A system of digital visual merchandising for innovative textiles and fashion

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to establish a digital visual merchandising model for innovative textiles and fashion. This study focused on three major objectives, a) to complete a theoretical study and empirical research on digital visual merchandising and innovative textiles and fashion; b) to identify the design factors in digital visual merchandising design; c) to develop a model of digital visual merchandising design to promote innovative textiles and fashion. In order to establish the model, a qualitative research methodology was adopted in the study that employed the inductive approach in the development of the model. Theoretical study and empirical research were conducted focusing on digital visual merchandising theories, including the visual merchandising design strategies and factors affecting visual merchandising performance. A series of case studies in offline and online formats related to the textile and fashion merchandising were processed by on-site observation and document review to collect data for coding. Potential design factors in digital visual merchandising were identified by coding the collected data and verified in the offline and online implementations. The aimed model of digital visual merchandising design has been established in this study. The roles of the identified design factors in the digital visual merchandising design process have been revealed. The results suggest that the performance of digital visual merchandising may be affected by the design factors of concept formation, layout design, ambient condition, interactivity level and visual complexity level. The designer can control the identified design factors in digital visual merchandising design by forming the concept according to the features of the textiles and fashion, designing reasonable layout, adjusting the stimuli set in the ambient condition, and adapting the interactivity level and visual complexity level. With the established model, innovative textiles and fashion can be promoted through digital visual merchandising design in both offline and online formats.