Perceived risk and mail order shopping for apparel

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between perceived risk regarding apparel selection and mail order shopping. One‐hundred and two adult women from a medium‐sized midwestern city in the U.S.A. participated in a telephone survey. Factor analysis uncovered four distinct types of risk associated with mail order shopping: economic, performance‐related, physical and social/psychological. Multivariate and univariate analyses revealed that economic risk was the only risk that was significantly different from other categories of risk. A Scheffé post hoc comparison indicated that economic risk was higher for respondents who were non‐ or infrequent mail order shoppers than for frequent mail order shoppers. These results contribute to the literature on mail order shopping by isolating the product category of apparel. The results can aid catalogue and other direct marketing companies by suggesting that they focus on alleviating economic losses of future clients, thereby making it easier for consumers to capitalize on the convenience features of this patronage mode.