Consumer purchasing behaviour: an investigation of the UK mature women's clothing market

There is a lack of information on the shopping behaviour of the mature consumer. This generation is economically secure and has the disposable income to provide retailers with additional sales. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the ways in which female consumers aged over 45 purcha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of consumer behaviour Vol. 4; no. 6; pp. 453 - 464
Main Authors Birtwistle, Grete, Tsim, Cayan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.12.2005
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Age
Age differences
Baby boomers
cognitive age
Consumer behavior
Consumers
Design
Disposable income
Fashion
Females
Mature market
Population
Purchasing
Retail stores
Retailing industry
Self image
Shopping
Studies
Target markets
Women
United Kingdom > UK
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Summary:There is a lack of information on the shopping behaviour of the mature consumer. This generation is economically secure and has the disposable income to provide retailers with additional sales. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the ways in which female consumers aged over 45 purchase fashion clothing and to explore their shopping preferences. The methodology of the study was designed in two phases: the first consisted of an exploratory qualitative examination in which 15 consumers were interviewed using a semi‐structured format to elicit the main issues, and the second was a survey issued to 150 respondents. The findings confirm that retailers are more interested in targeting the fashionable young consumer and have a lack of understanding of the needs of the mature market. This is particularly significant when associated with the demographic changes forecast for the next decade when mature consumers will become increasingly important to the fashion industry. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-LQFZH3N6-Q
ArticleID:CB31
istex:C335ABD23EF0D4B87DAAEA32D2739E87CFA8A3BC
Grete Birtwistle is Head of the Division of Marketing at the Caledonian Business School, Glasgow Caledonian University and co‐founder with Professor C. M. Moore of the British Institute for Fashion Research. Her PhD explored the store positioning strategies and consumer perceptions of the store images of UK fashion retailers. She has published a number of papers in this area. Currently, her work focuses on quick response systems in the fashion supply chain.
Cayan Tsim recently completed a Masters in Fashion Marketing at Glasgow Caledonian University and collated the empirical data.
ISSN:1472-0817
1479-1838
DOI:10.1002/cb.31