from consumers with high baseline levels of environmental concerns. However, further investigation is needed.

Keywords: Eye-Tracking, Sustainable Apparel Consumption;, Sustainability, Purchasing Behavior;

How to Cite:

Wu, Y. & Islam, M., (2022) “An Exploratory Eye-Tracking Study of Consumers’ Online Purchasing Behaviors of Sustainable Apparel Products”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 78(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.13473