Enhancing sustainable fashion through QR-enabled showrooming: A Philippine consumer behavior perspective

The integration of digital tools such as mobile apps, QR codes, and e-commerce platforms has reshaped the global retail landscape, enabling hybrid shopping behaviors like showrooming. Showrooming, where consumers browse in-store but complete purchases online, gained traction internationally. Philippine retailers have not formally adopted it as a strategy, despite consumer-driven practices emerging in the country's fashion industry. This study addresses this gap by examining how Filipino consumers perceive and adopt showrooming within the context of sustainable purchasing, framed primarily in economic and operational terms. Guided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the 4Ps marketing mix, and macro-environmental factors, the research employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the acceptance of showrooming among 437 valid response from Filipino respondents. Results revealed that perceived usefulness exerted the strongest influence on attitudes toward showrooming, while QR codes bridged the intention-behavior gap by facilitating seamless transitions between offline and online channels. Attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and elements of the marketing mix also significantly predicted sustainable purchasing intentions, though economic factors were less decisive. The findings highlight showrooming's potential to promote cost-efficient, technology-driven retail models in the Philippines. Academically, the study contextualizes showrooming in an emerging market, while practically, it offers insights for fashion retailers to integrate digital strategies that align consumer convenience with sustainable retail operations.