Do fast fashion consumers prefer foreign brands? The moderating roles of sensory perception and consumer personality on purchase intentions

The fast fashion phenomenon has revolutionized the apparel industry over the past decade. However, research focused on the implications of brand country-of-origin (brand-COO) and sensory perception for consumer behavior remains scarce. This study draws on construal-level theory and active traits theory to develop and test a framework to identify the boundary conditions of the relationships among brand-COO, sensory perception, and consumer personality characteristics on purchase intentions regarding fast fashion apparel. A 2 (sensory perception: single versus multi-sensory) × 2 (brand-COO: local brand versus foreign brand) between-subjects design was employed using 176 participants. The results demonstrate there are different and separate effects of perceived quality on purchase intentions when exposed to single-sensory versus multi-sensory stimuli, and the haptic perception is an important quality signal for fast fashion apparel, which increases consumers’ purchase intentions for local brands compared to foreign brands. Moreover, the results profile consumer segments based on personality traits for fast fashion retailers. Important managerial implications for fast fashion retailers are also discussed.