About

Yingjiao Xu is a Professor in the Department of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management at the Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University. She is a native of China and holds a B.S. in Textile Engineering from Donghua University, an M.S. in Textile Merchandising from Renmin University of China, and both an M.S. in Applied Statistics and a Ph.D. in Human Ecology from Louisiana State University. Dr. Xu joined the Wilson College of Textiles faculty in July 2010 after serving for a decade at Ohio University, where she taught courses in Retail Merchandising and conducted research focused on consumer behavior. Her industry experience includes working with organizations such as the China International Clothing and Accessories Fair, the China National Garment R&D Center, and Beima Trade & Technology Development Company during her graduate studies. Her research centers on consumer behavior and market analysis within the textiles and fashion industry, investigating consumer decision-making from social, psychological, and cultural perspectives, with a recent emphasis on consumer responses to innovations in fashion retailing. Her work aims to bridge academic insights with practical applications, contributing to a deeper understanding of evolving consumer trends in the global fashion marketplace.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Sociology
• Human–computer interaction
• Computer graphics (images)
• Microeconomics
• Marketing
• Business
• Multimedia
• Economics
• Ecology

Selected publications

• Classifying virtual reality fashion shows: from the perspective of user experience

  International Journal of Fashion Design Technology and Education · 2026-04-17

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Young Consumers' Motivations for Virtual Luxury NFT Wearables: Moderating Effects of Gender and Income

  2025-01-13

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Virtual luxury NFT (non-fungible tokens) wearables, introduced by luxury fashion brands, primarily represent digital versions of clothing and accessories minted as NFTs. While young consumers are the key consumer segment for virtual luxury NFTs, research fully investigating young consumers’ motivations to purchase virtual luxury NFTs are scarce and limited, with only a few investigating consumers’ general interest in fashion NFTs employing a qualitative approach or primarily focusing on economic or technical value of NFTs. Drawing from the Customer Value Framework (CVF), this study aims to investigate how multifaceted perceived values associated with luxury consumption and virtual product consumption influence the purchase attitude of young consumers and their willingness to purchase and pay price premiums for virtual luxury NFT wearables. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effects of gender and income to account for variations in interests and knowledge among different demographic groups.

  PublisherDOI

• AI Aversion in Fashion Design: Reasons and Boundary Conditions

  2025-01-15 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  By algorithmically generating and refining design alternatives based on human prompts, AI offers unprecedented efficiencies and unlocks creative possibilities. While its transformative potential in the fashion design industry is widely recognized, consumer responses toward AI-designed fashion products remain insufficiently understood. This study investigates these responses, focusing on their underlying drivers and boundary conditions. A 2 (design source: AI vs. human) × 2 (design complexity: high vs. low) × 2 (brand type: luxury vs. non-luxury) between-subjects experimental survey was conducted with 400 U.S. consumers via Prolific. Results indicate negative consumer attitudes toward AI design, attributed to perceptions of lower effort compared to human design. However, for non-luxury brands, high design complexity mitigates AI aversion, while for luxury brands, even complex AI designs face negative evaluations. These findings underscore the need for brands to strategically align design complexity and brand positioning to minimize consumer resistance to AI design technologies.

  PublisherDOI

• Beyond static images: how interactivity, vividness and realism shape consumer responses toward 3D fashion lookbooks

  Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing · 2025-09-08 · 2 citations

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  Purpose This study examines how the key features of 3D fashion lookbooks – interactivity, vividness and realism – shape consumer responses by integrating the technology acceptance model (TAM) with the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework. It explores how the digital stimuli influence perceived usefulness, ease of use and enjoyment, which then affect attitudes and behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach An online survey of 524 US participants was conducted using a real 3D fashion lookbook interface. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test the proposed relationships. Findings Realism emerged as the strongest predictor of perceived usefulness and enjoyment, while interactivity significantly enhanced perceived ease of use. Vividness positively influenced usefulness and ease of use, but not enjoyment. Perceived enjoyment had the greatest impact on attitudes, which, in turn, strongly influenced behavioral intentions to reuse, explore and recommend 3D fashion lookbooks. Originality/value This study is among the first to investigate 3D lookbooks in an interactive marketing context. By combining TAM and S-O-R, it presents a structured theoretical pathway from visual/interactive features to consumer response, offering insights for both scholars and practitioners interested in interactive retail technologies.

  PublisherDOI

• Value-Based Segmentation of Young Luxury Consumers in Fashion Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs): Personal and Luxury Value Perspectives

  Journal of Internet Commerce · 2025-12-09

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  PublisherDOI

• Visual Cues, Brand Essence and Purchase Intention of Virtual Luxury NFTs: A Moderated Moderated Mediation (MMD) Model

  2025-01-13 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Acknowledging the potential of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to enhance consumer-brand relationships, major luxury fashion brands continue to enter the virtual NFT market, releasing exclusive collectibles. However, this emerging market poses unique challenges for luxury fashion brands in crafting virtual NFTs that successfully convey consistent and integrated brand meanings of luxury. Given the visually oriented nature of NFTs, this study aims to empirically examine how visual design features of virtual luxury NFTs, including brand visibility and visual quality, interact with perceived prototypicality of products (fashion NFTs vs. art NFTs) in generating consumers’ perceived essence of the brand, resulting in consumers’ purchase intention. This study enriches the understanding of how visual design features impact consumer perceptions and purchase intentions toward virtual luxury NFTs, identifying brand visibility, visual quality, and prototypicality as the critical factors.

  PublisherDOI

• Navigating the AI Customization Landscape: An Exploratory Study of Consumer Perceptions

  Journal of Internet Commerce · 2025-04-03 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author
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• “Make an Effort and Show Me the Love!” Understanding Consumer Aversion to AI Fashion Design Through the Lens of Schema Theory

  Clothing and Textiles Research Journal · 2025-06-09 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  Advancements in generative AI present significant opportunities to enhance both efficiency and creativity in fashion design. However, prior research has identified negative consumer responses to AI-designed products. Drawing on schema theory, this study investigates consumer aversion to AI fashion design, its underlying mechanisms, and the boundary conditions. Specifically, the misalignment between AI design and consumers’ fashion designer schema was proposed as the key driver of aversion, mediated by perceptions of diminished effort and love in the design process. Furthermore, design complexity and brand type (non-luxury vs. luxury) were proposed to moderate this aversion. A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subject experiment with 400 respondents was conducted. The findings reveal that consumer aversion to AI fashion design is serially mediated by lower perceived effort and love. Increasing design complexity mitigates this aversion, but only for non-luxury brands. This study provides practical insights for fashion brands on effectively integrating AI into product development and marketing strategies.

  PublisherDOI

• Artificial Intelligence in Fashion Customization: Consumers’ Perceived Values and Barriers

  2025-01-14 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Advancements in AI have lowered the barriers to fashion design by enabling automated product generation, presenting significant potential to revolutionize customization in the fashion industry. This study investigates consumers' perceived values and barriers to adopting AI-enabled fashion customization. Two focus groups, involving a total of 20 participants, were conducted. Participants used H&M’s AI customization tool, Creator Studio, to design clothing and subsequently engaged in open-ended discussions. Thematic analysis using NVivo 14 identified key values associated with AI-customized fashion products, including utilitarian, self-expressive, uniqueness, conditional, and emotional values. Additionally, the co-creation process was valued for its enjoyment, epistemic value, competence enhancement, creative fulfillment, and ease of use. However, barriers such as performance limitations, lack of user control, and ethical concerns were noted. These findings offer insights into the potential and challenges of integrating AI into fashion customization.

  PublisherDOI

• Measuring Consumer Perceptions of AI Fashion Customization: Scale Development and Effects on Purchase Intention

  2025-12-15

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Hanna Lee

  22 shared

• Wenna Han

  Wilson College

  16 shared

• Anne Porterfield

  North Carolina State University

  13 shared

• Hanna Lee

  6 shared

• Jitong Li

  North Carolina State University

  4 shared

• Qiong Tao

  North Carolina State University

  4 shared

• Shraddha Yadav

  Wilson College

  4 shared

• Helmut H. Hergeth

  Wilson College

  4 shared

Labs

• Research Lab at Wilson College of TextilesPI

Education

• B.S., Textile Engineering

  Donghua University (formerly China Textile University)

• M.S., Textile Merchandising

  Renmin University of China