• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.7-18
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine how clothing retail buyers (i.e., retail buyers, merchandisers, and storeowners), who are involved in assortment planning and retail buying use assortment criteria in their decisions. Comparisons are made between criteria used by men's wear and women's wear retail buyers as well as criteria used by male and female retail buyers. Research design, data, and methodology - A structured questionnaire was developed to collect data both in English and Korean. After conducting two pilot tests, the survey was conducted in Seoul, South Korea. Mantrala et al.'s 17 inputs of product assortment planning model with 23 assortment criteria from other previous studies were used. Results - Significant differences existed in consideration of assortment criteria between men's wear and women's wear retail buyers as well as between male and female retail buyers. Men's wear retail buyers rated the importance of sales history criteria (i.e., sales history, previous year's sales of same/similar styles) significantly lower than women's wear buyers did. Female retail buyers rated sales history criteria and weather criteria (i.e., unpredicted weather change, forecasting information of weather) significantly higher than male retail buyers did. Conclusions - This study provides guidelines for retail buyers regarding what criteria to use in what situations and how to organize assortment criteria from the most important criterion to the least one. In addition, the findings help them understand other retail buyers' buying behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.906-917
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• 2011

This study identified the present state of store and selection criteria of supplier from the regional fashion buyer point of view and examined the effects of the factors of relative impact between buyer and supplier on the relational bond. The interviews and questionnaires were administered to the owners or the sellers of 85 fashion retail stores in Gwangju. For analysis of data, frequency, means, factor analysis, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ and regression analysis were applied. The results were as follows. First, in the results of examining the actual conditions of store managers for fashion buyers, fashion buyers complained about lengthy travelling and time consumption inconvenience. They also reported decrease in margin and monthly mean sales over last year. Second, the most important selection the criteria for the supplier were product power, followed by a convenient store layout. Finally, higher quality communication, more compromises, and higher dependence were affected with higher satisfaction, trust, and commitment in suppliers; conversely, the trust and commitment of the buyers decreased relative to the increased power of the suppliers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1230-1241
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• 2000

The purpose of this paper is to deeply understand the developing of long-term relationship between salesperson and customer through analyzing of various literature. Salespersons are important due to their forefront position in retailing setting. They are called \"relationship manger\" due to their function of controlling service quality. Therefore understanding the salesperson-customer relationship is critical in retail environment. To accomplish the purpose of this paper, at first, the concept of relationship marketing and the domain of relationship marketing is examined. Then long-term relationship is studied through existing study on buyer-seller relationship. Anticipation of future interaction or long-term relationship orientation is generated from antecedent variables through mediating variables. Though previous studies ignored developing status of long-term relationship, developing status must be captured to thoroughly understand interpersonal relationship. Implication for relationship marketing theory and research are discussed related to clothing retail setting.l setting.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.815-824
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• 2004

In academic and/or practitioner literature, the assortment planning for fashion sensitive products is rarely systematically studied, and organized in an objective format. The purpose of this study was to develop a suggested assortment planning model for women's clothing retail buyers by integrating a conceptual assortment planning model and a practical-use assortment planning model, which are also developed in this study. In developing the conceptual model, this research categorized and organized the pieces of assortment planning activities illustrated in available literature. In developing the practical-use model, ten women's dress buyers from department stores and specialty stores were interviewed. The contents of the interview dictation were classified and summarized by concepts and variables. The summary was validated by the interviewees and recontextualized for the practical-use model. Five experts compared the conceptual and practical-use models, adjusted the discrepancies, and integrated into the suggested model. In addition, a questionnaire asking review of all functional activities of the suggested model was sent to interviewees to ascertain its validity. As the result, assortment planning process was determined at abstract level as the following: (a) recognize problem, (b) search for information, (c) evaluate qualitative value of product, (d) evaluate quantitative value of product, (e) plan product selection, and (f) plan sales.