THE IDENTIFICATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF SUCCESS FACTORS FOR ONLINE EGYPTIAN FASHION RETAILERS USING THE ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS

Abstract

The rapid changes in the behavior of Egyptian online consumers, influenced by the increasing adoption of e-commerce since the COVID-19 pandemic, especially shopping for apparel online, have made it essential for online fashion retailers to identify criteria that are crucial for their growth. This research attempts to discover the main factors and sub-factors that influence consumers' preference for online fashion e-stores. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology was used to determine the criteria along with their weights and priorities. The study began by conducting a thorough literature review in electronic retail to identify the significant elements (keys) mentioned in earlier studies. Based on these studies, as well as input from Egyptian experts in the online fashion field, five main factors, and twenty sub-factors were identified. The AHP results revealed that "website design" is the most influential factor on consumers, particularly in terms of navigation and responsiveness. Website facilities ranked second in priority, with multi-payment methods and search engine as sub-factors. The third most important factor was post-order services, including order tracking and customer support. These results provide significant insights that can be utilized by online fashion retailers to improve their e-store performance by effectively managing their resources based on the relative importance of these factors. Additionally, the findings contribute to the existing literature on factors that influence online consumer preferences, which is limited, particularly in the online fashion field in Egypt.