Merchandising/Marketing/Retailing: Branding

A Grounded Analysis of Collaborative Consumption among Apparel Consumers: Identification of Motivations for Engagement

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Abstract

Collaborative Consumption (CC) is an emerging business approach that encapsulates different models for sharing products and services in a market. The purpose of this study is to establish an understanding of CC in the apparel context. The research identifies motivations for using CC among users of three established platforms: Rent the Runway (RR), Bag, Borrow and Steal (BBS) and Poshmark (PM). Data were comprised of comments sourced from SiteJabber.com, an unbiased platform for consumer reviews. NVivo software is used for the content analysis following a deductive approach to identify consumer motivations for using CC, and interpreted into three motivation categories: affordability, trust and complexity. Our results suggest affordability and trust impact consumers within the CC market environment. Several platform specific findings emerged such as issues related to honesty among users of the PM platform and difficulty with technology or process among the RR users which actually indicated difficulty with delivery logistics.

How to Cite:

Gopalakrishnan, S., Matthews, D. R. & Moore, M., (2016) “A Grounded Analysis of Collaborative Consumption among Apparel Consumers: Identification of Motivations for Engagement”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 73(1).