Multisensory perception and positive emotion: Exploratory study on mixed item set for apparel e-customization

With the rapid development of digital technology, many consumers increasingly prefer to buy their clothes online. In order to improve the quality of online services and enrich the consumer experience of apparel e-customization, this paper develops item scales that measure positive emotion, visual perception, and haptic perception. It also evaluates the relationships between the item scales, attitude, and intention. It is an exploratory study on consumers’ multisensory perception and positive emotion mixed item scale (MPPEMIS), collected by experts. Supported by factor analysis and correlation analysis, both laboratory and online studies were conducted to test the reliability and validity between item scales, attitude, and intention. Visual factors (e.g., transparency, brightness, dimness), haptic factors (e.g., comfort, coarseness, softness), and positive emotion (e.g., excitement, attractive, pleasantness) are proved in the MPPEMIS, which positively correlates with the factors of attitude and intention in apparel e-customization. As such, the MPPEMIS may help to assist brand managers, marketers, and retailers by recommending easily understood information and providing item scales for apparel e-customization that can also be adopted in online service strategies and system modularization.