Millennials’ Attitudes Toward Online Luxury Buying Behavior in South Korea: A Q-methodology Approach

Abstract

The millennials are a crucial generational cohort of customers who buy luxury goods online. Asian luxury consumers became the major driver of global luxury sales growth. While there are a number of papers from developing countries in Asia, this study explores millennials’ attitudes toward shopping online for luxury goods from among the most world’s leading economy of South Korea.

This paper has used Q methodology to examine and categorize millennials’ behavior toward online luxury consumption. The QUANAL program was employed for data collection and results revealed that there is a significant behavioral distinction between three types of shoppers such as Online Convenience Shopper, Online Economic Shopper and Traditional Shopper.

The findings of this study have a managerial contribution by understanding the typology of online luxury goods consumers among Korean millennials. As one of the sizable cohorts who are purchasing luxury online, this paper could help managers to maintain and increase sales growth among millennials online. This study has also a theoretical or academic contribution by creating a new consumer type and broadening the knowledge about online luxury buying behavior.