Consumers’ Color Memory of Fashion Products in Live-Streaming E-commerce: Effects of Clothing Color and Color Combination

Abstract

This study quantitatively analyzed potential consumers’ color memory of fashion products in the context of live-streaming e-commerce. The study used various clothing colors and color combinations; sweatshirts in 10 chromatic and achromatic colors were matched with pants in similar and contrasting colors (20 sweatshirt–pants combinations). Subsequently, 10 s video samples (created using 3D fashion design software) in which a walking figure was dressed in each sweatshirt–pants combination were shown to 15 male and 15 female participants on a calibrated LCD display; participants then performed a visual assessment in which they were asked to identify the color of the sweatshirt as they remembered it from seven color options. White was most consistently remembered, regardless of the color of the item with which it was matched. Among the chromatic colors, yellow clothing was most consistently remembered. Meanwhile, the degree of color memory matching error, that is, the difference between remembered and actual colors, was 7.37 ΔE*_ab units on average; the error was greatest for green–blue at 13.74 ΔE*_ab units. Significant color memory errors occurred when red, red–yellow, yellow–green, green, and white sweatshirts were matched with contrasting pants (average: 7.30 ΔE*_ab). Conversely, significant errors occurred when yellow, green–blue, blue, blue–red, and black sweatshirts were paired with similar-colored pants (average: 9.22 ΔE*_ab). Regarding the specific color attributes of clothing that affected participants’ color memory matching, the chroma and hue of sweatshirts, and the chroma and overall color differences between sweatshirts and pants were found to have significant effects.