This study investigates how livestream fashion shopping is associated with brick-and-mortar shopping, focusing on product uncertainty, and examines livestreaming’s role in reducing product uncertainty and promoting consumers’ purchase intention by adopting the Uncertainty reduction theory (URT). The study identifies the three product information sources (i.e., product demonstration, interaction with the seller, and other viewers’ reviews) that consumers use in livestream shopping via uncertainty-reducing strategies. PLS results (n = 292) indicate that consumers who rely on salespeople’s assistance as a product information source in brick-and-mortar shopping showed a positive perception of the two product information sources—interaction with the seller and other viewers’ reviews—in livestream shopping. The seller’s product demonstration played a significant role in reducing product uncertainty and subsequently affected purchase intention, while the other two information sources (i.e., interaction with the seller and other viewers’ reviews) affected the purchase intention directly. The findings extend the URT to improve our understanding of consumer information attainment in the livestream shopping context and exemplify a promising future for livestream fashion shopping by investigating its features that can potentially substitute for the brick-and-mortar shopping experience. Future studies can include motivational factors (i.e., service and/or technical barriers) in the model.

This study explores consumer behavior and decision-making in the context of blockchain technology (BT) adoption within the second-hand luxury market. Specifically, it investigates how BT can reduce uncertainty and enhance transparency in second-hand luxury transactions based on a mental accounting theory approach. A partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis (N = 511) was conducted, focusing on consumers’ perceived quality of traceable information obtained through BT (i.e., product diagnosticity, informativeness, and trustworthiness) and their perceived risks in second-hand luxury online shopping (i.e., financial risk, social risk, time risk, contamination risk, performance risk). The findings confirm that the perceived quality of traceable information enhances blockchain transparency, reducing uncertainty in online second-hand luxury shopping. This leads consumers to perceive BT-enabled platforms as valuable, increasing their intention to adopt them. The study also examines the moderating effect of price consciousness on consumer perceptions of BT and decision-making. The results of the multi-group analysis confirm that consumers with lower price consciousness are more influenced by the diagnosticity provided by BT in terms of product transparency, while for consumers with higher price consciousness, trustworthiness emerges as a more significant factor. This research offers insights into the application of blockchain technology in the second-hand luxury market, particularly in enhancing transparency and consumer trust. It emphasizes the importance of retail strategies that communicate the advantages of BT and alleviate consumer risks associated with the online second-hand luxury market while recognizing consumers' varying levels of price consciousness.

This study examines the underlying mechanisms that lead to sustainable fashion consumption in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. Particularly, this study explores the complex relations between resilient coping mechanisms, consumer life goals, and sustainable fashion consumption, combining Goal Content Theory and the Consumer Sustainability Orientation framework. The findings obtained from partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis using 503 responses confirm that resilient coping positively influenced both intrinsic and extrinsic life goals. While intrinsic goals reinforce all aspects of sustainability orientation (ecological, social, and economic), extrinsic goals show a contrasting effect—positively affecting economic orientation but negatively impacting ecological and social dimensions. Among sustainability orientations, the ecological dimension had a significant positive effect on sustainable fashion consumption behavior. The research also reveals that resilient coping directly improves social and economic dimensions of sustainability orientations, but it does not significantly influence ecological orientation. This study offers insight into differentiated marketing communication strategies for retailers depending on consumers’ goals—intrinsic or extrinsic—and implies the importance of the dynamic impact of each dimension of sustainability orientation on consumers’ sustainable fashion consumption choices.

Purpose: The study aims to examine fast fashion consumers' negative in-store experiences focusing on the effect of the two store environment factors, product overload and store ambiance, on their confusion and consequent shopping avoidance behavior.Design/methodology/approach: A research model of fast fashion consumers' confusion and store avoidance behavior is proposed using the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework. A pretest and the main online survey with 281 samples are analyzed, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) is conducted to test the proposed model.Findings: The SEM results support the proposed paths statistically. Consumers' confusion, measured with the two dimensions, inefficiency and helplessness, is significantly influenced by their perceived product overload and negative perception of store ambiance in the fast fashion shopping environment. Subsequently, fast fashion consumers' confusion results in less time spent in the store.Originality/value: The study sheds light on utilitarian shopping value in the fast fashion shopping environment by focusing on the fast fashion consumers' confusion in association with overloaded information caused by too many products and store ambiance.Research limitations/implications: The study implies that improving fast fashion stores' inherent issues with too many products and store ambiance might help consumers mitigate their confusion and prevent customer attrition. However, the study includes only two factors. Future studies may include other various fast fashion store factors. Additionally, one of the dimensions of confusion, irritation, did not emerge in this study. More work is needed to investigate fast fashion consumers' confusion, such as using a multigroup analysis by age.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the role of coaching leadership, self-determination theory (SDT) and perceived ease of use of in-store automation technology (ISAT) on the fashion retail frontline employees’ creativity in adopting and managing ISATs. Specifically, the study examined the impact of coaching leadership, psychological mechanisms and the moderating role of perceived ease of use of ISATs on fashion frontline employees’ creativity. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey from fashion retail frontline employees (n = 311) was collected via Qualtrics software through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Partial least squares structural equation modeling by using SmartPLS 4.0 was performed for the analysis. Findings: The findings highlighted the significant role of the facilitation of coaching leadership, intrinsic motivation and autonomy in positively influencing fashion frontline employees’ creativity in managing ISATs. Interestingly, the effect of the guidance of coaching leadership on creativity was mediated by intrinsic motivation and autonomy of psychological needs in SDT. Furthermore, the moderating role of ISAT's ease of use was found to have distinct effects on employees’ psychological mechanisms, further enhancing their creativity. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first studies to examine fashion frontline employees’ creativity by incorporating coaching leadership, SDT and perceived ease of use. This study challenges the traditional understanding of the positive role of perceived ease of use in technology adoption and performance, offering new insights into the nuanced relationship between perceived ease of use and technology-driven creativity within the context of retail automation.