Shopping Motivations

Shopping motivations provide the broadest academic conceptual level of plus size fashion online shopping motivations analysed in this research and provide a generic understanding of the basic principles.

3.3.1 Definition

Shopping motivations are ‘the drivers of behaviour that bring consumers to the marketplace to satisfy their internal needs’ (Jin and Kim, 2003, p.399), motivating them to consume a product or service via a shopping channel. Retailers who attempt to fully understand the multiplicity of shopping motivations give themselves the best potential to create added value for their customers, by identifying the source of their motivation to both shop and consume (Rintamaki, Kuusela and Mitronen, 2006).

There are two basic and generic classes of shopping motivations: functional and non-functional (Sheth, 1983). Functional motivations are related to time, place, and possession needs and non-functional motivations are those that are associated with certain social or emotional values (Bhatnagar and Ghose, 2004). These classes of motivations play an intertwining role in consumer decision-making. Each type of shopping motivation has a different balance of significance to every individual, for example, for some consumers shopping is an opportunity to find a bargain, whilst for others, it’s an opportunity to socialise or escape from daily routines (Reid and Brown, 1996). Such types of motivations within the shopping motivations classes will be discussed later in the chapter in the context of plus size fashion online shopping motivations (section 3.7).

However, it is important to recognise and define that functional motivations are primarily related to product attributes, whereas non-functional motivations are primarily related to product association (Rinatamaki et al. 2006). In this sense, functional motivations are intrinsic to products, whilst non-functional motivations are extrinsic to products (Sheth, 1983) and as such, need more conceptual distinction.

Hence, it must also be highlighted that hedonic, social and experiential dimensions are associated with non-functional motivations whilst utilitarian and economic

dimensions are associated with functional motivations (Rintamaki et al. 2006). Both utilitarian and hedonic motivations are both important factors in contributing to retailer competitive advantage; hedonic motivations acting as an extension of utilitarian motivation (Parsons, 2002). They act as cohesive motivations for both offline shopping mediums (Dawson, Bloch and Ridgway, 1990; Babin, Darden and Griffin, 1994) and online shopping mediums (Brown, Pope and Vogues, 2003).

3.3.2 Functional/Utilitarian Motivations

Functional motivations are associated with the utilitarian needs of consumers that result in motivations that are: mission critical; rational; decision effective; and goal orientated (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982; Batra and Ahtola, 1991; Engel, Blackwell and Miniard, 1993), i.e. task and product focused. From that perspective, fundamental shopping values of a consumer are utilitarian (Keeney, 1999). Westbrook and Black (1985) identified two functional motivations for shopping: choice optimisation; and anticipated use of product. Utilitarian needs are hence the simplest for the retailer to provide the consumer due to their physical and product or service based nature, often creating the differentiators between retailers and retail shopping mediums.

However, although utilitarian shopping behaviour is characterised by task-related, product-orientated, rational and extrinsic motivations (Babin et al. 1994), it is based on the crude assumption that consumers on the whole are rational problem-solvers (Bettman, 1979). This assumption is flawed in the context of fashion online shopping motivations in particular, as fashion consumption can be more impulsive, with consumers having irrational unconcern over the amount they spend (Cowart and Goldsmith, 2007). The assumption resonates further for plus size fashion consumers however, as although having fashion impulsiveness, also have the enhanced product-orientated task of finding the fashionable products in their size (Colls, 2006).

It was initially identified that the most important features of online retailing were utilitarian (Blake, Neuendorf and Valdiserri, 2005). Wagner (2007) identified that retailers that satisfy the utilitarian needs of the consumer create ‘frictionless shopping’, the primary satisfaction criteria of consumers, of which there are three dimensions:

store; personnel; and assortment. However, the presence of fashion involvement in

online fashion consumption indicates an enhanced level of hedonic motivation to shop online for fashion above and beyond utility (Shang, Chen and Shen, 2005).

3.3.3 Non-Functional/Hedonic Motivations

Non-functional motivations are associated with the hedonic needs of consumers that create experiential, sensual and emotional motivations (Sherry, 1990; Arnold and Reynolds, 2003; Penaloza, 2001; Kozinets, Sherry, DeBerry-Spence, Cuhachek, Nuttavuthisit and Storm, 2002), that cannot be underestimated (Bloch and Bruce, 1984; Sherry, 1990; Babin et al. 1994; To, Liao and Lin, 2007) and relate to the shopping experience and its emotive, fantasy and multisensory dimensions (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982). They are a means by which to add competitive hedonic added value to the retailer and its products and services; above and beyond functional motivations (Parsons, 2002). Hence, the softer, hedonic side of shopping can create differentiation between retailers in often saturated markets (Rintamaki et al.

2006) as ‘many retailers would benefit by defining their business as being part of the social-recreational industry’ (Tauber, 1972, p.49).

Traditionally, the hedonism of the experience of shopping was deemed achieved through the consumers’ involvement with a product or service (Bloch and Richins, 1983) and that even if consumers did not proceed to a purchase, interaction in the retail shopping medium would produce hedonic value (MacInnis and Price, 1987).

Although the enjoyment of shopping for its own sake is still identified as a key hedonic consumer value (Demangeot and Broderick, 2007) even during pre-planned consumption (Rintamaki et al. 2006); recent academic research takes a more sophisticated stance; associating hedonic needs with recreational, pleasurable, intrinsic, and stimulation-orientated motivations (Nguyen, Nguyen and Barrett, 2007) due to the ever-growing sophistication of the consumer. Fashion consumption adds a hedonistic dimension to fashion online shopping in particular, since just browsing and finding trend information satisfies the fashion interest and involvement motivations of the fashion online consumer (Joung and Miller, 2006).

Tauber (1972) academically categorized non-functional shopping motivations into two types: personal motivations and social motivations. The personal motivations include: role playing; diversion; self-gratification; learning about new trends; physical activity; mental activity; and sensory stimulation. The social motivations include:

social experiences outside the home; communications with others having a similar interest; peer group attraction; status and authority; and pleasure of bargaining.

Parsons (2002) took the same variables 30 years later and applied them to online consumers, resulting in the extraction of the variables: role playing; physical activity;

sensory stimulation; and pleasure of bargaining.

However, if an identical study were to be repeated in 2010, these extractions may not occur due to the ever-developing sophistication of online retailing. Virtual commerce for example, including Second Life and avatars, are increasing brand awareness and revealing further information about consumers with the potential to allow consumption in ‘roles’ and virtual physical activity online (Arakji and Lang, 2008).

Online retailing interactivity is more than just an unparalleled opportunity to look for product information (Haubl and Trifts, 2000) and the hedonic pleasure of bargaining from online auction and price comparison sites (Mollenberg, 2004). The increased sophistication of web design features predicted by Siddiqui et al. (2003) has transformed fashion online retailing; catwalks, 3D rotations and zooms add a virtual dimension of interactive hedonic sensory stimulation. Hence, these non-functional dimensions create consumer motivation to shop online and visit particular retailer websites.

Arnold and Reynolds (2003) and most recently Nguyen et al. (2007) have since simplified hedonic shopping motivations, conceptualising them to have six dimensions: adventure; social; gratification; idea; role; and value, conceptually related but distinct concepts. These dimensions are consumer orientated, not product or service orientated, which reflects the self-orientated and self-purposeful (Babin et al.

1994) and the subjective and abstract (Rintamaki et al. 2006) nature of hedonism.

Hedonic satisfaction lies out of the constraints of necessity (Bardhi and Arnould, 2005) to a further extent than simple product and information sourcing (Boedeker, 1995;

Kim and Shim, 2002). Consumers are looking for more than simply the cornerstone utilitarian values of price and convenience (Rintamaki et al. 2006). As a result,

products consumed for their hedonic value have a different impact upon the consumer than products consumed for utilitarian value, however, both values have a significance in a consumer’s overall goal of consumption and hence, upon marketing strategies of retailers (To et al. 2007). Hence, enjoyment and aesthetic hedonism has become an intrinisic dimension to online retailing (Mathwick, Malhotra and Rigdon, 2001), with plus size fashion online retailing being no exception.