Abstract
On-line consumer reviews are good references for consumers to evaluate and buy apparel products. The objective of this study is to facilitate communication about performance textiles between consumers and merchandisers who buy and sell apparel products on online. The survey was based on standardizing words used in consumer reviews written after purchase of summer knit t-shirts at internet shopping mall and evaluating the performance textiles including cellulose fibers. We collected reviews of five sorts of the clothing products including cotton/modal, tencel/polyurethane, polyester/rayon, linen, cotton and selected 1000 reviews related to textiles. For classifying each word used in the reviews by the performance textiles, they were quantified applying same standards. The results were as follow: First, the standard for consumer to consider importantly was tactile sensation, appearance, pilling, thickness, dimensional stability in washing. Second, the important category of performance textiles was healthy-comfort and psychological-comfort. Third, there were difference performance textiles for consumer to recognize, e.g. cotton/modal was important to air-permeability, tencel/polyurethane was noticed about tactile sensation, polyester/rayon was perceived about pilling unlike other things, linen had a problem of clothing care-convenience, then cotton was familiar fiber to important for appearance. The last, consumers usually focused on writing the most positive or negative online reviews. Although not familiar with professional terminologies, consumers are sensitive to physical properties of textiles. Therefore, standardizing and evaluating performance textiles are expected to improve satisfaction as providing objective information to consumers considering in buying apparel products at online shopping mall and increase in revenue to manufacturer.
