Evaluating factors that affect young customers' purchase intention toward domestic and foreign apparel in Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was investigating what factors affect young customers’ purchase intention toward purchasing domestic and imported apparel product in Ho Chi Minh City. Variables to be investigated include customer attitude toward product attributes and demographic characteristics. Also, the effects of country of origin and consumer ethnocentrism were examined.

The survey questionnaire was employed to collect the primary data in Ho Chi Minh City. A total

of 331 respondents completed and returned useable questionnaires.

The findings showed that there are three factors which are country-of-origin, customer attitude toward product attributes and consumer ethnocentrism that affect young customer purchase intention toward domestic and foreign apparel. People who perceived that Country-of-origin is an important factor in their buying behavior and who preferred Vietnam-made products tended to have highly intention to buy domestic clothes. Moreover, the customers who perceived that “good fit”, “durability”, “good price”, “fashionableness” and “choice of styles” are important attributes when purchasing clothes and have high ethnocentrism were more likely to buy Vietnam clothes.

Customer attitude toward domestic versus foreign apparel was also clarified in each factor. For country-of-origin, young consumers preferred apparel originating in western countries more than eastern countries. Their most preferred country of origin of apparel was France and Italy and the least preferred was Korea, Vietnam and China. Additionally, the perceived quality of French- made and Italy-made apparel was rated higher than that of Vietnam, Korea and China. Regarding the second variables, consumer attitudes toward product attributes differed significantly. Consumers had an overall more positive attitude towards foreign apparel over Vietnam apparel with regard to good fit, durability and fashionableness. For consumer ethnocentrism, the results indicated that Vietnam consumers tended to be moderately ethnocentric. However, demographic variables did not show effects on customer purchase intention except income level.