Purchase Likelihood Research Articles

The Effects of Service Clues on Likelihoods of Additional Purchase

Customers’ overall perceptions of experiences depend on small “performances” also known as clues (Berry et al., 2006), which can be classified into three categories: functional clues, clues indicating whether the product does what it is said to do; mechanic clues, which depend on the sensory presentation of the service; and humanic clues, clues deriving from behavior and appearance of service providers. While mechanic and humanic clues are important in creating customer loyalty for future visits and purchases, the question remains whether they encourage purchase at the time service is rendered, particularly related to a dining experience. While it is known that music speeds up the pace at which customers eat their food, it has not been researched whether music and better-quality service can encourage them to purchase additional items after their meal, such as dessert. This research, therefore, seeks to investigate how music and service-with-a-smile impact customers during their dining experience as it relates to likelihoods of additional purchases. Images of the food itself and the food being served were used to simulate the dining experience. Participants were surveyed and asked to rate their likelihood of purchase. It was found that images of the food itself with lively pop music resulted in the highest likelihoods of purchase. Interestingly, surveyed respondents preferred service of desserts without human interaction (i.e., no server in the image). However, between the images in which the food items were served, participants preferred the image of a server with a smile than without.

Consumption of wildlife-origin products by local residents at the largest wildlife market of Amazonian Peru: is there scope for demand reduction?

Wildlife and wildlife-origin products are illegally traded across Peru, with negative consequences for animal welfare, conservation, human health and livelihoods. We surveyed residents of Iquitos who regularly shop at Belén Market, the largest open-air market selling wildlife in the Peruvian Amazon. We wished to assess what proportion of the local population purchases wildlife for personal use, to determine the involvement of the local population in the wider national trade of Peruvian wildlife, and to assess whether information campaigns could reduce demand for these products among local consumers. We derived 265 responses. The principal purchases were meat from domesticated animals, and fish: 89.4% of respondents bought these on every or most visits. By comparison 75.1% purchased bushmeat, but only 3.0% did so frequently, and 58.1% purchased chelonian eggs, with < 1% doing so frequently. Percentages purchasing wildlife pets, and wildlife-origin artefacts and remedies were low (all under 14.7% of respondents). There was no evidence that respondents were selling wildlife or wildlife-origin products into the national wildlife trade. Over 90% of respondents held negative views of both animal welfare and conservation impacts of the capture of wildlife for sale, with lower proportions expressing negative views of issues surrounding zoonotic disease risks and illegality. When shown statements detailing these impacts, 51.3% of respondents stated they would be less likely to buy wildlife-origin products in the future. When asked to state which aspects of the Belén Market they would change, however, only six respondents referenced the sale of wildlife, with the vast majority (>95%) referencing levels of orderliness, hygiene or personal security at the market. Despite widespread consumption of bushmeat – albeit relatively infrequently - among respondents in Iquitos, many respondents to our questionnaire disliked the associated negative impacts, sufficient that making such impacts salient through repeated demand-reduction messaging might be expected to lower the likelihood of such purchases in the future. Such interventions should, however, be accompanied by action to address structural issues within the market.

Erroneous consumer evaluations in the marketplace: How consumer evaluations are biased by raw performance scores

AbstractA consumer's evaluation of an entity in the marketplace, such as a product or service provider, is one of the most important factors in determining whether or not they consume it. Indeed, the relationship between perceived quality and likelihood of purchase is a central finding in marketing. Oftentimes, consumers make these evaluations after learning information regarding the entity's performance according to some metric (i.e., its “raw score”) and how the entity's performance compares to the performances of other entities (i.e., its accompanying percentile). In these cases, consumers should discount the raw score and exclusively use the percentile, to adjust for differences in the “friendliness” of the metric. In the present work, we demonstrate that consumers fail to evaluate entities in this way, incorporating raw scores into their assessments when they should not. We also show that this effect is the result of an anchoring and insufficient adjustment process. Consumers anchor on the notion that a good (vs. bad) raw score equates to a favorable (vs. unfavorable) performance and fail to adjust from this anchor when considering the percentile information about how the entity's raw score fits into the greater distribution. Moreover, we demonstrate that how a consumer evaluates an entity, indeed, influences their likelihood of consuming it, highlighting the marketing implications of this phenomenon. We conclude by discussing how this work adds to the literatures on consumer psychology, anchoring and adjustment, biases, judgment, and processing.

Same-day delivery time-guarantee problem in online retail

This study introduces the same-day delivery time-guarantee (SDDTG) problem for supporting online retail. In the SDDTG, orders are placed online and are processed and delivered from a depot to customer locations in the same day. The problem seeks optimal delivery time guarantees to offer customers as they consider making purchases to increase purchase decision likelihood while accounting for delivery-related, supply-side costs that can affect profits. Time guarantees are decision variables rather than parameters (as is typical) and are designed around anticipated customer satisfaction levels and purchase likelihoods. Delivery deadlines are not merely given to customers once they make their purchases, but rather the attractiveness of the offered delivery guarantees affects whether they make their purchases, i.e., whether demand is realized. The problem is conceptualized as a multi-stage, stochastic, mixed-integer program in which uncertainties associated with customer reaction to delivery time guarantee offers and their arrival over time are captured. Given a shrinking horizon over a fixed planning horizon, the multi-stage program is approximated by a series of two-stage programs. A parallelized progressive hedging solution methodology is proposed and insights from its application on a case study. The problem recognizes tradeoffs between meeting promised delivery times and capturing the market.

Consumers' promotion focus mitigates the negative effects of chatbots on purchase likelihood

AbstractMarketers and consumers are adopting chatbots widely. However, the benefits of this technology remain unclear due to a lack of understanding about individual differences in consumers' purchase decisions when interacting with chatbots. This research investigates the influence of individual differences in promotion focus on purchase likelihood for the products recommended by chatbots. Two experiments demonstrated that consumers generally report a lower purchase likelihood for products recommended by chatbots (vs humans). However, compared to consumers with a low promotion focus, consumers with a high promotion focus report a higher purchase likelihood for the products. The findings also suggest that the relationship between consumer individual differences in promotion focus and purchase likelihood is mediated by engagement. By applying both regulatory focus and regulatory fit theories, the present study provides insights into how promotion focus influences purchase likelihood for products recommended by chatbots. Marketers can utilise both chronic and situational promotion focus to improve consumers' reactions to chatbots using segmentation and promotion‐focus‐related words, respectively.

Linking perceived anxiety to knowledge purchase likelihood: the mediating role of coping strategies

Linking perceived anxiety to knowledge purchase likelihood: the mediating role of coping strategies

Display optimization under the multinomial logit choice model: Balancing revenue and customer satisfaction

In this paper, we consider an assortment optimization problem in which a platform must choose pairwise disjoint sets of assortments to offer across a series of T stages. Arriving customers begin their search process in the first stage, and progress sequentially through the stages until their patience expires, at which point they make a multinomial logit–based purchasing decision from among all products they have viewed throughout their search process. The goal is to choose the sequential displays of product offerings to maximize expected revenue. Additionally, we impose stage‐specific constraints that ensure that as each customer progresses farther and farther through the T stages, there is a minimum level of “desirability” met by the collections of displayed products. We consider two related measures of desirability: purchase likelihood and expected utility derived from the offered assortments. In this way, the offered sequence of assortments must be both high earning and well liked, which breaks from the traditional assortment setting, where customer‐centric considerations are generally not explicitly accounted for. We show that our assortment problem of interest is strongly NP‐Hard, thus ruling out the existence of a fully polynomial‐time approximation scheme (FPTAS). From an algorithmic standpoint, as a warm‐up, we develop a simple constant factor approximation scheme in which we carefully stitch together myopically selected assortments for each stage. Our main algorithmic result consists of a polynomial‐time approximation scheme (PTAS), which combines a handful of structural results related to the make‐up of the optimal assortment sequence within an approximate dynamic programming framework. We also provide an additional approximation scheme, which, under mild assumptions, can handle a cardinality constraint that enforces that an exact number of new products are introduced at each stage. Using an extensive set of numerical experiments, we demonstrate that both algorithms exhibit excellent practical performance, producing sequences of assortments that are, on average, always within 2% of optimal.

Influence of Psychological and Socioeconomic Factors on Purchase Likelihood for Autonomous Vehicles: A Hybrid Choice Modeling Approach

This study looks into how psychological and socioeconomic factors interact to affect people’s propensity to purchase autonomous vehicles (AVs). Inspired by the Technology Acceptance Model, six psychological variables—social influence, convenience, perceived utility, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, and usage attitude—are proposed. Twenty-two measurement variables are introduced because it is difficult to measure these latent factors directly. To understand the link between the latent variables and calculate their factor scores, a structural equation model is created. The latent variables, along with observable socioeconomic attributes, are included as explanatory variables in a mixed logit model to estimate the purchase likelihood for AVs on different levels. A stated preference survey is conducted for data collection. We obtained 302 effective samples. The experiment results demonstrate that perceived usefulness has the most significant positive impact on purchase likelihood, followed by social influence and perceived ease of use. However, perceived risk has a significant negative impact on the purchase likelihood. Individuals with less driving experience and those without a motor vehicle driving license are more inclined to adopt autonomous vehicles. Additionally, there is a substantial correlation between the frequency of car use and the propensity to support the deployment of autonomous vehicles.

Is “4 for $16” Better than “4 for $15.30”? The Price Divisibility Effect in Multipack Purchases

Abstract While much is known about product bundles comprised of different items, much less is known about multipacks—a product set comprised of multiple identical items (e.g., a 4-pack body washes). Using the context of multipacks, the authors propose a novel price divisibility effect, which suggests that a multipack’s price that is easily divisible (vs. non-divisible) by the number of component items in the multipack will increase its purchase likelihood. For example, purchase likelihoods of a four-pack body wash multipack will be higher when its price is $16 (easily divisible by 4) versus $15.30 (non-divisible by 4). This occurs because a divisible versus non-divisible price shifts consumers’ attention to the unit and creates a belief that each unit item in the multipack will be consumed quickly, which, in turn, helps justify purchasing multiple units. The authors report findings from 15 studies (including a field experiment), where they demonstrate the effect and its underlying mechanism and delineate several moderators and boundary conditions. This research contributes to several literature streams, including those on product bundling, multiple-unit pricing, product consumption, and numerical cognition.

Going the Extra Mile, Now or After a While: The Impact of Employee Proactivity in Retail Service Encounters on Customers’ Shopping Responses

AbstractEmployee proactivity has been discussed as a key predictor of firm success and organizational performance. However, previous proactivity research has rarely focused on customers, and the few available proactivity studies from retail settings are either cross‐sectional, solely based on subjective outcomes (e.g. customer satisfaction) or restricted to aggregated data of objective outcomes (e.g. profits per store). We investigate the causal effect of employee proactivity in retail service encounters on customers’ actual purchase behaviour and satisfaction ratings at the fine‐grained level of individual customers. By integrating theories on social perception with prior proactivity findings, we find that employee proactivity positively predicts customers’ shopping responses. This finding extends from correlational to experimental designs across sample types and paradigms, is replicated in actual retail settings, and is mediated by customers’ perceptions of employee warmth and competence. Furthermore, the effect generalizes across several focal outcomes, including behavioural variables (spending and purchase likelihood), and is moderated by the time to employee‐initiated contact in a way that goes against customers’ own beliefs. In sum, the present research quantifies the financial consequences of employee proactivity and indicates that in ordinary retail service encounters, high proactivity can compensate for delays, thus counteracting the aversive aspects of waiting.

The Effect of Social Presence on the Trust and Repurchase of Social Commerce Tiktok Shop Users

This comprehensive study delves into the fascinating realm of social presence (SP) and its pivotal role in shaping consumer behavior within the TikTok Shop ecosystem. The investigation meticulously dissects three pivotal facets of SP's influence: SP emanating from the platform itself, SP stemming from the perceptions of other users, and the dynamic SP experienced through interactions on TikTok LIVE. Furthermore, the study meticulously scrutinizes the extent to which various features within the domain of social commerce act as moderators, shaping the influence of each SP factor. To meticulously probe these aspects, the research employs advanced structural equation modeling techniques, illuminating the intricate relationships at play. A substantial dataset of 200 survey responses was thoughtfully collected through an online survey. The compelling findings unveil that not one, but two distinct social presence characteristics wield a significant impact on consumer trust. Notably, even after the meticulous control of social commerce features, one pivotal component of SP emerges as a trust-building catalyst. Consequently, this engenders a heightened likelihood of repeat purchases among consumers navigating the TikTok Shop landscape. This study, by meticulously dissecting the multifaceted interplay of SP and social commerce features, provides valuable insights into enhancing consumer trust and fostering repeat engagement within TikTok Shop, thereby offering actionable guidance for businesses operating in this burgeoning social commerce sphere.

The future of virtual reality in marketing and advertising: benefits and challenges for business

The purpose of the study is to summarise the features of the application, advantages, disadvantages, as well as to develop an effective toolkit for the implementation of virtual reality as a means of marketing promotion for modern companies. Methodology: The study is based on the use of general scientific methods, including analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, generalisation, and systematisation. As a result of the study and achievement of the set goal, the following results were obtained: the essence and features of the use of virtual reality in business and product promotion were determined; the advantages and disadvantages of using virtual reality in marketing were specified; the main tools for implementing virtual reality in the marketing activities of modern companies were systematised. The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the development of specific areas of application of virtual and augmented reality for marketing promotion of products on the market. At the same time, the author takes into account the experience of the world's leading companies and considers a significant list of advantages and disadvantages of marketing use of virtual and augmented reality. In conclusion, it is worth noting that virtual reality can be used as an effective marketing tool that reaches a large audience and significantly increases the likelihood of product purchase. In general, virtual and augmented reality open up new marketing opportunities by creating unique immersive experiences, which can significantly improve conversion rates and sales. In the future, these technologies will become even more popular and play a key role in marketing.

Negative halo effects of sustainable packaging

AbstractMore firms are adopting “green packaging” due to regulatory and environmental concerns. The alcoholic beverage industry has recently joined the lobby and major producers have introduced creative paper bottles for their alcoholic drinks. Previous research on sustainable labeling (e.g., eco‐friendly labels) has shown the positive halo effect where sustainable labeling induces positive evaluations. In contrast, our research aims to reveal the negative halo effects of sustainable packaging in the case of paper‐bottled alcoholic beverages. Across three studies, we explore consumers' perceptions toward alcoholic drinks packed in innovative paper bottles. Studies 1–2 demonstrate that consumers hold inferior expectations (i.e., sensory attributes, price, and purchase likelihood) toward alcoholic beverages packed in paper bottles. Study 3 demonstrates that the enforced messaging and attractive packaging can mitigate the negative halo effect for self‐consumption and gifting. These findings contribute to the literature on sustainable packaging, especially in the novel space of paper‐bottled alcoholic drinks.

Social commerce and buying intention post COVID-19: Evidence from a hybrid approach based on SEM – fsQCA

In the post COVID-19 era, social commerce witnessed significant growth due to increasing numbers of consumers choosing online channels as their preferred means of shopping. Consumer attitude and trust are key factors influencing customers purchase decision of buying products and services marketed through online platforms such as social commerce. A positive consumer attitude towards a brand or product can lead to greater level of perceived trust and, hence, increase the likelihood of purchasing. Further, a negative consumer attitude or low trust may deter individuals from purchasing, even if they are interested in the product. This study aims at investigating the mediating role of customers attitude and perceived trust on the relationship the relationship between social commerce and buying intention post-COVID-19 pandemic. Using a full-structured questionnaire directed to 570 e-commerce consumers, the obtained data were analyzed by hybrid approach based on PLS-SEM and fsQCA. The study results may help understand the variables that can affect consumer behavior in the post-COVID-19 era, and businesses can better modify their marketing strategies and fulfill the customers’ needs.

The Effects of Social Proof Marketing Tactics on Nudging Consumer Purchase

A wide variety of marketing tactics can be used to nudge consumer purchases on e-commerce websites particularly through methods known as social proof, which stress the importance of conformity to the norms of a social group. Although many types of social proof-based messages are used in digital marketing – such as testimonials, influencer endorsements, and social media shares – the inclusion of positive product reviews and pop-up messages about product purchases by other buyers are common marketing tactics used to persuade shoppers to purchase advertised goods and services. Though studies on the impact of these tactics on adult consumers have been conducted, there is little to no information on impacts on adolescent consumers. What is also unclear is whether the impacts of these marketing tactics combined are greater than their impacts individually. Using a survey that displayed images of hypothetical products and various combinations of positive product reviews and pop-up messages, this study found that 1) positive product reviews significantly increased the likelihood of adolescent consumer purchasing, 2) pop-up messages had little to no effect, and 3) combining pop-up messages regarding the purchases of other buyers reduced the impact that positive product reviews had on nudging adolescent consumers to buy the marketed goods.

As cute as a button: the effect of size on online product cuteness perception

PurposeCute products have found market success. The literature has identified various factors of cuteness, but the effect of size is under-addressed. This study aims to investigate whether and how size perception influences consumers’ cuteness perception.Design/methodology/approachIn three experiments, size was manipulated in terms of visual cue, product description and product name to determine its impact on cuteness perception.FindingsThe results of the three experiments demonstrate that a size cue of smallness can heighten consumers’ perception of product cuteness. The first two studies provided converging evidence for the main hypothesis that smaller objects are evaluated as cuter. Study 3 not only replicated the findings of the first two studies but also revealed that vulnerability acts as the underlying process for the smallness-cuteness relationship. Study 3 also showed that the purchase likelihood for an extended product warranty is higher in the small condition compared to the control condition.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the findings were robust across product types and size manipulations, possible boundary conditions related to product types or individual characteristics were not tested.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest how brand managers can use size perceptions to influence consumers’ perceptions of the cuteness of their products and brands.Originality/valueThe findings inform brand managers about the nuances of size cues that may affect how customers perceive their products and identify a more generally applicable cuteness factor that may have downstream implications for marketing practitioners.

Pricing regulations in individual health insurance: Evidence from Medigap

I compare two pricing regulations that protect those with health conditions—“community rating,” which requires insurers to charge uniform premiums, and “guaranteed renewal,” which requires insurers to increase future premiums uniformly. Using individual-level Medigap data from 2006–2010, I compare individuals within 25 miles of borders between 3 community rating and 6 guaranteed renewal states. Relative to guaranteed renewal, community rating (with guaranteed issue) leads to a decrease in Medigap enrollment of 9.70 pp (29.7%), or 26.8–33.7% for low-spending conditions (diabetes, heart disease) and 21.9–29.9% for high-spending conditions (cancer, kidney disease); an increase in annual Medigap premiums of $276 (10.1%); a decrease in the likelihood of an earlier purchase of 7.99 pp (50.3%); and an increase in purchase delay of 1.08 years (17.0%).

Peranan E-Service Quality, Rates Dan Customer Trust Bagi Repurchase Intention Jasa Kurir

The main objective of this study is to find out the direct and indirect effects of e-service quality and rates on repurchase intention with customer trust as the mediation. The research sample consisted of 250 respondents collected through the distribution of questionnaires. The data processing software employed is SPSS and LISREL 8.8 for the Structural Equation Model (SEM) method. The research sample consisted of 250 respondents, collected by distributing questionnaires online. Additionally, e-service quality together with rates also have a significant and positive effect on repurchase intention, both with or without the mediating role of customer trust. Furthermore, customer trust also has a significant and positive influence on repurchase intention. Therefore, if a courier service company aims to enhance repurchase intention, it needs to improve the quality of electronic services provided and offer competitive rates to customers. This will foster trust and boost the likelihood of repeat purchases.

How Explainable Machine Learning Enhances Intelligence in Explaining Consumer Purchase Behavior: A Random Forest Model with Anchoring Effects

This study proposes a random forest model to address the limited explanation of consumer purchase behavior in search advertising, considering the influence of anchoring effects on rational consumer behavior. The model comprises two components: prediction and explanation. The prediction part employs various algorithms, including logistic regression (LR), adaptive boosting (ADA), extreme gradient boosting (XGB), multilayer perceptron (MLP), naive bayes (NB), and random forest (RF), for optimal prediction. The explanation part utilizes the SHAP explainable framework to identify significant indicators and reveal key factors influencing consumer purchase behavior and their relative importance. Our results show that (1) the explainable machine learning model based on the random forest algorithm performed optimally (F1 = 0.8586), making it suitable for analyzing and predicting consumer purchase behavior. (2) The dimension of product information is the most crucial attribute influencing consumer purchase behavior, with features such as sales level, display priority, granularity, and price significantly influencing consumer perceptions. These attributes can be considered by merchants to develop appropriate tactics for improving the user experience. (3) Consumers’ purchase intentions vary based on the presented anchor point. Specifically, high anchor information related to product quality ratings increases the likelihood of purchase, while price anchors prompted consumers to compare similar products and opt for the most economical option. Our findings provide guidance for optimizing marketing strategies and improving user experience while also contributing to a deeper understanding of the decision−making mechanisms and pathways in online consumer purchase behavior.

How positive and negative attitudes to vertical farming influence purchase likelihood: Consumer insights from the United States, Germany, Singapore and Australia

Vertical farming (alternatively, plant factories with artificial lighting) has the potential to contribute to sustainable food production and consumption and is relevant for several of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals. Already many consumers seem positive about vertical farming, but as fresh produce from vertical farming systems begin to become available to consumers, it is imperative that this positive attitude translates into purchase and consumption behaviour. In a multi-country study (USA, Australia, Germany and Singapore) where 2193 adult consumers (25–54 years old) took part in an online survey, the present quantitative research: i) investigated the aspects of vertical farming that are perceived positively and negatively by consumers, ii) measured stated intention to purchase lettuce from vertical farming, and iii) determined characteristics of vertical farming that are positive and negative drivers of intention to purchase. A largely positive attitude to vertical farming was confirmed, as well as the existence of smaller groups of people with negative and neutral/ambivalent attitudes. Cross-cultural differences in attitudes to vertical farming also existed but these were relatively minor. On average, participants from USA were most positive, while those from Germany were least positive. Stated intention to purchase lettuce from vertical farming was ∼70% (‘probably will buy’), and again stated likelihood was highest in USA (74%) and lowest in Germany (65%). Based on the findings from the analysis that linked likelihood to purchase lettuce from vertical farming to attitude to specific characteristics of vertical farming, strategies to promote consumption of produce from vertical farming should stress the contribution of the technology to a more sustainable development, including health, environmental and social aspects.