Jochen Strähle

Online fashion shopping: mystery shopping-based evaluation of online German fashion stores

The purpose of this study is to evaluate online German fashion shopping websites from a customer perspective, based on a two-dimensional conceptual framework covering shopping experience and shopping quality. As the research methodology, an exploratory mystery shopping approach was used in order to compare online shops. The results were as follows. First, four categories of online shops were identified: heroes, marketing winners, process winners, and underperformers. Second, three main levers for improvement were elaborated: emotionality of websites, reducing complexity, and the introduction of an industry standard of payments. From these results, it is possible to analyze and benchmark websites and to adapt online marketing decisions as well as general management strategies for online fashion shopping companies. The study has originality and value as it is the first time that an evaluation of websites has combined the consumers perspective before the purchase and its fulfillment (e.g. delivery) after the online purchase.

The Prosumer Concept in Fashion Retail: Potentials and Limitations

The purpose of this paper is to highlight potentials and limitations of the prosumer concept in fashion retail. The paper illustrates the evolution of prosumption and in which directions the concept is being developed. The primary research is based on a literature review containing different sources of academic and non-academic references. Findings suggest that the prosumer concept is no new phenomenon. Recently, it has moved into the focus of companies that have noted that it is efficient when engaging with customers in order to strengthen their brand loyalty. An increasing number of companies offer innovative business models that underlie the concept. However, lately smart prosuming machines are changing the objectives of the concept. Even if the prosumer concept exists since many years and scholars investigate its potentials continuously, it is the fashion industry that has been researched comparatively little up to now.

Green Fashion Retail

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview over the fashion retail landscape from a sustainability perspective. It draws the outline of the key influencing developments, like digitaliziation on the one hand and changing consumer behavior on the other hand. It shows that new business models such as insitutionalized second hand formats may be on chance to provide an answer to the changing market rules.

Case Study: Grunge Music and Grunge Style

This paper is purposed to examine the impact of grunge music on fashion and to explain how grunge music is reflected in grunge style. The research methodology applied is a case study on grunge music and grunge style. Key findings suggest that different elements of grunge music had a great impact on the evolution of grunge style: Mentality and philosophy of the movement, musical style and sound as well as lyrical concerns are incorporated by grunge style. Commercial exploitation of grunge partly led to its downfall. Moreover, the original spirit of the movement is not commonly shared by all sub-genres’ respective contemporary styles. Musicians had great impact on the evolution of grunge style and unintentional rose to style icons. The research is limited by the amount of academic literature concerning the connection between grunge music and grunge style. Therefore, journal entries and blogs are used as reference as well.

How Digital Changed the Music Industry

This article aims to point out main changes of the music industry since the advent of the Internet and how the fashion industry can learn from it. Different factors are researched with a birds-eye perspective by conducting a literature review. The results are limited by the availability of sources and the implications are based on a theoretical foundation. For further research the conclusions drawn for the fashion industry have to be proven empirically. After reading the paper, the reader has rather an overview of the changed circumstances and how the music industry reacted than deep knowledge in each field. More specifically, this paper gives an overview of the changed circumstances due to digitalisation and how the music industry reacted within. As both the fashion and music industry have their similarities, they are limited in their comparability, since fashion products cannot be fully digitalized like a music record. The fact that the music industry had to reinvent itself rapidly to adopt new possibilities and chances results from the article. To make use of the sustainability trend and to build communities in order to include them in the creation process are the major suggestions for the fashion industry.

Case Study: EMP

The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the business model of the retailer EMP. The in-depth literature review develops the relevance of merchandising for the rock and heavy metal scene and the relevance of EMP within that market. Literature about existing approaches of multi-channelling has been reviewed. Based on this theoretical framework, a case study of EMP has been drafted. Findings are discussed, focusing on the performance of EMP as a multi-channel and lifestyle retailer and additionally provide valuable managerial implications for fashion retailers. Implications for further research address lifestyle retailers to contribute to the findings or validate them with different examples. The research is clearly limited by the amount of scholar literature concerning EMP in particular. Hence, magazines, journals and information provided by the company serve as reference. Even though EMP provided some information, gathering any information about how EMP manages multi-channelling operationally was not possible.

Merchandising in the Music Business

The purpose of this research paper is to find out to which extent rap music merchandise is influencing the fashion world of today. The research design is mainly created through analysing Internet sources. The key findings of this paper describe the way rap merchandise is created and distributed nowadays. Furthermore, is explained how an idea becomes trend and how rap artists influence trend creation, especially through social media channels. The topic around rap merchandising products and strategies is a very new one, thus there is barely any literature to find. Nevertheless, trend leading online music platforms and blogs offer a lot of grey literature about the research topic. In this paper, the analysis of rap merchandise and fashion is focused on clothing items to create a better understanding in which dimension the influence of rap merchandise on the fashion world is given.

In-Store Music in Fashion Stores

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role of in-store music in the fashion retail environment and to describe music as an atmospheric building tool in order to influence customer behaviour with emotions created by musical compositions. As offline retailer try to differentiate their stores through shopping experiences, atmospherics like visuals, scent and sound are appropriate tools to reinforce brand image and therefore customers’ willingness to enter, explore and purchase. Music can be a powerful primary element in creating or enhancing sensory experiences of shoppers and serves as a powerful connection to emotions. Focus of the literature review lies on the emotions which are triggered though different musical characteristics and then affect the customer behaviour. The paper offers a concisely presented review and highlights crucial aspects on what role in-store music has on customers’ perception of atmosphere, emotions and behaviour.

Crowdfunding: Learnings from the Music Business

The purpose of this paper is to identify key success factors of Crowdfunding in the Music Business in order to discuss their applicability to the Fashion Industry. The research methodology applied is a literature review examining academic and non-academic references. Key research findings include four main success factors. First explains the innovative and adaptive nature of the music industry caused by historical evolution. Second strong commitment and connection to the fan base is identified as success factor. Third manageable effort for the realisation on a large scale reduces the risk of a failure. And, last success factor describes the successful implementation of campaign-specific aspects. The discussion finally shows that three of four success factors can be adapted to the Fashion Business. Due to little scientific research in the field of Crowdfunding in the Music Business, the success factors are worked out independently, based on general literature. Accordingly, quantitative testing and further analysis is recommended.

Case Study: Marillion

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of crowdfunding, demonstrated by a case study about the rock band Marillion. The research methodology applied is a literature review examining academic references. On this basis, a case study by exemplary illustrating the rock band Marillion and how they invented crowdfunding has been drafted. Findings suggest that the crowdfunding concept is no new phenomenon, since the rock band Marillion has investigated the business model. Recently, the funding method is applied to the fashion industry; hence it is efficient and engaging to finance projects by that specific business model. A limitation of this paper is that the topic of crowdfunding is new to the fashion business and needs further research and tests until they are practicable to interpret. Results show that there is a high potential for using crowdfunding in fashion by reaching a long-term change in this industry.