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Research Proposal

Executive Summary

The purpose of the following research paper is to examine the effectiveness of the current
pricing strategy and possible solutions to J.Crew’s declining rate of sales and customer
retention. Founded in 1983, the incorporation has tailored its position in the market towards
attracting the upper-middle class and young professionals with high-end clothing. While in
competition with brands such as H&M, Banana Republic and Zara, the company has been
experiencing difficulty in maintaining its leading position in the market.

Our team has chosen the following adjustments as possible strategies to J.Crew’s revival, which
echoes J.Crew’s current structural movement by the newly appointed CEO James Brett (Safdar,
2018):
• Reducing prices to meet the average J.Crew customer's willingness to pay, and as a
result, attract new customers, increase customer retention rate, and regain old
customers.
• Widening its e-commerce distribution channel and extending its footprint within the
North-American market.

Introduction

Founded in 1983, J.Crew Group Inc. was a result of a corporation pivot from its original fore
founding company known as Popular Merchandise Inc. that was established in 1947 (J. Crew,
2018). The company initially began its clothing merchandise tailored around a niche target
segment of young working professionals, aiming to attract upper-middle class and young
professionals with high-end and chic styles. For years, their perceived niche was a fine balance
between economic and designer brands. However, J.Crew has been experiencing declines in its
sales. The sales of J.Crew dropped by 10% in 2015, 8% in 2016, and another 4% in 2017
(Hanbury, 2018), as shown in Appendix A and B.

The company has made many mistakes regarding its diminishing perceived value compared to
its prices. Critics state that the company has increased its prices over the years with no
improvements to the quality of their material (Belle, 2015). Our team believes that the company
should refocus its energy on lowering its prices while aiming to reach a greater share of
customers through establishing a greater presence within the online e-commerce channel.

Research Objectives

This research has two goals:


1. To evaluate the effectiveness of J.Crew’s current pricing strategy and to decide the
possible potential of boosting J.Crew’s revenue by lowering the price of its products.
2. To evaluate the performance of J.Crew’s current distribution strategy and to measure the
effectiveness of sales performance through digitalization of distribution channels.

Based on these objectives, our team has two hypotheses:


1. By lowering the price of the product line, J.Crew will improve customers’ satisfaction and
willingness of purchase.
2. By investing in improving its e-commerce platforms, J.Crew will improve the accessibility
of its products and increase its revenue.

To validate these two hypotheses, our team chooses to study the following variables
Independent variables:

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1. Age of customers
2. Personal income and disposable income of customers
3. Average price customers spent on J.Crew apparels
4. Average price of J.Crew’s merchandise
5. Percentage of J.Crew’s retail and online shoppers
6. Number of J.Crew products available on the e-commerce platforms
7. Number of visits on J.Crew’s website and other online stores

Dependent variables:
1. Total units sold through retail and e-commerce
2. Total same-store-sales
3. Average sales per square foot
4. Total e-commerce sales
5. Annual total sales and sales growth

Research Questions

This market research aims to find out whether the current price and distribution strategies of
J.Crew are effective to its performance. Our primary focus is the feedback from its target
segments which are upper-middle class and young professionals. The key research questions
are:

1. What will be the change in consumer behaviour if the price matched the perceived value
of the product?
2. What is the difference in popularity between seasonal promotions in comparison to full-
scale price reduction?
3. How does a focus on e-commerce match customers’ need for convenience and
accessibility of J.Crew’s products?
4. How does an increase in online channels presence affect total revenue?

The research intends to understand the reasons behind these questions and determine what to
do next.

Study Design

This study design is a causal study and it is conducted to answer two objectives. One objective
is how the current pricing strategy of J.Crew affects customer satisfaction and the perceived
value of the brand. The second objective is how focusing on online distribution channels affects
customer experience and product accessibility. Qualitative and quantitative research methods
are both applied within this study.

Target Population

J.Crew targets a niche market consisting of upper-middle class and young working
professionals. Therefore, this will be the study’s target population to analyze through non-
probability sampling. Canadian consumers based on household income is split evenly between
$25,000 to $124,999 (Vividata, 2016), but research shows that the household income of
J.Crew’s consumers is on average higher than the normal consumer ($70,336) (Statistics
Canada, 2017). The research also shows that male consumers have a higher household
income than female consumers (Vividata, 2016) which is seen in appendix C. By analyzing this

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demographic, the study aims to quantify correlations between age and household income level
versus the existing pricing strategy.

Methods

Secondary data, surveys, and in-depth interviews will be conducted to obtain qualitative and
quantitative data that will be further analyzed.

1. Secondary Data: Collected to conduct a competitive analysis to help J.Crew identify


points of parity and points of differences among existing competitors.
2. Online and In-person Surveys: Surveys can help identify relationships between
quantitative data and the characteristics of the customers. Online surveys will be 10-15
minutes long and in-person surveys will be done by mall intercept which will be 2-3
minutes.
3. In-depth Interviews: One-on-one in-depth interviews will be performed for consumers
who are willing to further discuss the J.Crew brand providing more qualitative data which
will also be conducted via mall intercept for 30 minutes.

Timeline

• November 7th, 2018: Complete secondary data collection


• November 9th, 2018: Distribute online survey
• November 12th - November 15th: In-person interviews and in-depth interviews are
conducted
• November 15th, 2018: Complete online survey collection
• November 30th, 2018: Complete report

Justification of Research:

The following research will help J.Crew’s management team to better understand their target
market’s perception of the brand value, how their current pricing strategy and the presence of
an e-commerce distribution channel affects consumers. This can help the team make better
decisions in the future about their pricing strategy and focus on online distribution channels to
allow for a better edge against competitors.

Conclusion

The team has identified the company’s pricing strategy and distribution channel in need of
extensive re-adjustments. The company should re-examine its customers' overall willingness to
pay, which J.Crew has been failing to properly target in recent years. Through guaranteeing its
product quality alongside newly adjusted prices, the company can determine a new base for
their target prices and potentially reach a greater number of customers. As a result, by reducing
the price barrier, the company will have a higher degree of customer retention and may even
regain some of its lost customers. Finally, by advancing its sales within the e-commerce
distribution channel, such as partnering with Amazon, the company can extend its reach within
the North-American market.

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Appendices
Appendix A: J.Crew’s Revenues and Growth (EMarketerRetail, 2018).

Appendix B: J.Crew’s Same-Store Sales Growth (EMarketerRetail, 2018).

Appendix C: Household Income of Canadian M&F aged over 12 in 2016 Q4 (Vividata, 2016).

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References

Belle. (2015, March 31). The Campaign to Revive J. Crew. Capitol Hill Style. Retrieved from
http://www.caphillstyle.com/capitol/2015/03/31/the-campaign-to-revive-j-crew.html

EMarketerRetail. (2018). J.Crew | Revenue & Sales By Channel. Retrieved from https://retail-
index.emarketer.com/company/data/5374f24d4d4afd2bb444660d/5374f3154d4afd2bb44
4b84c/lfy/false/jcrew-by-channel

Hanbury, M. (2018, March 27). J.Crew is being outshined by its cooler sister. Retrieved from
https://www.businessinsider.com/jcrew-sales-plummet-madewell-thrives-2018-3

J.Crew. (2018, November 4). “J. Crew Logo.” Retrieved from https://www.jcrew.com/ca/

Safdar, K. (2018, August 30). New J.crew CEO's strategy: Lower prices, more sizes; CEO
James Brett aims to revive struggling chain by adding styles and making it more
accessible. The Wall Street Journal (Online). Retrieved from https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/docview/2096993209?accountid=14656

Statistics Canada. (2017, September 27). Household income in Canada: Key results from the
2016 Census. Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-
quotidien/170913/dq170913a-eng.htm

Vividata. (2016, Q4). J.Crew [Men’s Clothing (Where Personally Bought/Past 12 Months
(National))]. Retrieved from https://vividata.ca/

Vividata. (2016, Q4). J.Crew [Women’s Clothing (Where Personally Bought/Past 12 Months
(National))]. Retrieved from https://vividata.ca/

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Exploratory Research

Part A: Secondary Data Research

J.Crew has experienced a decline over the last three years. Its same-store sales dropped by 9.9%,
8.2%, and 10% in 2015, 2016, and 2017 (EMarketerRetail, 2018). By ycontrast, the percentage of
total sales through e-commerce channels has risen from 34.4% to 41.6% (EMarketerRetail, 2018)
which is seen in Appendix A. While consumers complain about the outdated design, unreasonable
price, and declining quality (Constable, 2015), J.Crew was able to leverage its strength in multi-
channel retailing to retain customers by selling clothes through e-commerce websites including
www.jcrew.com, www.jcrewfactory.com and www.madewell.com (J.Crew Group, 2017).

While the functionality and quality of websites have been updated, J.Crew needs to address
concerns regarding the product price and delivery time to meet the demand of buyers. A sweater
that is priced at $44.5 on J.Crew’s factory website is sold at $158 at www.jcrew.com (Banjo, 2017).
Analysts warn that since consumers are actively searching for savings through comparing prices,
apparel companies may lose customers’ trust if they fail to ensure the pricing consistency of same
SKUs across different channels (Amed, 2018). Therefore, J.Crew needs to examine customers’
behaviours of comparing the price on its factory website and regular-pricing website to avoid
potential conflicts. Consumers also complain about six to eight days of shipping from J.Crew’s
website, compared to one to two business days’ delivery via Amazon Prime (Banjo, 2017). Research
shows that 43% of buyers list “Enhanced delivery options” as the most important company attribute
when deciding where to buy, a trend that entails companies’ continual innovation to shorten
delivery times and satisfy increasingly demanding customer expectations (Kruh, 2018).

On a macro level, online retailing has been increasingly appealing for fashion businesses to attract
customers and grow revenue, and it is critical for J.Crew to catch the trend. The Census Bureau of
the US Department of Commerce reports that the estimated e-commerce sales in the US for the first
quarter in 2018 was US$ 114.4 billion, an increase of 16.4% from the first quarter of 2017 (J.Crew
Group, 2017). Researchers estimate an average annual growth rate of 18.7% by 2021 in the US
Apparel Retail e-commerce Sales to reach a total of US$ 145.77 billion (Garcia, 2017).

While e-commerce provides a significant room for growth, the digital space is fragmented as many
brands and platforms are seeking attention from customers. The key challenge is to persuade
Millennial and Gen Xer buyers to open the website and make a purchase (Garcia, 2017). Companies
are also paying more focus on cooperating with online retail platforms, attracted by their
convenience, relevance, and breadth of offering (Amed, 2018). 55% of US consumers begin their
online apparel product search on Amazon, and over one-third of fashion industry executives
participating the McKinsey Global Fashion Survey put the predominance of online platforms in
fashion among the top three trends in 2018 (Amed, 2018). While cooperation with platforms poses
risks by losing a part of control over the channel, it is even more dangerous not to be present on
Amazon at all.

To attract, retain, and encourage online consumers, it’s crucial for companies to identify and keep
track of behaviours of online shopping. In a research done by KPMG in 2017, while baby boomers
have a higher spending per transaction than Gen Xers and Millennials, in 2 or 3 years, Millennials are
forecasted to be the largest demographic in North America (Kruh, 2017). Since young professionals
are the primary target segment of J.Crew, the company need to provide a seamless online and
offline shopping experience to Millennial customers, 77% of whom have searched for product
information on e-commerce websites (Kruh, 2017). Along the customer journey, the top 3 attributes
of winning customers loyalty are “excellent customer support,” “exclusive offers for members,” and
“loyalty program,” which should be consistently reflected in the online websites (Kruh, 2017).

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Our research also studies fashion subscription services, a newly emerging membership-based
fashion retailing model which provides innovative ways of personal shopping by delivering custom
selected products straight to customers’ doors (Needleman, 2012). The service offers several unique
advantages: a recurring subscription box, test fitting at home, free shipping including returns, and a
certain level of customization (Tao & Xu, 2018).

According to research, participants highlight the convenience of trying on clothes at home. They
appreciate the time saved from driving to stores and searching for apparel. Also, customers can keep
what they like and return the others with the return label in the box. Furthermore, customers can
have an opportunity to try new styles. Consumers would be able to get access to styles and sizes
that might not be available in stores or online retailers. On the other hand, customers can explore a
variety of products they would not have thought about before, with recommendation provided by
online advisors (Tao & Xu, 2018).

The fashion subscription service benefits both consumers and retailers. Consumers can feel and
touch the clothing before purchase, which is absent in the typical online shopping model. This
unique experience can contribute to building a stronger long-term relationship between customers
and retailers (Ludin, n.d.). Companies can also understand customers’ needs better by receiving
direct input regarding product and style (Ewen, 2017). In conclusion, the subscription business
model provides J.Crew with a potential way to boost revenue, improve customer loyalty, and bring
in new customers.

Part B: Focus Group

Research Method Summary:

Moderator:
Since we knew the participants on a personal level, our group chose to assign seating to them in
order of least to most talkative. Another applied factor was how strongly opinionated the participant
was. Those with a more decisive opinions were placed at the very end of the table’s arrangement.
This was our method to prevent group thinking amongst the participants.
As a moderator, the most challenging aspects were:
• Making sure introverted participants speak enough and extroverts stay on topic.
• Balancing between probing deeply into each participant’s mind and not running out of time,
especially at times where participants would become highly interested in the topic.
• Making sure my partner has enough time to write down the notes by prolonging my
questions and repeating key phrases that the participants share.
• Ensuring the manner of questions from participants does not seem repetitive or dialogue,
rather from pure interest in what they had to say, since if a participant sensed the probing
questions appeared before, they felt less inclined to share more profound insights.

Participant:
• Having a group of peers discuss a topic together is more fun and productive to gather
information than filling out a 10-minute online questionnaire alone.
• Even though we knew the participants in the focus group, their responses to some questions
were still surprising and unexpected.
• Initial discussions lead to a deeper discussion that gave more insight into the topic at hand.
• Introverted participants who are able to absorb useful information of others can offer brief
and valuable insights that are inspired by more talkative peers in the focus group.

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• It is easy to get distracted when everyone in the group agrees on one problem or when the
discussion goes on for a long time.

Focus Group Research Report:
Considering the different responses from each focus group, we integrated our findings and
categorized them into the following order of attributes:

Price vs. Quality
• Regarding the high price level of J.Crew, most members expected higher quality in different
aspects of the brand's current goods, including durability, comfort, and is wrinkle-free.
• The price points of willingness-to-pay offered by each participant were still generally lower
than the labelled price.
• Contrary to J.Crew’s positioning, participants were willing to spend a relatively higher price
for more material heavy items such as coats, vests and jackets.
• Their willingness to spend was much lower for everyday items such as shirts and shoes.
• J.Crew does not differentiate itself from other products by brand name nor is the quality of
their product reliable.

Gender Preferences
• Females paid more attention to style and comfort of their clothing attire.
• Males were more focused on durability, quality and the type of materials.

Brand Recognition and Awareness
• The stores are selling a variety of items without a clear brand proposition. Their product
lines are too dispersed without a laser focus on their more popular items.
• Consumers do not have a highly valued perception nor awareness towards the brand.
• Competing brands have developed a strong brand image and credibility. Participants would
often compare the perceived value of the J.Crew clothing line with other brands such as
Aritzia, Kate Spade, and Zara. In comparison, participants preferred other brands instead of
J.Crew for numerous reasons.
• The brand does not have its distinct style to stand out from other brands. For example,
J.Crew does not have a specific logo contrary to American Eagle or Lacoste. This
differentiating factor helps consumers justify their spending as they can relate to the brand
and show it off.
• Their clothing is hard to relate to their brand and consumers have difficulty seeing the value
of the company and its products.

Aesthetics and Personal Preferences:
• Based on the utility of business casual attire, almost every participant prefers pure and low-
pitched colours to be mixed and bright colours.
• Darker colours and earth tones were favoured over vibrant colours.
• Aesthetics trumped comfortability when speaking regarding business casual wear.
• Comfortability was only important to daily life wear.
• As business casual wear, clothing that stood out was looked down upon, and traditional
clothes like a blazer, button up shirt, and chinos were favoured.
• Many consumers considered their choice of clothing and its combination of colours and
unique additions as a direct portrayal of their personality.

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Part C: Recommendations

• Further collaborate with Amazon through utilization of their extensive online distribution
channel and its industry-leading artificially intelligent search engines (CBinsights, n.d.) to
make recommendations to customers. Through the use of Amazon's AI extracted data,
J.Crew will be able to enhance its perception of customer tendencies.
• Provide free shipping and returns service through Amazon Prime membership. Through
cooperating with Amazon, J.Crew can improve e-commerce discrepancy from not only turn
6-8 days shipping into same-day shipping, but also include free shipping. Moreover,
customers will have the option of test-fitting products at home at no perceived risk.
• Incorporate a live chat feature to engage customers, improve customer service, and improve
the user experience. Create a forum-like atmosphere for customers to interact with one
another and for the company to have greater insight into the expectations of its customers.
• Expand their online e-commerce channels by partnering up with multiple companies.
Amazon is a good partnership to distribute their cheaper Mercantile product line. However,
for their more expensive products, J.Crew should partner up with Macy's.
• Introduce a fashion subscription model to existing websites. J.Crew can send boxes without
previously disclosing the box contents to the customers. In turn, it will transform the point
of purchase moment into an unforgettable experience (Vanhamme and Snelders, 2003) and
encourage customers to repeat purchases and magnify brand loyalty.

Implications & Next Steps:
• More direct competitors are partnering with Amazon as well, which diminishes J.Crew’s
temporary advantage. However, as J.Crew has a serious deficiency in its distribution
channel, this step is almost inevitable if the company plans to survive.
• J.Crew may lack enough product lines available for the AI to make useful recommendations
to potential consumers.
• Some consumers prefer the social aspect of retail shopping over making online purchases
(Tao & Xu, 2018). Next step would be to examine the proportion between customers who
prefer online shopping over retail.
• Market penetration with cheaper items on Amazon might take away from J.Crew's website
sales. Therefore, J.Crew should identify which set, out of their current product lines, should
be distributed by their online partners.
• Design survey questions for J.Crew customers regarding online shopping experience, free
shipping and returns, AI search engine and a fashion subscription model. Conduct in-person
interviews near the store from store customers.

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Appendix:

Appendix A: J.Crew Revenues & Sales - By Channel (EMarketerRetail, 2018).

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References

Amed, I., Andersson, J., Berg, A., Drageset, M., Hedrich, S., & Kappelmark, S. (2018). The State of
Fashion 2018: Renewed optimism for the fashion industry. Retrieved from
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/renewed-optimism-for-the-
fashion-industry

Banjo, S., Guy, S., Maple, T., Stambor, Z., & Evans, K. (2017, April 10). Why J. Crew needs new
clothes, a better pricing strategy and faster e-commerce fulfillment. Retrieved from
https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2017/04/10/why-j-crew-needs-new-clothes-a-
better-pricing-strategy-and-faster-e-commerce-fulfillment/

CBinsights. (n.d.). Amazon Strategy Teardown: Amazon’s Barreling Into Physical Retail, Financial
Services, Healthcare, And AI-Led Computing. Retrieved from:
https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/amazon-strategy-teardown/

Constable, S. (2015, June 15). J. Crew or J. Screwed? Forbes. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonconstable/2015/06/15/j-screwed/#2635f03342ca

EMarketerRetail. (2018). J.Crew | Revenue & Sales By Channel. Retrieved from https://retail-
index.emarketer.com/company/data/5374f24d4d4afd2bb444660d/5374f3154d4afd2bb444
b84c/lfy/false/jcrew-by-channel

Ewen, L. (2017, July 17). Why retailers are going all in on subscription services. Retrieved from
https://www.retaildive.com/news/why-retailers-are-going-all-in-on-subscription-
services/445971/

Garcia, K., Pitsis, N., & Rotondo, A. (2017, November 14). Apparel Stores and Digital Commerce
2017: Trends and Benchmarks. Retrieved from
http://totalaccess.emarketer.com/reports/viewer.aspx?r=2002131&ipauth=y

J.Crew. (2018, November 13th). “J. Crew Logo”. Retrieved from https://www.jcrew.com/ca/

J.Crew Group, Inc. SWOT Analysis. (2017). J.Crew Group, Inc SWOT Analysis, 1–18. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true
&db=bth&AN=124675759&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Kruh, W. (2017, January). The truth about online consumers. Retrieved from
https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2017/01/the-truth-about-online-
consumers.pdf

Ludin, J. (n.d.). The pros and cons of running a subscription service. Retrieved from
https://articles.bplans.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-running-a-subscription-service/

Needleman, S.E. (2012). It’s not book of the month: it’s men’s fashion. Retrieved from
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444184704577589720319031382/

Tao, Q. & Xu, Y.J. (2018). Fashion subscription retailing: an exploratory study of consumer
perceptions, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, Vol.
22 Issue: 4, pp.494-508, https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-11-2017-0123

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Vanhamme, J. & Snelders, D. (2003). What if you surprise your customers... will they be more
satisfied? Findings from a pilot experiment, ACR North American Advances, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp.
48-55.


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Survey Creation and Data Capture
Part A: Survey Sampling Plan

Sampling unit: The population of interest for this study are university students and young working
professionals between the ages of 20-30. This target population encompasses part of J.Crew's target
population of young working professionals between ages 25-30, and many university students will
be entering the workforce after they graduate or participate in co-op work experience during their
schooling. These are the people that are looking for business casual clothing that J.Crew offers. The
20-30 age group also captures part of generation Y and part of generation Z. Millennials or
Generation Y (ages 23-30 in this survey) is a large group with an annual spending power of 200
billion dollars and is expected to overtake the spending power of Generation X (Lockwood, 2013).
Generation Z (ages 20-22 in this study) is a very young group, and they are technologically savvy, by
targeting this group, it allows the study to show how e-commerce of J.Crew can be impacted
(Priporas, Stylos, and Fotiadis, 2017). Generation Z is adept to online shopping through apps and
websites (Priporas, Stylos, and Fotiadis, 2017) by improving user experience through e-commerce, it
can help promote sales of J.Crew. By surveying these two groups, the study can give relevant results
to how J.Crew can improve their sales through e-commerce distribution. To gather a list of these
people, the sampling frame will be the team member's network of family, friends, and students on
UBC campus. UBC Sauder clubs such as YWiB (Young Women in Business), Westpeak, and JDC West
can be contacted to get a list of members that could be used to sample. Screening criteria will be
used to exclude people outside of this age range and demographics. By asking their age and what
demographic they believe that they belong in, the targeted population can be determined and
others can be excluded.

Sample size: The sample size of this research study should be at least 100 people. As the surveying
method is an online survey, each member of the group should get at least 20 people to fill out their
survey to get a sample size of 100 assuming each respondent fall within the target population. To
account for drop-outs and respondents not meeting the population of interest criteria, each
member will distribute the survey to publicly online to their social network, but also choose 20
people of their own to ensure that they are within the target population. Social media such as
Facebook, Twitter, and WeChat will be used to distribute the survey. A sample size of 100 is
appropriate because when the population size is larger than 5000, the highest margin of error of 10%
will give you a sample size of about 100. As the margin of error decreases, the sample size grows
exponentially, which is why the minimum sample size of 100 is appropriate for the research this
study is conducting. This is due to time constraint and the resources available so the minimal sample
size will suffice.

Sampling procedure: The sampling procedure is a non-random sampling. Some respondents will be
chosen by each team member to make sure that they are within the target population to maximize
screening for the intended demographic. The online survey will also be distributed online publicly to
each member's social network to maximize responses. This sampling procedure is a convenience
sample as members are targeting their networks and leveraging them to get responses. However,
since the population of interest falls within each team members age range, their social networks will
contain many people that are valuable to the purpose of this research study. This online survey is
subjected to non-response sampling error, and this will be kept minimal by having team members
directly messaging individuals and targeting them for a response. This part of the procedure is a
judgement sampling. Another potential source of error is coverage error and to minimize this error;
screening questions will be used to ensure that the right demographic is responding to the survey.
Lastly, measurement error could occur if the questions are worded incorrectly. To prevent this error,
the survey will be tested beforehand, and questions will be reviewed by each team member and
outside sources to ensure that there will be no misinterpretations or insensitivity for the questions
being asked.

Part B: Survey & Supporting Materials:

Consent Form

MARKETING RESEARCH CLASS PROJECT

Purpose: The purpose of this is to find out whether the current distribution strategies of J.Crew are
effective for its revenue goal.

Duration: 10 minutes

Study Procedures: This study is being conducted as part of a course on marketing research. In this
study, you will be asked about your opinions between online and in-store purchase habits. We will
also ask you some demographic questions. The administrator would be happy to answer any
additional questions you might have about the study.

Principal Investigator: Cluny South, Instructor, Marketing and Behavioural Science at Sauder School
of Business, UBC, 1-778-988-9486, cluny.south@sauder.ubc.ca.

Study Administration: This study is being administered by the following student co-investigators:
Aryan Memar-Zadeh, Candice Liao, Holly Lin, Jeff Liu, Marco Ng (Group 6: Course Section MM1
BAMA 508, Robert H. Lee Graduate School)

Confidentiality: Your identity will be kept confidential. All documents will be identified only by code
number and will be kept on a locked computer. You will not be identified by name in any report of
the completed study.

Risks: We do not anticipate any discomfort arising out of participating in this research. However, in
case you feel you are experiencing any risks or discomfort, you are free to withdraw from further
participation at any stage.

Contact for information about the study: If you have any questions or desire further information
concerning this study or the results, you may contact the principal investigator, Cluny South,
Instructor, Marketing and Behavioural Science at the Sauder School of Business, UBC, 1-778-988-
9486, cluny.south@sauder.ubc.ca.

Contact for complaints: If you have any concerns or complaints about your rights as a research
participant and your experiences while participating in this study, contact the Research Participant
Complaint Line in the UBC Office of Research Ethics at 604-822-8598 or if long distance e-mail
RSIL@ors.ubc.ca or call toll free 1-877-822-8598.

Consent: Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary, and you may refuse to participate or
withdraw from the study at any time without consequence.

Your personal information below indicates that consent to participate in this study. The collected
contact information will only be used to send you relevant updates concerning this survey.
Please provide the following below:

Participant name: ___________________
Date (month/date/year): _____________________
E-mail: ____________________________

Dear participants,

We are a group of students conducting a study for a marketing research course. Specifically, we are
conducting a survey to understand your purchase habits. We would be asking some questions
regarding your behaviour, attitudes and motivations towards your shopping experience. We would
like you to fill out the following survey. It should take roughly 10 minutes of your time.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We designed an online questionnaire that included a total of 26 questions. We organized the
questions into the following categories:

● Online purchase behaviour
● Attitudes and Motivations
● Purchase Journey

Part A:
1. Are you between the age of 20 and 30?
1. Yes
2. No
2. Have you purchased J.Crew products before?
1. Yes
2. No

Part B: This section asks you about your online purchase behaviour regarding apparel.

3. How often do you buy apparel in a store monthly?
1. 0-1 time
2. 2-3 times
3. 4-5 times
4. More than 5 times

4. How much do you spend on average every time you purchase apparel in-store?
1. $0-50
2. $51-100
3. $101-150
4. $151-200
5. Over $200

5. How often do you buy apparel on brands’ websites monthly?
1. 0-1 time
2. 2-3 times
3. 4-5 times
4. More than 5 times

6. How much do you spend on average every time you purchase apparel on brands’ websites?
1. $0-50
2. $51-100
3. $101-150
4. $151-200
5. Over $200

7. How often do you buy apparel on Amazon monthly?
1. 0-1 time
2. 2-3 times
3. 4-5 times
4. More than 5 times

8. How much do you spend on average every time you purchase apparel on Amazon?
1. $0-50
2. $51-100
3. $101-150
4. $151-200
5. Over $200

Part C: This section aims to understand your attitudes and motivations towards purchasing
apparel.

9. What are your reasons to shop online instead of in stores? Please only select three options.
1. Convenience
2. Online only coupon
3. Ease of selection
4. Free shipping
5. Online only stuff
6. Live chat feature

10. What are your reasons to shop in stores instead of online? Please only select three options.
1. First-hand experience
2. Get products immediately
3. Shipping fee
4. Enjoy social experience
5. Sales assistance

11. What are your concerns when deciding where to buy from? Please only select three options.
1. Price factor
2. Delivery options
3. Return policy
4. Incentive program or reward for membership customers
5. Special promotion
6. Social media presence

12. Do you use your smartphone to look up a product while in an apparel shop?
1. Yes
2. No

13. If yes, which was these following product information you look up online? Please only select two
options.
1. Price comparison with other retailers
2. Product information
3. Online reviews
4. Product options (e.g. colour, size, style, etc.)
5. Store inventory/availability

14. What raises your trust in a company? Please only select three options.
1. Easy to contact customer service
2. Are open and honest about negative news and events
3. Are socially responsible
4. Send personalized communications
5. Have credible spokesperson
6. Strong reputation

15. What are your favourite apparel brands? Please only select three options.
1. Aritzia
2. Banana Republic
3. Club Monaco
4. H&M
5. J.Crew
6. Zara

16. What factors drive your loyalty to the companies above? Please only select three options.
1. User-friendly customer service
2. Exclusive offers and promotions for members
3. Satisfying purchase experience
4. loyalty program (e.g. reward points)
5. Valid suggestions based on purchase history
6. Timely response to customer feedback

Part D: In this section, please answer some question towards your purchase journal in apparel
companies, including J.Crew.

17. How much do you agree or disagree that these sources help you make better purchasing
decisions?
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree

Online advertisement

Online review

Social media post

Subscribed email

Fashion magazine

Physical shop

Friend’s recommendation

Print brochure

18. How do you use to research products before you buy online? Please select all that apply.
1. Online search for reviews and recommendations
2. Visit the company websites
3. Visit physical stores to see, try, or fit the product
4. Speak with friends or family members
5. Other

19. Which social media platform do you usually use? Please only select three options.
1. Facebook
2. WhatsApp
3. Instagram
4. WeChat
5. Blogs
6. Twitter
7. YouTube
8. Snapchat
9. Other

20. Please rate your level of satisfaction regarding your shopping experience with J.Crew. (1=
Very disappointed, 5= Very satisfied)
1. [1]
2. [2]
3. [3]
4. [4]
5. [5]

Please elaborate why do you gave this answer.
___________________________________________________________________

21. Which channels did you use to buy J.Crew’s products last time?
1. J.Crew physical store
2. J.Crew own website
3. Amazon

Please let us know why you chose to purchase through this channel.
___________________________________________________________________

22. What improvements would you recommend for online shopping with J.Crew?
___________________________________________________________________

Part E: This section collects standard demographic information which is analyzed for population
demographic research purpose only.

23. What is your gender?
1. Male
2. Female
3. Prefer not to say

24. Which age generation do you belong to?
1. Generation Y (Millennials, born between 1988-1994)
2. Generation Z (born between 1995-1998)

25. What is your current employment status?
1. Full-time job
2. Part-time job
3. Unemployed

26. What is your average income per month?
1. Less than $2000
2. $2000-4000
3. $4001-6000
4. More than $6000

Thank you for your time.
If you have any questions about this survey, please feel free to contact us.

Survey Procedure
1. Objectives: The goal of this survey is to gather information from customers to identify their
pattern, behaviour, and preferences for shopping J.Crew and other brands’ apparels online.
Our objectives include:
a. The attitude and online behaviours of the purchases
b. Choices of apparel and their reasonings
c. Channel distribution preferences and effectiveness
2. Resources
a. Technical resource: We create, distribute, and collect online surveys using the
Qualtrics system provided by UBC.
b. Other resources: We form survey questions by collecting information on J.Crew’s
current e-commerce platforms that are open to customers.
3. Constraints
a. The time constraint for the online survey is 15 to 20 minutes; the ideal time would
be around 10 minutes, so the participants provide trustworthy responses. Plus, due
to the time limit of this course, the team needs to conduct surveys in one week, and
it is not possible to monitor changes in respondents’ behaviours in the long-term.
b. Another constraint is money. Companies with more capital can pay respondents to
gather more data. This is not applicable to this survey due to the nature of the team.
Information constraint: we cannot access the internal data of J.Crew’s online
websites or the J.Crew section on Amazon, which limit our capability of
understanding the status quo of the topic.

Layout and Design Discussion:
The following component explains the flowchart in detail. Each segment is partitioned and organized
depending on its role within the survey. The titles include the objective of each part as well as the
underlying criteria behind the design and its choice of mechanism. Please find the corresponding
flow-chart in the appendix.

Part A (Screening):
This section includes the screeners and the qualifying questions to assess the validity of the
participants' input. Respondents will be asked of their age to ensure they fit into our desired age
demographic. Failure to meet this requirement results in the termination of the survey through the
implementation of a skip pattern. Respondents will also be asked whether they have purchased
apparels from J.Crew before. The result of this question does not affect the flow of the survey.

Part B (Online purchase behaviour):
This section is the ‘warm-up’ of the survey. The purpose is to include easy questions and answers to
assure the respondent that the survey is relatively approachable and based on personal experience.

Part C (Apparel purchasing attitude):
This part is the transition segment. These are the questions which require a bit more effort from the
respondent and are closely related to the research objective variables. Answers in this section will
help the team understand buyers’ attitudes and motivations towards purchasing apparel.

Part D (Purchase journal):
This section includes more complicated and challenging questions. At this point in the survey, the
respondent is at their highest level of commitment towards completing the survey. Thus, it has the
highest extraction rate of info.

Part E (Demographic):
Classifying and demographic questions. As these questions tend to be more personal and
information sensitive for the respondent, it is placed at the end of the survey where the respondent
is at their maximum potential of comfort. Moreover, respondents will spend less time tailoring the
answers to their ideals as they are more inclined to finish the survey. Thus, resulting in more honest
and less biased outputs. Also, we used simple answering mechanisms such as multiple choice to ease
the process.

Logistics Discussion:
The trial test aims to screen the outcomes of the first few responses and ensure that they are within
our range of expected results. To ensure the validity and sensibility of our survey design, we will
conduct the following steps and precautionary measurements before the implementation of the
survey:
1. Each team member will do a trial run with our survey to proofread the questionnaire and
ensure all mechanics of the design follow through smoothly and as planned.
2. Moreover, we will utilize our marketing research class to assess the trialability of our survey.
These participants will be knowledgeable regarding the topic and will gauge our design with
critical eyes. Their feedback will be our second indication of the attempt.
3. Family members and select friends will then be exposed and their responses screened. This
is our final soft barrier.
4. Share on our select choices of social media platforms (e.g. Facebook) as our first
convenience sample trial run.

Survey Administration: We choose to conduct the online self-administered survey for these reasons:
1. Online surveys fit the research objectives that aim to examine the effectiveness of
encouraging more consumption by improving e-commerce channels and finding ways to
improve the system. If we adopt the in-person survey method, it will be harder for
participants to focus on their online purchase behaviours. Moreover, as the topic of our
focus is the improvement of the companies online platform, gathering data from the same
type of source can be helpful for further analysis in comparison to other non-computerized
versions.
2. Online surveys are also more time-efficient than in-person surveys. The flexibility of the
online survey allows respondents to answer questions whenever they are comfortable. Due
to the time limit of the research, we can gather more feedbacks by conducting surveys
online.
3. Another advantage of online surveys is the convenience of gathering and analyzing data. Not
only do we avoid wasting time on inputting data by hand, but we could also use the data &
analysis function on Qualtrics to conduct initial analysis as a foundation for our SPSS analysis.

Appendix:


References:

J.Crew. (2018, November 4). “J. Crew Logo.” Retrieved from https://www.jcrew.com/ca/

Priporas, C., Stylos, N., & Fotiadis, A. K. (2017). Generation Z consumers' expectations of interactions
in smart retailing: A future agenda. Computers in Human Behavior, 77, 374-381.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.01.058

Lockwood, L. (2013). Study: Millennials' spending power underestimated by retail industry.Wwd,
206(85), 7.

Data description, analysis and final research report
Executive summary:

J.Crew, a North American apparel brand, has targeted upper-middle class young professionals since
1983. Over the past three years, they have been experiencing a declining trend in sales. Facing this
problem, our team has conducted a set of qualitative and secondary researches, alongside focus
groups and an online survey with over 100 respondents. This report aims to recommend
improvements to the company’s online distribution channels, online presence, and brand
recognition to improve sales. By analyzing demographics, the frequency of purchases, spending
power, and other decision-making factors, the results demonstrated the purchase behaviours of
customers. Our team recommends that J.Crew should continue collaboration with e-commerce
platform (Amazon), stimulate customer’s online purchasing motivations, and integrate multiple
channels. The limitations of this study contain sampling bias, financial constraints, measurement
errors and time constraints. However, the survey showed that the behaviour of consumers is
gravitating more and more towards online shopping rather than in-store. Supporting our hypothesis
of J.Crew’s necessity to improve its online distribution channel.

Introduction:

Founded in 1983, J.Crew is a North American apparel brand that historically targets upper-middle
class young professionals and has been known for its preppy style (Holmes, 2015). J.Crew has
experienced a decline in sales over the last three years. The sales of J.Crew dropped by 10% in 2015,
8% in 2016, and another 4% in 2017 (EMarketerRetail, 2018).

Our secondary and qualitative research suggests that while J.Crew’s sales have dropped, its sales
from online channels have taken a larger proportion of the sales (EMarketerRetail, 2018). Major
complaints against J.Crew’s e-commerce sales concerns the price disparity, high delivery fees, and
long shipping time (Banjo, 2017). On a macro level, more apparel buyers are placing orders,
comparing prices, and searching for information online. Large e-commerce platforms are also
attracting consumers’ attention. 55% of US consumers begin their online apparel product search on
Amazon (Amed, 2018).

Based on preliminary and secondary qualitative researches, our team decide to investigate the
online presence and distribution channel of J.Crew. Our research objective is to determine whether
focusing on e-commerce shopping channels leads to higher sales for J.Crew. We decide to conduct
surveys which lead us to more insightful data regarding J.Crew customers to see people’s general
perception of the brand and how their online purchasing behaviour could help in improving the
company’s sales.

The following research study provides recommendations for its online sales strategy based on the
results of the conducted surveys . We have utilized resources such as secondary research, survey
research results, alongside the gained perspectives from the focus groups to tailor the results
towards a more meaningful conclusion. The final part of this study reflects on the research
limitations, our possible points for improvement, and provide a conclusion towards the necessary
future actions.

2
Research Results:

Basic Demographic Information

The online survey received 104 responses. Based on the results, the majority of the respondents are
female. By running a percentage based frequency chart, it was determined that 73 (70.2%) were
females, 30 (28.8%) were males, and 1 (1%) respondent preferred not to say their gender out of 104
people (See Appendix K). 78 (75%) of these respondents are between the ages of 18-23, 25 (24%)
are between 24-29, and 1 (1%) are 30-35 (See Appendix Q). This is within the range of the target
market, ages 18-30, which was set out to be examined.

Out of these 104 respondents, 49 (47.1%) are unemployed, 33 (31.7%) have a full-time job, and 22
(21.2%) have a part-time job (See Appendix J). Among those who are employed (n=55), 29 (52.7%)
make less than $2000 per month, 19 (34.5%) make between $2000-4000 per month, 3 (5.5%) make
between $4001-6000, and 4 (7.3%) make more $6000 (See Appendix I).

Only 21 (20.2%) out of the 104 respondents have shopped at J.Crew (See Appendix R). Even though
only 21 respondents have made a purchase from J.Crew, their responses are still valuable as it
pertains to their shopping experience and it portrays insight into how J.Crew can improve.

Customers’ Purchase Behaviours and Attitudes

Part B of the survey examines consumers’ frequency of purchase and average spending for each
purchase in physical shops, on brands’ websites, and Amazon to analyze their preferences for these
channels. The frequency of purchase and spending per purchase are measured on a scale of 1 to 4
and 1 to 5. For frequency, 1 indicates 0 to 1 purchase per month, and 4 indicates over 5 purchases
per month. For spending, 1 indicates $0 to 50, while 5 indicates spending more than $200.
Participants tend to purchase more frequently in physical shops (1.6 ± 0.078) than on brands’
websites (1.32 ± 0.64) and on Amazon (1.18 ± 0.059), p<0.01 (See Appendix F). Consumers also
spend more offline (2.39 ± 0.116) than on websites (2.10 ± 0.116) and Amazon (1.25 ± 0.069), p<0.01
(See Appendix G).

For current J.Crew customers, the survey investigates their satisfaction of past shopping experience
and channel preference. Customers, in general, are happy with J.Crew so far. 42.9% and 14.3% of
respondents are satisfied and very satisfied with J.Crew, and no one responded “very unsatisfied.”
Most consumers prefer to buy in physical shops (See Appendix N). 81% bought J.Crew’s products in
stores the last time they made a purchase, while only 9.5% bought from J.Crew’s websites or
Amazon (See Appendix M).

The survey also collects respondents’ brand preferences and concludes that J.Crew is facing fierce
competitions from other fashion brands. Top three popular brands are Zara, H&M, and Aritzia, with
65, 47, and 35 out of 104 respondents choosing them as one of their favourite brands. However,
only 8 out of 104 pick J.Crew as their favourite (See Appendix D).

Consumers’ decision-making process

Based on consumers’ current channel, spending, and brand preferences, Part C of the survey seeks
to picture the customer’s journey, from looking for information, deciding through which channels
they are going to make purchases, to buying more apparels in the future. Before buyers placing
orders online, they tend to collect information through different methods to have a comprehensive

3
understanding of products. While most respondents (83.65%) rely on online reviews, 64 and 52
people visit stores or talk to friends for recommendations (See Appendix P).

When customers shop in physical stores, many of them (65.4%) look up information on smartphones
to assist in their decision-making. Among those who use smartphones, they tend to look for the best
price across channels (53.8%), collect online reviews as references (48.1%), and search for
information on size, colour, or style (43.3%). Therefore, it can be concluded that the information on
both online and offline channels has an impact on customers’ perceptions of the brand and thus
encourage or discourage purchases (See Appendix B).

As for consumers’ perceived reliability of information from different sources. The results show that
the most important factors to making a purchase are online reviews (4.115 + 0.165), physical shop
(4.154 + 0.154), and a friend’s recommendation (4.144 + 0.154). The rest of the factors (online
advertisement, social media post, subscribed email, fashion magazines, and print brochures) all have
a lower mean with no overlapping confidence intervals with the top three factors (See Appendix H).
The other three factors do not overlap with online review’s confidence intervals, with the online
advertisement being the closest (3.683 + 0.173), social media next (3.663 + 0.163), and subscribed
email last (2.913 + 0.183) (See Appendix H).

By analyzing participant’s social media platform preferences, the results will show which social
media has the most influence on consumer decision-making processes and behaviours. Responses
show that Instagram (25.9%), Facebook (20.6%), and youtube (20.6%) are the top three social media
platform used (See Appendix O). The three combined makes up more than 65% of the respondent’s
preferences of social media platform usage (See Appendix O).

To design a digital strategy that encourages more online consumption, it’s critical to understand
reasons as to why consumers buy online or offline. 91 out of 104 respondents choose convenience
as the top reason they shop online, 51 choose free shipping, and 43 choose ease of selection. When
it comes to choosing which channel to shop from, the deciding factor would be price, as 93 people
select price comparison, and 68 people choose price promotion. These findings suggest that in order
for online channels to attract more customers, they need to guarantee at least the same or even
lower price of products than the price in-store. Plus, they need to tailor the website design to
provide a more convenient and helpful online shopping experience (Appendix C).

To analyze what is important to building loyalty towards a brand, the survey asked participants to
choose the following factors that were important to them when considering their loyalty. The most
important factor was satisfying purchasing experience (34.6%), then the rest is in descending order
from user-friendly customer service (27.8%), exclusive offers and promotions for members (16.5%),
timely reply to customer’s feedbacks (7.6%), loyalty program (6.8%), and valid suggestions based on
purchase history (6.8%) (See Appendix E). Knowing this information, J.Crew can work on website
design to increase the conversion rate by focusing on customer service and having user-friendly
customer service such as implementing a chat-bot online to help with navigation of the website.

Recommendations

Based on the data from our survey and other available information from secondary research about
J.Crew, our recommendations focus on utilizing the bloom opportunity of the digital era, increasing
customers’ motivation to shop online, and improving the connection between online and offline
distribution channels to boost J.Crew’s revenue retroactively.

4
Further cooperation with e-commerce platforms

On the macro level, online retail is playing a more important role in fashion businesses to attract
spending from target customer groups and increase revenue. Over the last three years, while more
than half of the sales still comes from retail stores, its e-commerce section is growing fast and
occupied 41.6% of J.Crew’s revenue in the last fiscal year (EMarketerRetail, 2018). However, our
survey shows that among people who have purchased in J.Crew, 81% of them did their most recent
shopping in J.Crew’s physical stores, with only 9.5% bought from its website and Amazon
respectively. The disparity suggests that J. customers in Canada haven’t fully perceived the benefit of
J.Crew’s online channel, and it’s critical for J.Crew to increase its online presence in these regions.
Further collaboration with Amazon and other e-commerce platforms would be beneficial. With the
help of Amazon’s advanced search engine that traces consumers’ preference, J.Crew could provide
more affordable products for customers who are in the middle-income group. J.Crew could also
potentially reach out to more customers based on data collected on Amazon (CBinsights, n.d.).

Increase customers’ willingness to purchase online

While maintaining the relatively constant sales in the brick-and-mortar stores of J.Crew, the
company ought to motivate consumers to buy through online platforms more frequently to yield
higher revenue. Therefore, we suggest that J.Crew improve the online shopping experience
regarding affordability, convenience, and functionality.

To begin with, the website should incorporate live chat feature and improve its recommendation
accuracy through analyzing customers’ browsing history and past purchases, since customers trust
online reviews (32.2%) and recommendations (24.8%) to assist in their decision-making. Moreover,
J.Crew needs to redesign its web page's functionality to help customers quickly locate the clothes
they want, provide post-purchase services, and increase awareness toward its sales promotion
activities.

Our research results also indicate that smartphones keep offline shoppers connected. There are 65.4%
of our respondents say they tend to use their smartphone to look up a product while in an apparel
shop. Comparing prices (25.7%) is the main reason for doing online research instead of out shopping,
followed by checking online reviews (22.9%) and product options(20.6%). Therefore, concerning
boosting our target segment (18-30 years old) considerations to buying products, J.Crew should
promote and offer special online-only coupons on widely-used social media platforms such as such
as Instagram (25.9%), Facebook (20.6%), and Youtube (20.6%). Also, J.Crew can also provide more
economical prices on its e-commerce platforms that are different compared with that in the physical
stores.

Price of apparels is the most influential factor (35.2%) behind customers' decision to shop offline or
online. Special promotion (25.8%), delivery option (14.8%), and return policy (14.4) are also critical
concerns of our target market. Regarding deliveries, free shipping should be available to encourage
customers to purchase through the e-commerce platform. Same-day shipping of J.Crew online can
unquestionably be beneficial for consumers to save their time and energy of visiting its physical

5
stores; it is much more convenient. Plus, J.Crew could provide a more convenient refund and return
policy, such as allowing consumers to purchase online, but return in-store if they are not satisfied
with what they have bought. The service is currently accessible in UK, Hong Kong and Japan. It
should cover more regions to ensure the consistency of their service quality.

According to our research, satisfying purchase experience (34.6%), providing excellent customer
support (27.8%), and exclusive offers and promotions for member (16.5%), all remain vital to earning
the company loyalty from customers. Therefore, to attract young professionals, J.Crew needs to
offer more personalized interactions, more customized experiences and one-on-one engagement.
For example, they can provide a gift or a customized thank you card to members alongside their
shopping package.

Connect online and offline channels

When comparing the impact of online versus offline to research products before buying online, it is
interesting to observe that 57% of respondents select at least one online channels as a source of
initial awareness, while 43% select more than one offline channels. Due to the close impact of both
channels, J.Crew should consider using a multi-channel strategy to improve public awareness.

As J.Crew’s revenue consists of two parts between offline physical stores and online e-commerce
platforms, seamless connection and mutual interaction between them are significantly needed to
ramp up its revenue. Adopting policies that are capable of combining all available resources into an
integration is conducive to make customers have a satisfying shopping experience. Seamless
connection between online and offline can be achieved by one “click-receive” program having
consumers order online at first, then giving tracking information to them, finally sending
notifications to these people when their stuff it’s available for picking up at the nearest physical
store of J.Crew. Also, J.Crew should let more interactions between two channels via different
strategies such as having competitions of sales between physical stores and online websites in the
North American market.

Limitations:

Our online survey was conducted in a fairly short amount of time and with a convenient frame for
the sampling group. Naturally, every marketing research survey contains its own limitations. These
limitations can stem from a variety of reasons from financial constraints to natural causes such as
measurement errors. Details are explored under their respective general categories, in point form,
below:

Our online survey was conducted in a fairly short amount of time and with a convenient frame for
the sampling group. Naturally, every marketing research survey contains its own limitations. These
limitations can stem from a variety of reasons from financial constraints to natural causes such as
measurement errors. Details are explored under their respective general categories, in point form,
below:

6
A. Financial constraints : Our only financial constraint was our choice of the sample population
as we did not have a budget allocated for the recruitment of applicable respondents. Rather,
the variety of the respondents were limited to first and (at best) second-order connections
of the team members. Which can itself, lead to possible measurement errors and biases;
further discussed in their respective sections below.
B. Sampling bias
a. Convenience sampling limitations: as mentioned in part A, due to our limited
resources in reaching respondents, our survey was partially executed as a
convenience sampling case. The side-effects are as such:
i. The sample was chosen based on the easiest to access and quickest to
respond. Undermining our ability and accuracy in generalizing from our
sample population.
ii. The sampling frame was not fully representative due to time limitations.
Most respondents are unemployed
b. Roughly 80% of the respondents have never shopped at J.Crew before. General lack
of interest from respondents towards the brand refrained us from retrieving more
insightful data or inferring more insightful conclusions.
c. Respondent perceptions might be outdated in regards to J.Crew and their fashion
line.
C. Measurement error & time pressures
a. Time: Due to the deadline of the assignment, our time window for collection of data
was extremely short and limited. Reducing the variety and diversity in our collected
data which can cause rise to potential sampling bias. This can cause our sample to be
a group of people who share the same work/free-time schedule. A longer time for
the collection of data would lead to a more well-rounded collection; containing a
greater diversity of demographics.
b. Impatience and accuracy of the respondents during the conduction of the survey
was not guaranteed especially since we had no physical access to the respondents or
their environmental state while partaking in the study.

To conclude, for our team to have a more accurate and comprehensive survey, it needs to prevent
the sources of biases presented. That can be done by allocating a budget and hiring proper
respondents for the sample groups, increasing the diversity of the respondents, sharing the survey
for a longer period and gauging different demographics. Finally, randomizing the time, location and
type of person we are reaching would aid in reducing bias.

Conclusion:

The research done by Team 6 indicates that J.Crew needs to improve its e-commerce sales channels
to increase customers’ awareness, frequency of purchase, as well as the amount of spending on
J.Crew’s websites and its section on Amazon. Online platforms should be re-designed to provide
cheaper and faster shipment, more affordable apparels, and convenient website functions to help
customers access critical information that helps with decision-making. As for J.Crew’s collaboration
with Amazon, we suggest that J.Crew cooperate with the platform to track consumers’ behaviours to
provide tailored recommendations and services.

7
As mentioned previously within the limitations section, the survey was not conducted in an ideal
period nor was the diversity of the respondents assured, leading to potential sampling bias. To have
a more comprehensive understanding of J.Crew’s online presence, next steps would be to examine
consumers’ browsing history and behaviour patterns by using data collected on the website. A/B
testing could be carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of changing the website’s layout and
design. Through gathering more quantitative data regarding consumers’ spending and frequency of
purchases, the team could also run a multi-linear regression analysis on relations between shipping
cost, price, and online sales.

8
Appendix
Appendix A: Online shopping reasons (Table and graph)

Appendix B: Information on smartphone usage (Table and graph)

9
Appendix C: Factors influencing online and offline purchases (Table and graph)

Appendix D: Consumer’s favourite brands (Table and graph)

10
Appendix E: Consumer’s loyalty factor company (Table and graph)

Appendix F: One-sample t-test of offline shopping, brand website shopping and amazon shopping
frequency table

11
Appendix G: One-sample t-test of offline shopping spending, brand website shopping spending and
amazon shopping spending table

Appendix H: One-sample t-test of different sources influencing consumer-decisions table

12
Appendix I: Average income per month (Table and graph)

Appendix J: Current employment status (Table and graph)

13
Appendix K: Gender (Table and graph)

Appendix M: Different purchasing channels for J.Crew products (Table and graph)

14
Appendix N: Satisfaction level of shopping experience for J.Crew (Table and graph)

Appendix O: Consumer’s preference of social media platform usage (Table and graph)

15
Appendix P: Consumer’s preference of research before purchasing online (Table and graph)

Appendix Q: Age

Appendix R: Purchased from J.Crew before

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References

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