The purchase intentions of consumers evolve with time, especially with luxury consumers their consumption patterns are bound to be changing with digitization. The advancement of shopping choices also widened the scope of consumers’ shopping choices, where consumers saw the online stores of luxury fashion brands as a source of information gathering platform and in-store as the final checkout point. However, the rise in webrooming poses a threat to marketers as millennials being the potential future spenders are mostly dependent on online shopping, making it important for luxury fashion brands to understand the reasons behind webrooming. Moreover, new-age luxury brands delivering a good experience on their websites pose a threat to traditional luxury brands’online growth. Considering these aspects, the aim of this study is to look into the role of webmosphere in influencing the webrooming intentions of consumers in the Netherlands. A qualitative method was approached for conducting the research. A total of 10 luxury consumers based in the Netherlands were interviewed for this research. All the data collected were analyzed using thematic analysis. The analyses revealed that webmosphere of luxury fashion brands does play an important role in determining the webrooming intentions of consumers. Lack of sensually engaging website, trust issues, lack of customer service, lack of availability of stock, and being exclusive about price was found to be the strong determinants that led the luxury fashion consumers to webroom and buy things in-store. Moreover, luxury consumers being conscious of status and hedonic values attached to shopping, often felt these elements missing while shopping online, which is why the online websites for luxury fashion brands were considered as a mere catalog of the recent trends and updates about the brand. This study helps luxury fashion brand marketers to understand the ever-changing consumer behavior of luxury shoppers and would show the significance of website atmosphere or webmosphere in determining the purchase intentions of luxury fashion brand consumers. The findings of this research also provide an overview of the current problems faced by luxury fashion consumers and suggest adequate solutions that could be considered by luxury marketers to improve the online growth of the brands and sustain them in the digitalized market. Furthermore, the research related to webrooming and the role of websmosphere in terms of luxury fashion brands is very current and new, thus contributing to the academia and providing insight to develop future research based on similar topics.

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Fred Lund
hdl.handle.net/2105/64974
Media & Business
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication

Hala Fathima. (2022, July 15). WEBMOSPHERE OF LUXURY FASHION BRANDS AND WEBROOMING INTENTIONS OF CONSUMERS IN THE NETHERLANDS. Media & Business. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/64974