Understanding luxury fashion products consumption in retail outlets: a perspective of Portuguese women

• Autor(a) principal: Lucas, Carolina Pires
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/19610
• topic: Luxury; Fashion; Outlets; Motivations; Store atmosphere; Luxo; Moda; Motivação; Atmosfera de loja

The consumption of luxury fashion products has been undertaking a very powerful position in the consumers’ purchasing behaviours, as luxury products establish emotional connections with consumers, mostly with women, that goes beyond the utilitarian benefits. Furthermore, the presence of luxury fashion brands in retail outlets bring new insights towards the luxury fashion world, which have an impact in the consumers’ perceptions of brands. Accordingly, it is necessary to create an understanding of luxury fashion products consumption in retail outlets, through a female perspective, in order to generate valuable inputs that mean to comprehend consumers and support luxury brands. Therefore, the objectives of this dissertation are divided into three different courses. Firstly, it aims to understand the motivations behind the ideal luxury fashion purchase, as well as the motivations behind the real luxury fashion purchase in outlets stores. Secondly, it means to define the ideal luxury store environment, to analyse the real luxury outlet store environment, and finally, to recognize the importance of the atmosphere in luxury outlet stores. Lastly, it intends to investigate how luxury outlet stores influence the positioning of luxury brands. To accomplish the objectives defined, an exploratory qualitative research was conducted, in which were only interviewed Portuguese female consumers of luxury fashion products. The results proved that the motivations behind the consumption of luxury fashion products in retail outlets are primarily functional, and that the real store atmosphere of a luxury outlet store does not correspond with the ideal luxury store atmosphere, and that the consumers’ perceptions on the presence of luxury brands in outlets were inconsistent, and thus, benefits and disadvantages were retained.