Effects of Brand Experience on Consumer Brand Loyalty in Fashion Retail Industry: Moderating the Role of Gender

The Intensity of the competition in the fashion retail industry is becoming notable where customers have left with the many purchasing alternatives than before. Fashion retail industry in a developing country such as Sri Lanka, encounter to threats from international level more frequently. Organizations are often adapting the brand strategies in order to remain their relationship between the customer and their brand. Since the fast fashion concept emerged it is no longer sufficient to provide a product solely to satisfy their customers, exceptionally in the fashion industry where local and international organizations have started to provide affordable luxury products. Eventually, brand loyalty has become more significance to maintain the image of the fashion retail industry which can be predicted that consumer expects intangible benefits to improve their lifestyles along with products. The paper aims to understand the effect of brand experience on brand loyalty in the fashion retail industry of Sri Lanka moderating the role of consumer gender. It is a fact that basic segmentation in the fashion industry is based on the gender. Effects of Brand Experience on Consumer Brand Loyalty in Fashion Retail Industry: Moderating the Role of Gender Fernando H.S. M , Kumara H.H.S.N. , Mendis H.I. A. , Wettawa W.M. B.S. Ѡ & Samarasinghe H.M. U.S.R ¥ AbstractThe Intensity of the competition in the fashion retail industry is becoming notable where customers have left with the many purchasing alternatives than before. Fashion retail industry in a developing country such as Sri Lanka, encounter to threats from international level more frequently. Organizations are often adapting the brand strategies in order to remain their relationship between the customer and their brand. Since the fast fashion concept emerged it is no longer sufficient to provide a product solely to satisfy their customers, exceptionally in the fashion industry where local and international organizations have started to provide affordable luxury products. Eventually, brand loyalty has become more significance to maintain the image of the fashion retail industry which can be predicted that consumer expects intangible benefits to improve their lifestyles along with products. The paper aims to understand the effect of brand experience on brand loyalty in the fashion retail industry of Sri Lanka moderating the role of consumer gender. It is a fact that basic segmentation in the fashion industry is based on the gender. Hence this study attempts to understand the gender moderation in aforementioned relationship. The objectives of the study focused on determining the relationship between brand experience and loyalty and to examine the gender moderation within aforementioned the relationship. A structured questionnaire and an online survey utilized to gather both qualitative and quantitative data from 266 respondents who selected through convenient sampling method. The research indicates that brand experience has strong positive effect on brand loyalty where sensory dimension has higher influence in brand loyalty than other dimensions in the four factor model of brand experience. Further the brand loyalty consumers in Sri Lankan market are found to be moderate based on their gender which considering significance in factor of high quality. The Intensity of the competition in the fashion retail industry is becoming notable where customers have left with the many purchasing alternatives than before. Fashion retail industry in a developing country such as Sri Lanka, encounter to threats from international level more frequently. Organizations are often adapting the brand strategies in order to remain their relationship between the customer and their brand. Since the fast fashion concept emerged it is no longer sufficient to provide a product solely to satisfy their customers, exceptionally in the fashion industry where local and international organizations have started to provide affordable luxury products. Eventually, brand loyalty has become more significance to maintain the image of the fashion retail industry which can be predicted that consumer expects intangible benefits to improve their lifestyles along with products. The paper aims to understand the effect of brand experience on brand loyalty in the fashion retail industry of Sri Lanka moderating the role of consumer gender. It is a fact that basic segmentation in the fashion industry is based on the gender. Hence this study attempts to understand the gender moderation in aforementioned relationship. The objectives of the study focused on determining the relationship between brand experience and loyalty and to examine the gender moderation within aforementioned the relationship. A structured questionnaire and an online survey utilized to gather both qualitative and quantitative data from 266 respondents who selected through convenient sampling method. The research indicates that brand experience has strong positive effect on brand loyalty where sensory dimension has higher influence in brand loyalty than other dimensions in the four factor model of brand experience. Further the brand loyalty consumers in Sri Lankan market are found to be moderate based on their gender which considering significance in factor of high quality.