Impact of H&M Mobile Application on Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example

Impact of H&M Mobile Application on Consumer Behaviour Abstract The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship of Mobile app characteristics and Buying behaviour of the consumers (specifically for H&M fashion clothing company). A brief discussion about H&M is provided in the paper and the impact of its mobile app on the consumers is also the main objective of this study. Past studies have been reviewed and discussed to attain significant information about the roles of mobile apps on the buying behaviour. Introduction The research paper is based on identifying the impact of the mobile applications used by H&M (a fashion brand that offers clothes for everyone including men, women and kids) on the behaviour (buying behaviour) of the consumers in the United Kingdom. Background The Hennes clothing store started its operations in the year 1947 in Vasteras, Sweden. In the initiation process the store only provided clothes for women, but with the passage of time and demand of the public the business also included the men's and kid's clothes. The stores have stated many brands including the H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, Cheap Monday and other stories. The company also provides fashion products for home and the store named H&M Home [HM15]. The company started expanding in the local market and the second store was opened in Stockholm, the brand started to expand to the international market and in the year 1964 the store was opened in Norway. In the year 1968 the founder of Hennes acquired Mauritz Widforss and converted the name of Hennes to Hennes & Mauritz. The business got listed in the year 1974 and the first store in UK was established in 1976. The product was heavily demanded in many countries outside Sweden and therefore the brand was introduced in Netherland and Germany. The company continued to expand to Europe, the company also expanded their business to online market and the catalogue sales also started in the year 2006 [HM15]. The company expanded its operations to Asia, including stores in Hong Kong and Shanghai and other stores in Japan. Till the year 2014 the brand reached to approximately all the big countries all over the world. The company once established as a women clothing store relatively diversified to men's and kid's fashion clothing. The company was providing their products only through their stores and online site but the management realized the importance of mobile applications and worked on developing the mobile app to provide accessibility to their customers. The company offered the app to the android and iPhone users to gain access to the products and services from their mobile phones. This service of the company was highly appreciated by the customers and the company expected to increase their earnings and the brand loyalty. The preference of the consumers was shifted as the mobile application provided ease to the customer as they were able to track the products from their mobile phones. Problem Statement In recent times all the big companies introduce the mobile applications to provide ease to their customers to buy products through their mobile applications. These applications provide a range of products to the customers and have other characteristics like security, accessibility and features that have an impact on the customers. The researcher wants to understand the effects of these characteristics of mobile applications on the buying and other behaviours of the customers. The research is aim to identify whether these applications have any specific impact or not. Research Aim The research is undertaken to analyse the impact of H&M app on the consumer's buying behaviour and whether the mobile application is helping the company to increase the brand loyalty among the customers. The researcher aims to identify the importance of the H&M mobile application and aware the companies about the effective utilizations of the mobile applications to help in generating above average returns. The companies can use these applications to create customers’ loyalty and their brand recognition. Research objectives The main objectives of the research are to: find out how the H&M app affect consumers' purchase decision. investigate how the H&M app is helping the company to increase its brand loyalty. to analyse whether the mobile applications add value to the firm (brand recognition and adding to consumer purchase behaviour). Research question The research question was based on the Research Objectives. What is the impact of mobile app on H&M in customer behaviour in the UK? Justification The research would be helpful to provide information to the companies about adopting and effectively utilizing the mobile applications. The research would help to provide recommendations to the companies to adopt such strategies to gain competitive edge and also to earn above average returns in the future. Hypotheses The hypotheses are designed in accordance with the research questions and the research methodology is developed after the through and in-depth analysis of the research hypothesis. H0: There is a significant relationship between Quality Updates and Buying Behaviour. H0: There is a significant relationship between Security and Buying Behaviour. H0: There is a significant relationship between Free Apps and Buying Behaviour. H0: There is a significant relationship between Accessibility and Buying Behaviour. H0: There is a significant relationship between Initial Rankings and Buying Behaviour. H0: There is a significant relationship between Ratings and Buying Behaviour. Literature Review In this section of the paper, past writing related to mobile applications and its impact of consumers will be discussed. The changes that are observed in the actions and choices of customers from the mobile application will also be discussed through the past studies. The characteristics of mobile apps are also of great importance and have a big impact on the decision of the customers. H&M app affect consumers' purchase decision Wozniak (2013) in the article discusses about the frequent use of smart- phones for marketing purposes and the way the customers’ response to such apps. Different platforms of mobile are discussed and the how customers have built awareness about the usage of mobile apps is also discussed. It is observed from the article that the people are interested mobile marketing and they give it importance because it is easier for them to compare several things from one place. It is easier for the customers to select the products they want to purchase and without even going to the shop they can get the products delivered at their place. Mobile applications for marketing of product have a positive impact on the decisions of the customers as they prefer to buy things without hassle [Woz13]. Consumers are able to search for more products from one place which is a facility for them therefore they prefer to search for products at mobile apps. The companies that have their mobile apps get many orders from the public and reaches to a larger target market [Wil08]. According to Lee & Raghu (2014) and Hoehle & Venkatesh (2015), there are several determinants that add up to the success of the mobile apps. If the offering of the apps are broaden then there are more chances of higher profitability of the app and the app is expected to be in the charts of top 300 for a longer period of time. There are several determinants like free app offers, high volume and high user review score add to the positivity and high score of the app [Ban13]. In addition to it, high initial ranks, quality updates and investment in less popular categories are also some determinants that add to the fame and profitability of the app. The more diversification made in the app will increase the worth of the app by more than 15 % and it is also observed that the app that is free having a higher survival chance in the app store. One of the key findings of the study is that the owner of the apps must utilize natural segmentation, which will have a positive impact on the customers and will increase the sales of that app [Lee14]. Hoehle & Venkatesh (2015) in their article has also discussed about the factors that have a negative impact on the mobile apps. Ineffective content is one of the most important reasons because of which the usability of the mobile application is decreased. Ineffective content in the mobile app has a negative impact on the users of that app which decreases the profitability of the app. In addition to it, companies while making mobile apps do not focus on the trends of the mobile apps and focus on adding the content, which is based on the Internet. Doing such a thing has two negative outcomes, first a huge amount of Internet content creates problem in the apps. Secondly, the features of such apps are not very attractive and user friendly as the users has a different mind set for the usage of apps [Hoe15]. Boerner (2015) in his article has discussed about the data security and smart- phone apps. There are several data security issues while downloading and using a mobile app. Mostly, the apps want to gain some information from the smart- phone of the user so that it can fulfil its requirements before installing [Cou14]. To a certain extent the users allow the apps to extract information from the smart- phone but at some point the users disallows to provide information for the apps. Generally, it depends upon the app, if the app is very trendy and many people then the user use it will easily allow the app to extract information from the phone but if it is not reliable then the users restrict from providing information to the app. The rating system is a very good indication, which develops the reliability of the users on the apps [Boe15]. According to Billi et al., (2010), the evaluation of the accessibility and usability of the mobile apps must be developed through a unified methodology. It is observed that the mobile apps musts accessible to a larger audience as it will increase the usability of that app. The mobile apps must be user friendly and easily accessible to reach to a larger audience. If the mobile app is not easily accessible then the app will not be able to give the desired performance [Bil10]. Mayisela (2013) in the article has discussed about the accessibility of the mobile apps. The author has discussed about blended learning course, which allows the users to have an easy access to the mobile apps. From the research the author has come to the conclusion that the blended learning course has a positive impact on accessibility and communication, which allows the users to easily use the mobile apps [May13]. The companies must establish such software apps, which are easy to use so that the customers can search and find things that they want to use from that app [Gon14]. Methodology The researcher aims to undertake a quantitative research, the strategy adopted would be case study (survey) and a self-administered questionnaire would be used. The respondents would be selected using the random sampling technique and will include the users of H&M mobile app. The researcher will use the deductive approach as literature review of the past researches would be done to analyse the impact of such mobile apps on consumer behaviour. The literature review will provide the researcher with the independent variables, which include the characteristics of the applications and the dependent variable that is Consumer buying behaviour. Research Philosophy The research philosophy adopted for the research is "Positivism", the philosophy states that all those results and information that that is derived from a logical and mathematical analysis represents the authoritative knowledge [Har58]. The positivist also believes that the knowledge derived from logical and mathematical treatments are the valid knowledge. positivist rejects the "introspective and intuitive knowledge as these cannot be proved logically. Auguste Comte, the developer of the theory believed that the world operates in accordance with some universal laws and the society also has some logical and absolute laws [Har58] Research Approach The research approach used in the research is the deductive approach, the reason of using the deductive approach is that it generally identifies general discussions and further specifies the discussions . The researcher firstly identified a theory about consumer behaviour and then drew the hypothesis, the data was collected and finally the results were obtained. The results gathered would only help to identify the conformity or the rejection of the theory. Research Design The researcher will use the quantitative approach for the research. A quantitative approach is basically a more logical approach and is based on the use of data that provides the grounds for the researcher to analyse the perceptions and thinking of people from a more numerical and statistical view. Researchers use the quantitative approach to support their findings with statistical proofs [Mer98]. Data Collection The researcher will use the primary and secondary data for the research, the secondary data includes the literature review of the previous literatures [Ham05]. The researcher will identify the dependent and independent variables from the past studies. The Primary data source will include the self-administered questionnaire, the questionnaire will be developed in three portions. Firstly, the personal information of the respondents, secondly the researcher will develop questions based on the independent variables and lastly the questions related to the dependent variable (i.e. consumer buying behaviour) would be added. The questionnaire will include a 5-scale Likert scale ranging from "strongly disagree to strongly agree". The responses of the questions will be coded and would be presented on excel spreadsheets and later these responses will be coded in SPSS to obtain the results and findings. Data Analysis Techniques The researcher will use the Regression and Correlation analysis to determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. The regression and correlation analysis are widely used in the academic researches [Coh13]. The descriptive analysis would be used to determine the preferences of the respondents by analysing the means/ averages and the standard error of the responses. The descriptive analysis would help to determine the validity of the questionnaire and the variations in the responses would also be determined. The independent variables include the different characteristics of the mobile applications, which will be tested through the questionnaire. The questionnaire will have different sections for the dependent and independent variables. The researcher will design 1-2 questions for every variable. Independent Variables: Security, accessibility, quality updates, free apps offer, high initial rankings and ratings. Dependent: Behaviour, buying behaviour. Research Ethics The researcher will use the ethical considerations in the study. The researcher will use both the quantitative and qualitative means for the analysis of the topic and therefore for the qualitative part (literature review), the researcher will properly cite the literature and will provide the credit to the research that will be used in this study. The researcher will also introduce the questionnaire to the respondents and would keep their identities classified. The researcher also made the promise that the research responses would not be used for future researches. Timescale The timescale was developed according to the objectives. The objectives represent the different parts of the overall research project and the time is allocated to each part of the research. Details Month1 Month2 Month3 Month4 Month5 Month6 Month7 Objective 1 Proposal Research Question Aim & Objectives Objective 2 Literature Search Literature Reading Literature Review Objective 3 Variables SPSS Result Interpretation Research Analysis Results Conclusion Recommendations Report submission List of References HM15: , (H&M, 2015), Woz13: , (Wozniak, 2013), Wil08: , (William Pride, 2008), Ban13: , (Bang et al., 2013), Lee14: , (Lee & Raghu, 2014; Hoehle & Venkatesh, 2015), Hoe15: , (Hoehle & Venkatesh, 2015; BinDhim et al., 2015), Cou14: , (Courtney, 2014), Boe15: , (Boerner, 2015; Constantin, 2015; Dmitrienko et al., 2014), Bil10: , (Billi et al., 2010), May13: , (Mayisela, 2013), Gon14: , (Gonçalves et al., 2014; Al-Qudah et al., 2014), Har58: , (Hart, 1958; Novak, 2014), Har58: , (Hart, 1958), Mer98: , (Mertens, 1998; Pozniak, 2015), Ham05: , (Hamilton, 2005; Gupta & Singh, 2003), Coh13: , (Cohen et al., 2013), Read More