Shop Along Ethnography with Millennials pt2
The shop along is fun. I’ve done in-store apparel shopping with females before, and once again am confronted with a similar shopper decision framework, although the age group is very different. Body image is still critical in terms of time lapse of decision making. The more negative the self-assessment, the longer decisions take, and the more likely participants are to leave a given store without reaching the point of sale, and the more likely participants are, other factors equal, open to technology-based shopping aids. The more positive the self-assessment, the less the focus is on basic assortment factors like color, material, etc. and the more the focus is on less tangible attributes like body area draping and emotional lift. Technology interventions are different for the self-assessment dimension as well, with technology for negative self-assessments focused on shopping options, and for positive self-assessments on social confirmation of having hit the mark.
The above are basic in-process ethnographic study observations; we haven’t started coding the transcripts.