IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v51y2019icp129-138.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer reactions to price discounts across online shopping experiences

Author

Listed:
  • Sheehan, Daniel
  • Hardesty, David M.
  • Ziegler, Alexander H.
  • Chen, Haipeng (Allan)

Abstract

Consumers generally encounter a multitude of price discounts during a single visit to a retailers’ website, yet past research has predominantly examined price discounts in a singular manner. We examine how the influence of a price discount’s magnitude on consumer purchase intentions evolves during an online shopping trip. In doing so, we demonstrate that a price discount’s magnitude is less predictive of consumers’ purchase intentions earlier, but it becomes more predictive later, during an online shopping trip. Thus, placing shallow price discounts early in a shopping visit may enhance the effectiveness of a firm’s portfolio of price discounts.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheehan, Daniel & Hardesty, David M. & Ziegler, Alexander H. & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2019. "Consumer reactions to price discounts across online shopping experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 129-138.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:51:y:2019:i:c:p:129-138
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698919301894
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.06.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leonard Lee & Dan Ariely, 2006. "Shopping Goals, Goal Concreteness, and Conditional Promotions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(1), pages 60-70, June.
    2. Robert C. Blattberg & Richard Briesch & Edward J. Fox, 1995. "How Promotions Work," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 122-132.
    3. Palazon, Mariola & Delgado-Ballester, Elena, 2011. "The expected benefit as determinant of deal-prone consumers' response to sales promotions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 542-547.
    4. Mayhew, Glenn E & Winer, Russell S, 1992. "An Empirical Analysis of Internal and External Reference Prices Using Scanner Data," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(1), pages 62-70, June.
    5. Jie Zhang & Lakshman Krishnamurthi, 2004. "Customizing Promotions in Online Stores," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 561-578, June.
    6. Gilles Laurent & Pierre Chandon & Brian Wansink, 2000. "A Benefit Congruency Framework of Sales Promotion Effectiveness," Post-Print hal-00458440, HAL.
    7. Briesch, Richard A, et al, 1997. "A Comparative Analysis of Reference Price Models," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(2), pages 202-214, September.
    8. Lichtenstein, Donald R & Bearden, William O, 1989. "Contextual Influences on Perceptions of Merchant-Supplied Reference Prices," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(1), pages 55-66, June.
    9. Luc Wathieu, 2004. "Consumer Habituation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(5), pages 587-596, May.
    10. Lichtenstein, Donald R & Bloch, Peter H & Black, William C, 1988. "Correlates of Price Acceptability," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 243-252, September.
    11. Bradlow, Eric T. & Gangwar, Manish & Kopalle, Praveen & Voleti, Sudhir, 2017. "The Role of Big Data and Predictive Analytics in Retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 79-95.
    12. Hsee, Christopher K., 1996. "The Evaluability Hypothesis: An Explanation for Preference Reversals between Joint and Separate Evaluations of Alternatives," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 247-257, September.
    13. Kalyanaram, Gurumurthy & Little, John D C, 1994. "An Empirical Analysis of Latitude of Price Acceptance in Consumer Package Goods," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(3), pages 408-418, December.
    14. Urbany, Joel E & Bearden, William O & Weilbaker, Dan C, 1988. "The Effect of Plausible and Exaggerated Reference Prices on Consumer Perceptions and Price Search," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(1), pages 95-110, June.
    15. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Rao, Akshay R & Sieben, Wanda A, 1992. "The Effect of Prior Knowledge on Price Acceptability and the Type of Information Examined," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(2), pages 256-270, September.
    17. Gurumurthy Kalyanaram & Russell S. Winer, 1995. "Empirical Generalizations from Reference Price Research," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(3_supplem), pages 161-169.
    18. Carlson, Jeffrey R. & Kukar-Kinney, Monika, 2018. "Investigating discounting of discounts in an online context: The mediating effect of discount credibility and moderating effect of online daily deal promotions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 153-160.
    19. Winer, Russell S, 1986. "A Reference Price Model of Brand Choice for Frequently Purchased Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(2), pages 250-256, September.
    20. Janiszewski, Chris & Lichtenstein, Donald R, 1999. "A Range Theory Account of Price Perception," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 25(4), pages 353-368, March.
    21. Sucharita Chandran & Vicki G. Morwitz, 2006. "The Price of "Free"-dom: Consumer Sensitivity to Promotions with Negative Contextual Influences," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(3), pages 384-392, October.
    22. Gupta, Sunil & Cooper, Lee G, 1992. "The Discounting of Discounts and Promotion Thresholds," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(3), pages 401-411, December.
    23. Necati Ertekin & Jeffrey D. Shulman & Haipeng (Allan) Chen, 2019. "On the Profitability of Stacked Discounts: Identifying Revenue and Cost Effects of Discount Framing," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 317-342, March.
    24. Daniel Sheehan & Koert Van Ittersum & Mary Frances LuceEditor & Gita JoharEditor & Brian RatchfordAssociate Editor, 2018. "In-Store Spending Dynamics: How Budgets Invert Relative-Spending Patterns," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 45(1), pages 49-67.
    25. Li, Wenjing & Hardesty, David M. & Craig, Adam W., 2018. "The impact of dynamic bundling on price fairness perceptions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 204-212.
    26. Tülin Erdem & Michael P. Keane, 1996. "Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Capturing Dynamic Brand Choice Processes in Turbulent Consumer Goods Markets," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20.
    27. Narayan Janakiraman & Robert J. Meyer & Andrea C. Morales, 2006. "Spillover Effects: How Consumers Respond to Unexpected Changes in Price and Quality," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(3), pages 361-369, October.
    28. LAURENT, Gilles & CHANDON, Pierre & WANSINK, Brian, 2000. "A benefit congruency framework of sales promotion effectiveness," HEC Research Papers Series 698, HEC Paris.
    29. Lillian L. Cheng & Kent B. Monroe, 2013. "An appraisal of behavioral price research (part 1): price as a physical stimulus," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(3), pages 103-129, September.
    30. Lillian L. Cheng & Kent B. Monroe, 2013. "Some reflections on an appraisal of behavioral price research (part 1)," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(3), pages 155-159, September.
    31. Haipeng (Allan) Chen & Akshay R. Rao, 2002. "Close Encounters of Two Kinds: False Alarms and Dashed Hopes," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(2), pages 178-196, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Junjie Lv & Zichen Wang & Yuqing Huang & Tong Wang & Yuanzhuo Wang, 2020. "How Can E-Commerce Businesses Implement Discount Strategies through Social Media?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    2. Arnoud V. den Boer & N. Bora Keskin, 2022. "Dynamic Pricing with Demand Learning and Reference Effects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(10), pages 7112-7130, October.
    3. Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo & Mariantonietta Fiore & Antonino Galati, 2020. "How the Covid-19 Pandemic Is Changing Online Food Shopping Human Behaviour in Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Ma, Jianan & Li, Fangxuan, 2023. "Tourist subsequent responses to promotion framing," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    5. Ana-Maria Urdea & Cristinel Petrişor Constantin & Ioana-Mădălina Purcaru, 2021. "Implementing Experiential Marketing in the Digital Age for a More Sustainable Customer Relationship," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, February.
    6. Alaimo, Leonardo Salvatore & Fiore, Mariantonietta & Galati, Antonino, 2022. "Measuring consumers’ level of satisfaction for online food shopping during COVID-19 in Italy using POSETs," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 82(PA).
    7. Abdul Bashiru Jibril & Michael Adu Kwarteng & Michal Pilik & Elsamari Botha & Christian Nedu Osakwe, 2020. "Towards Understanding the Initial Adoption of Online Retail Stores in a Low Internet Penetration Context: An Exploratory Work in Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, January.
    8. Tsai, Pei-Hsuan & Chen, Chih-Jou & Hsiao, Wei-Hung & Lin, Chin-Tsai, 2023. "Factors influencing the consumers’ behavioural intention to use online food delivery service: Empirical evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. H Manjula Bai, 2020. "Perception Analysis of Online Shopping: A Case Study of amazon.com," Shanlax International Journal of Commerce, Shanlax Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 53-60, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lillian L. Cheng & Kent B. Monroe, 2013. "An appraisal of behavioral price research (part 1): price as a physical stimulus," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 3(3), pages 103-129, September.
    2. Bambauer-Sachse, Silke & Massera, Laura, 2015. "Interaction effects of different price claims and contextual factors on consumers' reference price adaptation after exposure to a price promotion," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 63-73.
    3. Santana, Shelle & Thomas, Manoj & Morwitz, Vicki G., 2020. "The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 138-154.
    4. Jaikumar, Saravana & Sahay, Arvind, 2016. "Effect of Overlapping Price Ranges on Price Perception: Revisiting the Range Theory of Price Perception," IIMA Working Papers WP2016-02-02, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    5. Caputo, Vincenzina & Lusk, Jayson L. & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2018. "Choice experiments are not conducted in a vacuum: The effects of external price information on choice behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 335-351.
    6. Raghubir, Priya, 2006. "An information processing review of the subjective value of money and prices," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(10-11), pages 1053-1062, October.
    7. van Oest, Rutger, 2013. "Why are Consumers Less Loss Averse in Internal than External Reference Prices?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 62-71.
    8. Morlotti, Chiara & Mantin, Benny & Malighetti, Paolo & Redondi, Renato, 2024. "Price volatility of revenue managed goods: Implications for demand and price elasticity," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(3), pages 1039-1058.
    9. Vincenzina Caputo & Jayson L Lusk & Rodolfo M Nayga, 2020. "Am I Getting a Good Deal? Reference‐DependentDecision Making When the Reference Price Is Uncertain," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(1), pages 132-153, January.
    10. Yasemin Boztug & Lutz Hildebrandt, 2005. "An empirical test of theories of price valuation using a semiparametric approach, reference prices, and accounting for heterogeneity," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-057, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    11. Koen Pauwels & Shuba Srinivasan & Philip Hans Franses, 2007. "When Do Price Thresholds Matter in Retail Categories?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 83-100, 01-02.
    12. Nicole Koschate-Fischer & Katharina Wüllner, 2017. "New developments in behavioral pricing research," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(6), pages 809-875, August.
    13. Friesen, Mark, 2020. "A dynamic perspective on consumers’ price fairness perception: Empirical evidence from the airline industry," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 74(4), pages 403-425.
    14. Neumann, Nico & Böckenholt, Ulf, 2014. "A Meta-analysis of Loss Aversion in Product Choice," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 182-197.
    15. David R. Bell & James M. Lattin, 2000. "Looking for Loss Aversion in Scanner Panel Data: The Confounding Effect of Price Response Heterogeneity," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 185-200, May.
    16. Tülin Erdem & Michael Katz & Baohong Sun, 2010. "A simple test for distinguishing between internal reference price theories," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 303-332, September.
    17. Alam Kazmi, Syed Hasnain, 2015. "Developments in Promotion Strategies Review on Psychological Streams of Consumers," MPRA Paper 65424, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 May 2015.
    18. Popkowski Leszczyc, Peter T.L. & Qiu, Chun & He, Yongfu, 2009. "Empirical Testing of the Reference-Price Effect of Buy-Now Prices in Internet Auctions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 211-221.
    19. Mao, Zhixin & Duan, Yongrui & Liu, Wenxia, 2023. "Consumers’ choice of private label considering reference price and moderating effect," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    20. Wolk, Agnieszka & Spann, Martin, 2008. "The effects of reference prices on bidding behavior in interactive pricing mechanisms," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 2-18.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:51:y:2019:i:c:p:129-138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.