The role of sustainability in online customer experiences : a qualitative study on female fashion shoppers

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to understand sustainability’s role in responsible consumers’ Online Customer Experiences (OCEs). In this study, we focus on female fashion shoppers, and study three dimensions of their OCE: cognitive, affective, and social. Although online shopping and responsible consumer behaviour have increased tremendously, sustainability’s role in OCE has not been studied before from the customer’s perspective. The data consists of nine semi-structural interviews of Finnish female self-proclaimed responsible consumers and is analyzed with qualitative content analysis. The findings show that sustainability issues are present in all OCE dimensions, which are also all interconnected. In short, we find that OCE’s cognitive dimension includes customers’ evaluation of the online store’s social and environmental sustainability as well as the product’s sustainability, necessity, and longevity. The affective dimension of OCE includes a wide range of feelings arising from perceived sustainability and one’s consumption choices. The social dimension includes one’s self-presentation, social channels, and the socio-technical implementation of online stores and their social features. The findings are beneficial for online store providers and academics interested in studying sustainability and OCE from the information systems perspective.