Investigation of Online Visual Merchandising (OVM) Elements of Apparel Web Stores
Authors: Hristo Katrandjiev, Ivo Velinov
Abstract
The paper presents the results of a scientific research project concerning the new emerging academic field of Online merchandising. The study aims to identify, classify, and measure the OVM elements/subelements and it is the first one that generalizes and systematizes on a global basis the groups, the categories, the elements, and the subelements of OVM of apparel online shops. The method of content analysis is applied in the context of randomly selected apparel web stores. The adopted inductive approach in the study reveals 55 subelements which are grouped into 13 elements. These elements form 5 categories. Finally the 5 categories form 2 major groups. The OVM elements/subelements are analyzed and the frequency of usage of each subelement is measured and discussed. Finally, the authors summarize the results and outline the future directions for research.