Online Visual Merchandising Structural Elements And Optimization For Apparel Web Stores

Abstract

The analysis of recent research on OVME (Online Visual Merchandising Elements) shows that they can be classified in five main groups: research in web graphics, web navigation, atmospheric elements, web registration, and product demonstration.
The first group of research studies web sites graphic design, not considering users’ preferences.
The second stream of research, stressing on web navigation, is based on students’ excerpts from favourite fashion web sites, projected to general online shops.
The third direction, focusing on “atmospheric” elements, groups OVME in two major sub-categories - LTRE (Low Task Relevant Environment – elements with low priority) and HTRE (High Task Relevant Environment – elements with high priority).
It is generally theoretical and offers a conceptual model to describe the effect of the atmospheric elements of apparel online stores.
Studies in the next group of research cover web registration. Research is aimed to determine the level of security, safety and privacy protection and measures to be taken to improve online shopping experience in apparel online stores.
The last focus is on different techniques in product demonstration at fashion stores.
The use of 3-D view instead of a 2-D one at the online stores for fashion clothing is limited in use for certain fashion brands.
Online merchandising represents comparatively new and poorly studied research field. In-depth cross study of apparel online stores, combining OVME and online
shopping behavior analysis, is crucial for “launching” an online store.
The purpose of this study is to build a substantial and relevant background for maintaining apparel online stores, comparing OVME with traditional off-line merchandising elements to meet consumer expectations of fashion garments.