Discussion, implications, and limitations
The discussion of results begins with observations about patterns in the research data.
The data shown in Table I on the relative importance of clothing web site attributes and
on perceived attributes of favorite clothing web sites suggest attributes that clothing
retailers’ web sites should possess to attract college students. The respondents in this
study put relatively high importance on such attributes as the following: easy
navigability and payment; provision of color, size, price, and other product information;
allowance for order tracking and return of unwanted items; and security of credit-card
numbers and personal information. As seen in Table I, the mean values for the responses
on relative importance of clothing web site attributes generally track with those for
perceived attributes of favorite clothing web sites: Respondents tended to rate their
favorite web sites most (least) highly in the attributes they considered most (least)
important. The consistency between these two sets of ratings has the unsurprising
implication that college students tend to favor clothing web sites perceived to have
attributes they consider important, and it also lends support to types of attributes that
retailers should incorporate in their web sites. An attribute that departs from the pattern
just noted is “fun to visit.” Our respondents seemed to put little importance on web sites
being fun, but rated their favorite web sites rather high in this regard. Also worth noting
is that the respondents neither valued the offering of many different brands in a web site
nor viewed their favorite web sites as flush in brand variety; however, they rated the
favorite web sites rather high in carrying their preferred brands. The success of a
clothing web site aimed at college students may depend more on carrying select brands
that appeal to this market segment than on carrying a large selection of brands. A
retailer would, of course, need to conduct market research to learn the preferred brands
and effective means for promoting them.