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The new, Spice Girl‐less millennium, “offers an opportunity to wipe the slate clean, to abandon concepts, models and formulations once thought liberatory now considered incarceratory; to start afresh on the other side of the year 2000”. Foremost among the concepts to be updated is gender identity. In a postmodern society, traditional notions of femininity and masculinity come across as antiquated and illusory. The consumption ethic has deconstructed the historical male‐female mind‐body producer‐consumer dichotomy and made identity construction a consuming pastime. It has also turned gender into a pastiche of possibilities. Yet in the utopian cyber future that awaits us, what will become of gender identity? In the ethereality of the Internet, where existence is ephemeral, is gender identity a meaningful and necessary concept? This paper reviews the historical (modern) significance of gender identity to marketing, explores the postmodern consumer condition, and prophesies a paradisal vision of gender identity in the consumer society to come.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a conceptualization of shopper as behaviourally distinct from consumer. The authors seek to identify elements foundational to shopper behaviour, using insights from the extant literature. A path-to-purchase framework is proposed, and tested. The framework is further explored as a method for improving shopper segmentation.

Over 308 articles associated with the shopper are examined using a bibliometric methodology. The literature review provides the foundation for a path-to-purchase (PtP) framework. An experimental design online study is undertaken to validate the framework. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data. Moderation testing of importance in the model is explored.

The findings reveal five stages through which shoppers’ progress in pursuit of purchase resolution. The exploratory study reveals the positive influence of each stage one on another. Additionally, shopper perception of the importance of the recipient and the occasion moderate relationships associated with purchase outcomes.

The research may be limited by the selection of literature assembled from over 60 years of research, and the online methodology.

The framework is suited for both industry and academia to better address shopper needs. The framework is specific to shopper behaviour relieving some of the conflicting messages which result from the overlay of consumer behaviour on a shopper. The framework describes the processes in purchase pursuit allowing brands and retailers to better support the shopper. Importance as a moderator is explored allowing for new and perhaps better ways to segment shoppers.

This theory building research provides a comprehensive exploration of the shopping literature to propose a PtP framework. The framework provides academicians and practitioners a more detailed method for examining and segmenting shoppers. Through the framework elements specific with each stage can be examined for their suitability as better segmentation tools for brands and retailers to deliver enhanced shopper satisfaction.

The tech savvy generation Z consumers constitute a significant market of online shopping. Understanding their shopping behavior is thus a pressing need to expand the e-commerce business. Under this backdrop, the study aims to predict the online shopping behavior of generation Z customers in Bangladesh.

This study used the theory of consumption values (TCV) along with shopping enjoyment to understand the online shopping behavior of generation Z. A structured set of questionnaire was used to gather the responses on a five point Likert scale. A total of 411 valid responses were considered after discarding incomplete responses. The collected data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach with the help of smart PLS 4.0 software.

The statistical findings reveal that functional value is the most significant determinant of online shopping behavior among generation Z followed by social value, conditional value and epistemic value. The study also reveals that relationship between emotional value and online shopping behavior and relationship between conditional value and online shopping behavior is moderated by shopping enjoyment.

The paper contributes to the consumer behavior literature as the findings provide a comprehensive model from values perspectives to understand online shopping behavior among Gen Z customers in a developing country like Bangladesh. The findings of this study offer important insights to the marketers also since it reveals the values consumers consider while shopping online. The findings might help practitioners develop their online strategies to expand the business.