The perception of organic apparel and its effect on the purchase behavior of consumers

This thesis is a study on the topic of consumer behavior and attitude concerning organic apparel in Turkey. The purpose of this thesis is to present an overall view of Turkish organic textile market and to discover consumers' behavior and attitude towards organic textile products. In the research, Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used to examine behaviors toward organic apparel products and purchasing intentions of customers. In the process, the study sought to understand the main external and internal social factors that influence purchase behavior, consumer decision making process, and explore organic textile consumer profile. The result will also present the factors that motivate organic apparel consumption as well as the barriers that limit the growth of organic sales. To fulfill the research objectives, primary and secondary data collection methods have been utilized. The main sources of secondary data were collected from different online sources such as reports, surveys, websites of research institutes, published books, online journals and papers. The primary data has been gained by utilizing both qualitative & quantitative methods of semi-structured questionnaire and survey instruments. Responses from 400 consumers from seven different regions of Turkey and various occupations were collected with a questionnaire. According to our research results, perceived benefits, perceived risks, perceived consumer effectiveness, anti-fashion attitude and green consumption values had significant and positive contribution to attitudes towards organic apparel. Research findings also confirm the positive influence of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control and negative influence of the occupation of being student on consumers' intention regarding organic apparel. Their intentions, in turn, were also seen to affect their green purchase behavior. Frequent online shopping behavior was also a significant antecedent which had negative impact on purchase behavior.