Assembled or unassembled? Different types of outfit coordination presentations in online fashion retailing

In the realm of retailing, various methods of product presentation exert a significant influence on consumers' perceptions and behaviors. In the context of fashion retailing, one crucial aspect of presentation revolves around outfit coordination (OC), which can be displayed in either an assembled or unassembled manner. Assembled OC entails displaying fashion items collectively on a body, while unassembled OC involves presenting them individually on a flat background. Drawing from the literature on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of attention, this research explores the impact of assembled versus unassembled OC on consumers' imagery elaboration, attention, and product evaluations, employing three online experiments. In the first study (N = 126), we demonstrate that assembled OC, in contrast to unassembled OC, fosters greater imagery elaboration and elicits more positive product evaluations. Building upon these findings, the second study (N = 214) employs a serial mediation analysis to unveil the underlying mechanism involving shifted attention. The third study (N = 182) explores the moderating effect of fashion involvement, revealing that for consumers with a high level of fashion involvement, unassembled OC, rather than assembled OC, leads to higher levels of imagery elaboration and more favorable product evaluations. This research not only enriches the literature on online retailing and visual communication, but also provides actionable insights for industry practitioners on effectively presenting fashion products to online shoppers.