What is Social Commerce?
'An area of e-commerce that uses social networks to facilitate online buying and selling of products and services'
Doyle, C. (2016). social commerce. In A Dictionary of Marketing. : Oxford University Press.
Research Tip: Business Source Complete & ABI/Inform Complete can be used for all aspects of Fashion Merchandising research, including
industries, companies, trends & consumers.
Research Tip: Browse a Company's Corporate Website
A public company's corporate website (e.g. corporate.kohls.com, or macysinc.com/) can be a valuable source for information, including:
What are Demographics?
"Demographic segmentation is the most widely used segmentation technique for consumer products. There is much census data available on age, income, sex, gender, consumer preference, neighborhood, and ethnicity to help the marketer segment these groups in multiple ways."
What are Psychographics?
"Psychographic segmentation is a way of segmenting the market by cultural attitude and psychological type: for example the middle-of-the-road, the fashionable, the thrill-seekers, the security-seekers, the risk-takers, the risk-averse, the aspirational, the image-conscious; the conspicuous consumers, the high achievers, the individualists, the reformers, the highly educated, the family-oriented, the self-actualizers; the strivers, the strugglers, etc."
Doyle, C. (2016). market segmentation. In A Dictionary of Marketing. : Oxford University Press.
Research Tip:
For consumer research in the resources below (e.g. Business Source Complete & ABI/Inform),
try [your topic] + some of the following keywords:
Search Examples*
Macy's AND women AND clothing or apparel AND consumer or customer or shopper
Macy's AND consumer or customer or shopper AND buying or purchasing
Kohl's AND consumer or customer or shopper AND income
*note: always filter the results to recent publication dates for currency
Consumer Research Resources
Market Trend Forecasting Resources