Fashion mobile apps
Retail operations are becoming increasingly mobile, and the fashion industry is leading the way, with the majority of online fashion sales now made on mobile devices, particularly through mobile apps (Charlton, 2019). Fashion mobile apps offer a convenient and user-friendly way for consumers to browse and purchase fashion items (Magrath & McCormick, 2013). Because of mobile apps’ exponential growth and wide adoption on the part of fashion retailers and marketers, academic researchers have devoted much attention to this topic. In doing so, much of the former research has focused on identifying the distinct attitudes consumers display (e.g., consumers’ adoption intention or their feelings of satisfaction) in response to mobile app use, and the specific factors that affect those attitudes. For example, Hur et al.’s (2017) study investigated the factors that influence consumers’ adoption of fashion mobile apps. In doing so, they identified technological innovativeness (i.e., individual propensity to try new technology) and fashion innovativeness (i.e., individual propensity to purchase new fashion items rather than staying with previous choices and/or consumption patterns) as the critical antecedents that influence consumers’ fashion app adoption. On the other hand, Trivedi and Trivedi (2018) explored the factors that affect consumers’ satisfaction with fashion mobile apps, and documented that three factors, information quality (the extent to which consumers find that fashion mobile apps provide quality information), system quality (the extent to which consumers find fashion mobile apps systematically easy to use), and service quality (the extent to which consumers find that fashion mobile apps provide good after-sales services), affect consumer satisfaction with fashion mobile apps significantly.
Despite these previous studies’ theoretical contributions, their practical implications are limited, in that many of them have considered ‘attitude’ the most important predictor of consumer behaviour. Indeed, understanding consumers’ attitude, which encompasses consumers’ beliefs, feelings, or behavioural intentions toward an attitude object, is important in fashion marketing research. However, in today’s dynamic fashion business environment where consumers’ tastes and preferences are changing constantly, it seems more important to understand whether and the way fashion mobile apps satisfy consumers’ more enduring, intrinsic needs (e.g., for competence, autonomy, and relatedness), which are essential in motivating their behaviour. Further, as mobile apps have advanced technologically over time and in the unique pandemic context, it is important to understand whether and the way the new ‘VR’ fashion apps that are endowed with gamification-, customization-, and engagement-features fulfill consumers’ intrinsic needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. This led us to formulate the following research questions:
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RQ1: Do the gamification-, customization-, and engagement-elements of VR fashion apps satisfy consumers’ intrinsic needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, respectively?
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RQ2: If so, does this fulfill of intrinsic needs (i.e., competence, autonomy and relatedness) shape consumers’ positive behavioural intention (i.e., the intentions to continuously use the VR app and make in-app purchases)?
To address the questions above, we developed our conceptual model based upon self-determination theory (SDT).
Self-determination theory (SDT)
SDT is a theory of human motivation Deci and Ryan (1985) developed. In this context, motivation refers to what moves people to act. Self-determination represents an individual’s ability to make choices and determine a course of action according to his/her own will, without external compulsion (Wehmeyer & Little, 2013). This ability plays an important role in motivating humans’ behavior and enhancing their psychological wellbeing (Ki & Kim, 2016). Self-determination allows people to feel that they have control over their choices and lives, which ultimately increases their feelings of psychological wellbeing (e.g., feeling capable, self-governed, well-supported, and satisfied with their state) (Ryan, 2009). It also has an influence on motivation. For example, people will feel more motivated to take action when they feel that what they choose to do on their own will have an effect on their outcome (Gagné & Deci, 2005). In this way, SDT highlights the essential role intrinsic motivation plays in affecting human behavior (Ki & Kim, 2016).
Stated differently, SDT examines people’s inherent tendencies that motivate them to engage in behaviors (Deci & Ryan, 2008). According to SDT, three basic psychological needs are particularly important in motivating a person to initiate behavior; an individual can become self-determined when his/her needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are fulfilled (Ryan & Deci, 2000a). Competence refers to the human need to feel that one’s behavior is enacted effectively [e.g., to feel that one has done a good job: Ryan and Deci (2000b)]. Autonomy represents the need to experience behavior as voluntary [e.g., to feel that one has control over what s/he does: Ryan et al., (2006)]. Relatedness refers to the need to interact, be connected to, and experience caring from others [e.g., to feel that one has meaningful relationships and interactions with others: Ryan and Deci (2000b)]. These three needs promote intrinsic motivation, which initiates behavior for its own sake and enhances one’s growth.
SDT has been applied in a wide range of research across distinct domains, from education to work and health (Gagné & Deci, 2005; Hagger & Chatzisarantis, 2009; Reeve, 2002). For example, it has provided a framework for academic researchers to identify ways to motivate students, employees, or patients better to enhance their academic, work, or exercise performance—particularly to foster their intrinsic motivations. While a number of studies has proposed self-determined motivation as an important predictor of human behaviour (Darner, 2009; Deci & Ryan, 2002; Wilson et al., 2008), academic researchers in the field of fashion marketing (i.e., fashion consumer behaviour) have been relatively slow to adopt SDT. Instead, they have been influenced largely by the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and have proposed ‘attitude’ (Choi & Lee, 2019; Kim & Karpova, 2010) and/or ‘subjective norm’ (Nam et al., 2017; Ramkumar & Woo, 2018) as important predictors of fashion consumer behaviour. However, more recently, SDT’s concept of autonomous motivation (i.e., basic and intrinsic human needs) has been shown to predict consumer behaviour better than its more established predictors (e.g., ‘attitude’, ‘subjective norms’, and/or ‘past behaviour’) (Gilal et al., 2018, 2019; Xi & Hamari, 2019). Thus, this study adopts this more recent stance and investigates (1) whether the extent to which a VR fashion app provides consumers with a sense of gamified experience (H1: challenge, and H2: achievement), personalized experience (H3: avatar customization, and H4: avatar identification), and engaging experience (H5: social presence, and H6: social support) fulfills their competence, autonomy, and relatedness needs; (2) whether these intrinsic needs fulfill determine positive consumer behavioral intentions (H7: intention to continue to use VR apps, and H8: in-app purchase intention), and (3) whether the intention to continue to use VR apps leads to a positive in-app purchase intention (H9).
Hypotheses development
A VR fashion app’s gamification elements affect consumers’ need to fulfill competence
Gamification refers to a strategy of incorporating game-like elements (e.g., engaging in entertaining challenges and accomplishing distinct achievement levels) into a brand’s retail marketing programs (Singh, 2012). For example, in a VR fashion app such as Taobao Life, users can complete daily challenges and attempt to earn higher points with which they can buy virtual clothes or accessories (Hallanan, 2020). Fashion retailers are integrating these game dynamics into their mobile apps increasingly, as they believe they can satisfy consumers’ intrinsic need for competence (Xi & Hamari, 2019), which can be fulfilled particularly when they sense a degree of challenge (e.g., gradually improve through the course of the game) and achievement (e.g., achieve higher levels or points) while using VR apps (Sailer et al., 2017).
A sense of challenge refers to an individual’s feeling of engaging in a difficult, yet achievable, task (Fu et al., 2009). This sense of challenge has been found to satisfy consumers’ desire for competence effectively. Legault’s (2017) study showed that people prefer tasks that are more, rather than less, challenging. The more challenging the tasks, the more they require people’s attention, persistence, and determination to improve, all of which serve to fulfill their need to be competent. Facing and overcoming challenges indeed reinforce one’s beliefs in self-efforts and self-abilities, and thus fulfill the need for competence (Skhirtladze et al., 2019). This suggests that consumers’ competence need can be fulfilled by the challenge features designed in a VR app (e.g., passing different levels in tile-matching games on a VR fashion app such as Taobao Life). This leads us to formulate:
H1
The more consumers feel challenged while using a VR fashion app, the more they feel that their need for competence is fulfilled.
Providing consumers with a sense of achievement is arguably another important element that can fulfill their need for competence. A sense of achievement refers to a strong positive feeling (i.e., feeling proud) of having done something difficult and worthwhile (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). When a user experiences a sense of self-efficacy (i.e., the belief that s/he has the ability to accomplish a task) or a sense of mastery, it helps fulfill his/her need for competence (Skhirtladze et al., 2019). The need for competence can be fulfilled when people feel that they are capable of, or effective in, their actions (Sheldon et al., 2001). Excelling and gaining mastery over challenges can also allow people to gain an important sense of competence and develop a cohesive sense of self (Patrick et al., 2007). We expect that the same effect will hold true when consumers feel a sense of achievement while using a VR fashion app. This leads us to propose:
H2
The more consumers feel a sense of achievement while using a VR fashion app, the more they feel that their need for competence is fulfilled.
A VR fashion app’s customization elements affect consumers’ need to fulfill autonomy
Customization refers to a marketing strategy in which a retailer allows customers to individualize its products or services through personal engagement (Liao et al., 2019). Fashion retailers are integrating customization into their mobile apps increasingly to co-create value with their customers and integrate those added values into their offerings. For example, an American fashion retailer, The Gap, offers a mobile app, the ‘DressingRoom’, in which consumers can customize their avatars based upon their own body type and try on clothes virtually (Mileva, 2019). In this way, customers are given the autonomy to personalize fashion retailers’ mobile services.
Many previous studies have shown that avatar customization helps consumers fulfill their need for autonomy. Avatar customization is a feature that allows consumers to choose, design, or modify their avatars (Ratan & Sah, 2015). When consumers have the freedom to personalize something, they feel their intrinsic needs fulfilled (Ryan & Deci, 2000b). More specifically, the more people are given numerous options and the freedom to make their own choice, the more they feel their autonomy is enhanced (Kim et al., 2015). In contrast, the more they lack choices or control over things, the more they feel their autonomy is diminished (Kim et al., 2015). Hanus and Fox (2015) also indicated that people gratify their need for autonomy when they are given the freedom to customize something. This led us to formulate:
H3
The more consumers are able to customize their avatars on a VR fashion app, the more they feel their need for autonomy is fulfilled.
Avatar identification is another feature of a VR fashion app that allows consumers to enjoy a personalized experience and experience a feeling of autonomy. Avatar identification refers to the degree to which consumers perceive that an avatar is similar to them (Teng, 2019). For example, in the online gaming context, many previous studies have found that players tend to identify psychologically with their avatars and thereby project some aspects of their real-life identities onto those avatars while playing games (Li et al., 2013; Sioni et al., 2017). Particularly, when an avatar’s visual features, such as the face, skin color, hairstyle, clothes, and accessories, resemble those of the game player, s/he tends to identify those avatars as an extension of him/herself (Teng, 2019). This sense of identification with the avatar has been documented to enhance the game players’ need for autonomy significantly (Kao, 2019). Bailey et al.’s (2009) study also showed that the more one identifies an avatar as a representation of him/herself and feels ownership over it, the greater the propensity to feel his/her need for autonomy is satisfied. Thus, we propose:
H4
The more consumers identify their avatars on a VR fashion app as a representation of themselves, the more they feel that their need for autonomy is fulfilled.
A VR fashion app’s engagement features affect consumers’ need to fulfill relatedness
In fashion marketing, customer engagement refers to an interaction between a fashion retailer and its consumers (Pansari & Kumar, 2017), or as the means by which a fashion retailer creates a relationship with its customers to foster brand resonance (So et al., 2016). Fashion brands are incorporating this engagement strategy into their digital marketing programs increasingly, with the goal to offer consumers an interactive experience in the digital realm. This interactive experience can be shaped by providing consumers with a sense of social presence (Chattaraman et al., 2012) and social support (Shim et al., 2012).
In our context, social presence refers to the degree to which one perceives the presence of others while using a VR app (Mäntymäki & Salo, 2010). Social presence has been discussed as an important element that fosters interactivity in online media contexts, including websites, social media, and online gaming platforms (Karapanos et al., 2016). Many previous studies have documented the significant and positive relation between social presence and relatedness need fulfillment (Gao et al., 2018; Tseng et al., 2019). Presence signalling (e.g., social presence in a virtual world) was found to help people gratify their desire to feel connected to and develop meaningful relationships with others (Halfmann & Rieger, 2019). For example, in an online gaming context, when game players perceived a greater sense of social presence from their co-players, their relatedness need fulfillment was enhanced (Bormann & Greitemeyer, 2015). In a similar vein, in an online learning context, the more learners exchanged opinions with their peers online and experienced social interaction and social presence, the greater they felt their need for relatedness satisfied (Fang et al., 2019). We expect that this effect of social presence on relatedness need fulfillment will hold true in consumers’ VR app use. Thus, we postulate:
H5
The more consumers feel social presence while using a VR fashion app, the more they feel their need for relatedness is fulfilled.
Social support is another important element that can gratify consumers’ intrinsic need for relatedness. In our context, social support refers to the perception that a consumer is cared for and is part of a supportive social network while using a VR fashion app. Studies have shown that social support fosters people’s sense of belonging and thus, relatedness (Hagger et al., 2006; Hombrados-Mendieta et al., 2013). Bryan et al. (2016) indicated that relatedness is satisfied when people feel connected to, and supported by, others. Further, Reis et al.’s (2000) study showed that one of the strongest predictors of relatedness is feeling understood, which could be fostered by individuals’ perceptions of social support. In further support, Niemiec et al. (2014) showed that the more individuals perceive social support, the more they believe that they are having an authentic relationship with others, which satisfies their relatedness need. This led us to propose:
H6
The more consumers feel social support while using a VR fashion app, the more they feel their need for relatedness is fulfilled.
Consumers’ intrinsic needs fulfillment affects their behaviour positively
Consistent with SDT’s core premise, many previous studies have indicated that individuals’ needs fulfillment is a critical motivator of their behavior (Bhattacherjee, 2001; Vansteenkiste et al., 2005). Here, we discuss further the way people’s intrinsic needs fulfillment activates their behavioral intention (i.e., the intention to use the app continuously and to make in-app purchases). First, many former studies across diverse virtual contexts, including the e-learning and online gaming contexts, have found the effects of competence, autonomy, and relatedness needs fulfillment on continuous use intention (Fang et al., 2019; Liao et al., 2020). In an e-learning context, when students perceived that e-learning enhanced their desire to perform efficiently and effectively (i.e., to be ‘competent’), they expressed genuine interest in e-learning and showed the intention to learn continuously (Sørebø et al., 2009). Continuous use intention can also be promoted when individuals’ needs for autonomy and relatedness are fulfilled. In a virtual gaming context, the more individuals are satisfied because of their freedom to make self-directed decisions while playing games (e.g., the ‘autonomy’ to customize their game avatars), the more likely they are to play the game continuously (Yoo et al., 2013). Further, the more people develop meaningful emotional bonds with other players and fulfill their desire for ‘relatedness’, the more they play the game again (Liao et al., 2020). This led us to propose:
H7
The more consumers feel their needs for (a) competence, (b) autonomy and (c) relatedness are fulfilled while using a VR fashion app, the greater their intention to use the app continuously.
People’s intrinsic needs fulfillment has also been associated with purchase intention (Huang et al., 2016), which can be elicited when individuals’ desire for competence and autonomy is gratified. For example, when consumers feel that they can use their abilities effectively (i.e., ‘competence’ need fulfillment) and have control over their own actions (i.e., ‘autonomy’ need fulfillment) while browsing an online retail store, the greater their satisfaction with their online shopping experience and purchase intention (Kim & Lee, 2020). Further, the more consumers experience enhanced connections (i.e., ‘relatedness’ need fulfillment) with an online retailer, the longer they stay at the retailer’s store and more likely they are to purchase from it. This led us to postulate:
H8
The more consumers feel that their needs for (a) competence, (b) autonomy and (c) relatedness are satisfied while using a VR fashion app, the greater their intention to make in-app purchases.
Lastly, we believe that consumers’ intention to use a VR app continuously will increase their intention to make in-app purchases. Many previous studies have documented the effect of continuous use intention on purchase intention. In a social media context, the more people used social media continuously, the more they showed the intention to purchase via social media (Cho et al., 2012). Similarly, the longer and more often people spent time on an online retail site, the more likely they were to purchase products on it (Rosen, 2001). This led us to propose:
H9
Consumers’ intention to use a VR fashion app continuously will have a significant and positive effect on their intention to make in-app purchases.
Figure 1 illustrates our research model and hypotheses.