Online Consumer Behavior in E-Stores and Social Networks: An Exploratory Approach for Apparel Retailing

Retailers need to examine consumer behavior in and out the store in order to take effective marketing decisions. Regarding the consumer behavior out the store, the interactions of consumers with the Internet through, for instance, social networks, are considered as a focus of attention by both academics and practitioners. While quantitative measures of online consumer behavior are commonly analyzed, qualitative analyses on the consumer activity are not frequently conducted. In this sense, the aim of this paper is to examine the availability and usefulness of qualitative indicators of online consumer behavior in e-stores and social networks, illustrating this review of the state-of-art with a case study based in the retail brands that belong to the Inditex Group.