Reinventing Customer Experience for Fashion Consumers:A Conceptual Framework

Customer experiences have been defined with different perspectives and in different dimensions by researchers and subject experts. The connotation, however, changes with new product development, changing consumer psychology, consumer lifestyle and socio-economic environment along with other factors. The paper classifies customer experiences in distinctive categories by identifying the types of experiences that are significant for the modern-day consumers in the context of fashion consumption. The paper further, develops a conceptual framework for understanding the significant set of experiences affecting fashion consumers today. The identification of relevant experiences affecting consumer behavior will enable fashion brands and retailers in reinventing the desired experiences for their target customers for maximizing customer satisfaction and reaping benefits from it. Through literature review the study identified two major classes of customer experiences namely, Existent experiences and Emergent experiences that are relevant for fashion consumers. Each of these classes have sub-classes of experiences that affect fashion consumption in different dimensions. The study concluded that fashion consumption is being driven strongly by distinct consumer experiences that are relevant to this product category. Understanding and managing these experiences is vital for growth and success of fashion brands and retailers in today's business environment.