Age differences in women’s shopping for clothes behavior

Abstract: The main aim of this research was to investigate the differences of women’s consumer behavior when shopping for clothes. To investigate these differences quantitative approach was used. In order to collect data for analysis a questionnaire was developed. During the study the following aspects were analyzed: frequency of shopping and expenditure, women’s values, store selection criteria, motivations and sources of information women usually use. After reviewing numerous scientific articles, eleven different hypotheses were developed, in order to be tested in the course of this study: H1: Women’s consumer behavior varies with age H2: Sexual attraction motivation decreases with age H3: Conformity motivation decreases with age H4: Fashion expression motivation decreases with age H3: The importance of comfort increases with age H6: The importance of quality increases with age H7: The importance of knowledgeable staff increases with age H8: Younger women shop clothes more often H9: The influence of impersonal sources of information increases with age H10: Younger shoppers are more price-conscious H11: It is important for older consumer to be known or recognized in the store To test these hypotheses, the data from fifty nine women was collected with the help of the questionnaire. Then, all respondents were divided into five age cohorts in order to structure the results and analyze differences in every age cohort. After having analyzed all the gathered data, five hypotheses were confirmed, while other six hypotheses were rejected. Hypothesis 1 was rather general and it was confirmed in the very beginning. All the other hypotheses were analyzed with the help of regression analysis in Excel. After testing every hypothesis, author of the thesis came to the conclusion that hypothesis 2, hypothesis 5, hypothesis 8 and hypothesis 10 are be confirmed, while hypothesis 3, hypothesis 4, hypothesis 6, hypothesis 7, hypothesis 9 and hypothesis 11 are rejected.