Women who abandon the mall for fashion shopping online are younger, computer-savvy risk-takers with good Internet connections, according to consumer clothing studies conducted at UC Davis.

In recent surveys of women in the United States and China, UC Davis textiles and clothing graduate students Eunkyung Chung and Yifan Lu and Professor Margaret Rucker looked at how to predict fashion shopping on the Web.

Consumers are concerned they won't know how clothing will fit if they buy it online, the research found. Choosy buyers also worry that the true colors and quality of materials and construction cannot be determined from a two-dimensional Web site.

Women who like to shop online buy brands that have fit them well in the past -- or they buy clothing where fit is not an issue. Price sensitivity was not related to purchasing clothing on the Internet, as suggested in previous studies.

The difference between buying apparel and other products may be due to the slowness of comparison shopping when Web sites are complicated and graphics take a long time to download.

"If shoppers are not proficient at using their computer, or they don't have high-speed connections, they may get frustrated," Rucker says.

People who have their own computers, rather than depend on equipment at work or school, are also more likely to shop online.

A major find is that shopping choice is really personal.

"Some people like to play with computers, and others like the entertainment of getting out to the stores," Rucker says.