Fashion e-commerce: a study of the elements determining the profitability of an online sale channel within the fashion industry

Abstract

E-commerce has been the subject of a massive growth in the course of the last decade, with the fashion industry being one the the main beneficiary of this growth, being the largest B2C eCommerce market segment with a market size estimated at US$752.5 billion in 2020 and a growth compound rate of 9.1% per year. In such a context, fashion e-commerce is easily identifiable as one of the most profitable sectors globally, but at the same time one of the most competitive as well. This thesis starts with a review of the history and the roots of the modern e-commerce website, goes on outlining a theoretical framework touching e-commerce definitions, e-commerce types, e-commerce main benefits compared to other sale channels. It then proceeds exposing a detailed practical framework of how an e-commerce is composed, what are the current main e-commerce platforms and their peculiarities, and what are the main fashion e-commerce trend strategies and best practices. Finally, the aim of the thesis is to study empirically, through the somministration of online questionnaires, which are the leading key success factors for a profitable e-commerce in the fashion industry, with a particular focus on whether the most successful factors in generating purchase intention are related to the quality and the ease of use of the website or the marketing and communication activities that the brands carry out around their e-commerce websites. Involvement with the product category is used as the moderator element influencing the studied correlations.