Factors influencing consumers? decision about which international clothing retailer to purchase from: A South African value and image perspective

Many international clothing retailers (e.g., Cotton On, H&M, and Zara) have entered emerging market economies such as South Africa (Tanusondjaja, Greenacre, Banelis, Truong & Andrews, 2015:783; Euromonitor, 2017) due to their benefits such as economic growth, increased consumer spending, large populations, and the rise of Internet shopping. But these international retailers must be aware that emerging market consumers, especially South Africans, exhibit different shopping patterns and have different expectations than their developed country counterparts, which will influence the retailers? marketing strategy. Therefore, to be successful, international clothing retailers need to consider which factors emerging market consumers regard as important when selecting an international clothing retailer. Previous research has indicated that a number of factors influence consumers? purchase intentions with regard to local versus international brands, including value (quality and price, utilitarian, and hedonic), brand (retailer) image, and country of origin (Ergin & Akbay, 2010; Strydom, 2011:12; Mpinganjira, 2014; Scarpi, Pizzi & Visentin, 2014). For this study, the focus is on utilitarian value and retailer image and their influence on South African consumers when they are deciding from which international clothing retailer to purchase. A positivist research philosophy, following a quantitative convenience sampling method, was used to collect 267 self-administered questionnaires. Data was checked for suitability, and a CFA and multiple regression were conducted to test the conceptual model. The study found that retailer image and convenience were the largest predictors of purchase intentions, contradicting previous studies of Scarpi et al. (2014), who had determined that utilitarian value as a whole predicted purchase intentions in the clothing industry. International clothing retailers operating in South Africa should therefore focus their marketing strategies on developing and marketing an image to consumers that shows quality, is convenient (e.g. availability of an online website), and provides value for money.