Improving the store design of male fashion and apparel retailers

This study focuses upon men’s store preferences when shopping for fashion and apparel items and represents an extension of Torresa, Summers and Belleau’s (2001) research, which displayed a rank-order of ten shopping preferences of male University students. An additional item of ‘ease of finding items’, which is arguably a critical component of consumers’ first impressions of a store and their degree of comfort in-store, was included in the rank-order activity of the current study. The participants of the current study were drawn from the general population, consisting of a convenience sample of 226 men of all ages. Similar to the findings of Torresa, Summers and Belleau (2001) quality, price and selection of merchandise were the three most important factors when selecting a fashion store. However, ease of finding items was ranked 5th of the 11 attributes. The findings of the survey research are combined with a store audit analysis that reinforces the need for retailers to improve their store layout and design to appeal to the growing market segment of “hunter” versus “gatherer” shoppers, particularly for young male shoppers.