The Identification and Prioritization of Success Factors for Online Egyptian Fashion Retailers using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

ABSTRACT

The rapid changes in the behavior of Egyptian online consumers, influenced by the increasing adoption of e-commerce since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially shopping online apparel, have made it essential for online fashion retailers to identify criteria that are crucial for their growth. This research attempts to discover the main factors and sub-factors which influence the preference of consumers for online fashion e-stores. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology was used to determine the criteria with their weights and prioritized. The study started off by conducting a thorough literature review in electronic retail to identify the significant elements (keys) mentioned in earlier studies. Five main factors and twenty sub-factors were identified based on these studies, in addition to, some Egyptian experts' views from the online fashion field. The AHP results revealed that the "website design” is the most influential on consumers and especially navigation, and responsiveness sub-factors. The website facilities came in the second priority with multi-payment methods and search engine as sub-factors. The third factor in importance was post-order services with order tracking and customer support sub-factors. The results reveal significant insights that can be adopted by online retailers of fashion for improving their e-stores' performance according to the relative importance of factors and can be used as cost-effective way by managing their resources efficiently. Besides, the results contribute in the current insights of the existing literature on factors that influence online consumer preferences, where research tends to be scarce especially to online fashion field in Egypt. © 2023, Success Culture Press. All rights reserved.