Customer involvement, Satisfaction and Loyalty for Fast-fashion Retailers

Abstract

The Vietnam fast-fashion industry has been strongly developing due to a surge in customer demand. However, local fast fashion retailers still fall short of understanding customers’ expectations which, in turn, makes them vulnerable competing with other global competitors. Therefore, the objectives of this research are to examine how fast-fashion retailers generate an emotional connection, maintain satisfaction, and raise loyalty by involving customers in developing new products. This study integrates five hypotheses into one model which is analyzed by using structural equation modeling. Regard to qualitative research, a sample of 25 customers and 25 salesmans in an apparel brand were chosen by snowball sampling method to answer the group interview. Regard to quantitative research, total 287 responses with 243 valid responses were fully completed by a simple random sampling method. Random respondents were chosen in groups of fashion-conscious people working and studying in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) from the age of 18 – 28 years old. The results show that all five hypotheses have statistical significance towards the model. Hence, the involvement of customers in developing new products is confirmed to affect on emotional connection and customer satisfaction; then emotional connection positively influences customer satisfaction; and lastly, customer loyalty is arisen by emotional connection and customer satisfaction. Finally, this research suggests future researchs extending the research scope of age range and other provinces with the same measurment items due to the limitation from the negative effect of global pandemics as Coronavirus. Keywords Customer involvement, product development, emotional connection, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, fast-fashion retailer.