The branded male : unlocking e-commerce potential for luxury male brands

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that affect online male consumer behaviour on premium luxury menswear e-commerce websites. Information technology and the Internet have had a dramatic effect on business operations in the fashion sector. Companies in the premium luxury business are investing heavily in eCommerce applications as a lucrative way forward, as opposed to a brick-and-mortar experience. Generally, empirical research on e-tailing carries a magnifying glass on womenswear and tends to push aside or tar with the same brush, a powerful market that has transformed considerably in the past decade; menswear. Male consumer behaviour also changed accordingly, and this study embarks from an analysis of the branded metrosexual male of the 21st century and his shopping behaviour. This study, then, builds on the revolutionary information systems success model developed by Delone and McLean in 1992, after which it attempts to explore the relationship between the branded male and the information systems success model. Eight semi-structured one-on-one interviews were carried out with Maltese branded males to substantiate this exploratory research and the empirical findings of this study confirm that there is an existing powerful link between the male consumer and system quality, information quality and service quality of fashion luxury e-commerce. There are only the select few Maltese menswear brands, which have the potential to compete internationally. This is arguably, the result of a lack of resources, infrastructure and perhaps, a lack of tacit knowledge. Although the fashion industry operates in a cut-throat competitive environment, e-commerce has provided a considerable reach to a wider audience that enables small retailers to flourish, if they have the industry’s know-how and what their target audience is looking for. This study aims to provide business practitioners and marketers the powerful tools to enable them to push their menswear luxury brand to the next level from an e-commerce perspective, by first and foremost, understanding who their male online shopper is.