IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v132y2021icp813-836.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To purchase or to remove? Online shopping cart warning pop-up messages can polarize liking and purchase intention

Author

Listed:
  • Zhao, Haichuan
  • Wang, Xuehua
  • Jiang, Lan

Abstract

Online companies, such as eBay and Taobao, often set limits on the maximum number of items placed in the shopping cart. When the number of items added exceeds the limit, a warning message would pop up, asking consumers to clean, remove, or purchase first. Extant research on online shopping cart abandonment examines the various factors that can lead to shopping cart abandonment but does not explore the effect of such warning messages on attitudes and purchase intention. Through five studies (i.e., Studies 1, 2A, 2B, 3, and 4), we show that reminding consumers to clean items in their online shopping carts can polarize liking and purchase intention towards the most-favorite and least-favorite items. Furthermore, we find that reminding consumers to remove items (rather than to purchase them) magnifies the polarization. Consumers’ anticipated regret mediates the interactive effect of warning message type and preference ranking on liking and purchase intention. In addition, the scarcity or abundance of product supply moderates the interaction effect of shopping cart warning message type and preference ranking on liking and purchase intention. Implications for both theories and practices are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhao, Haichuan & Wang, Xuehua & Jiang, Lan, 2021. "To purchase or to remove? Online shopping cart warning pop-up messages can polarize liking and purchase intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 813-836.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:132:y:2021:i:c:p:813-836
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.10.067
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320307402
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.10.067?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. Ratner, Rebecca K. & Herbst, Kenneth C., 2005. "When good decisions have bad outcomes: The impact of affect on switching behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 23-37, January.
    2. Chen, Jie & Teng, Lefa & Liu, Shixiong & Zhu, Huihuang, 2015. "Anticipating regret and consumers' preferences for counterfeit luxury products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 507-515.
    3. Verhallen, Theo M. M. & Robben, Henry S. J., 1994. "Scarcity and preference: An experiment on unavailability and product evaluation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 315-331, June.
    4. Drazen Prelec & George Loewenstein, 1998. "The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 17(1), pages 4-28.
    5. Dan J. Kim & Donald L. Ferrin & H. Raghav Rao, 2009. "Trust and Satisfaction, Two Stepping Stones for Successful E-Commerce Relationships: A Longitudinal Exploration," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 237-257, June.
    6. Gabler, Colin B. & Myles Landers, V. & Reynolds, Kristy E., 2017. "Purchase decision regret: Negative consequences of the Steadily Increasing Discount strategy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 201-208.
    7. Simonson, Itamar, 1992. "The Influence of Anticipating Regret and Responsibility on Purchase Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 19(1), pages 105-118, June.
    8. Zeelenberg, M., 1999. "The use of crying over spilled milk : A note on the rationality and functionality of regret," Other publications TiSEM 66ac04be-d1ee-4a0e-9e97-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Inman, J Jeffrey & Peter, Anil C & Raghubir, Priya, 1997. "Framing the Deal: The Role of Restrictions in Accentuating Deal Value," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 24(1), pages 68-79, June.
    10. Tsiros, Michael & Mittal, Vikas, 2000. "Regret: A Model of Its Antecedents and Consequences in Consumer Decision Making," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 26(4), pages 401-417, March.
    11. Davvetas, Vasileios & Diamantopoulos, Adamantios, 2017. "“Regretting your brand-self?” The moderating role of consumer-brand identification on consumer responses to purchase regret," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 218-227.
    12. Huang, Guei-Hua & Korfiatis, Nikolaos & Chang, Chun-Tuan, 2018. "Mobile shopping cart abandonment: The roles of conflicts, ambivalence, and hesitation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 165-174.
    13. Close, Angeline G. & Kukar-Kinney, Monika, 2010. "Beyond buying: Motivations behind consumers' online shopping cart use," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 986-992, September.
    14. Beck, Marie & Crié, Dominique, 2018. "I virtually try it … I want it ! Virtual Fitting Room: A tool to increase on-line and off-line exploratory behavior, patronage and purchase intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 279-286.
    15. David E. Bell, 1982. "Regret in Decision Making under Uncertainty," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 961-981, October.
    16. Dongwoo Shin & Ji Song & Abhijit Biswas, 2014. "Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) generation in new media platforms: The role of regulatory focus and collective dissonance," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 153-165, June.
    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. Hasan Beyari & Hatem Garamoun, 2022. "The Effect of Artificial Intelligence on End-User Online Purchasing Decisions: Toward an Integrated Conceptual Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Wang, Siqi & Cheah, Jun-Hwa & Lim, Xin-Jean & Leong, Yee Choy & Choo, Wei Chong, 2022. "Thanks COVID-19, I'll reconsider my purchase: Can fear appeal reduce online shopping cart abandonment?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Wang, Siqi & Lim, Xin-Jean & Luo, Xi & Cheah, Jun-Hwa, 2024. "To hesitate or not to hesitate: Can popularity cues minimize the hesitation to checkout in e-commerce?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Petcharat, Thanatchaphan & Jattamart, Aungkana & Leelasantitham, Adisorn, 2023. "A conceptual model to imply a negative innovation assessment framework on consumer behaviors through the electronic business platforms," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Naveen Kumar R & Janani M & John William A & Pavithra R & Maharajan T, 2024. "Turbo Remarketing by E-Commerce Start-ups: Converting Abandoned Carts into Sales," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 18-36.
    6. Ishani Patharia & Tanu Jain, 2024. "Antecedents of Electronic Shopping Cart Abandonment during Online Purchase Process," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 12(3), pages 400-418, July.

    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. Ang, Dionysius & Diecidue, Enrico & Dewitte, Siegfried, 2022. "To deliberate or not? The effects of anticipated regret and deliberation on willingness-to-pay," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 563-578.
    2. Reb, Jochen & Connolly, Terry, 2009. "Myopic regret avoidance: Feedback avoidance and learning in repeated decision making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 182-189, July.
    3. George, Jennifer M. & Dane, Erik, 2016. "Affect, emotion, and decision making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 47-55.
    4. Lee, K.M.C. & Kraussl, R.G.W. & Paas, L.J., 2009. "The effect of anticipated and experienced regret and pride on investors' future selling decisions," Serie Research Memoranda 0057, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    5. Enrico Diecidue & Nils Rudi & Wenjie Tang, 2012. "Dynamic Purchase Decisions Under Regret: Price and Availability," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 9(1), pages 22-30, March.
    6. Shahid Sameeni, Maleeha & Ahmad, Wasim & Filieri, Raffaele, 2022. "Brand betrayal, post-purchase regret, and consumer responses to hedonic versus utilitarian products: The moderating role of betrayal discovery mode," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 137-150.
    7. Andreas Herrmann & Frank Huber & Christian Seilheimer, 2003. "Die Qual der Wahl: Die Bedeutung des Regret bei Kaufentscheidungen," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 224-249, May.
    8. Javad Nasiry & Ioana Popescu, 2012. "Advance Selling When Consumers Regret," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(6), pages 1160-1177, June.
    9. Florian Teleaba & Sorin Popescu & Marieta Olaru & Diana Pitic, 2021. "Risks of Observable and Unobservable Biases in Artificial Intelligence Predicting Consumer Choice," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(56), pages 102-102, February.
    10. Özalp Özer & Yanchong Zheng, 2016. "Markdown or Everyday Low Price? The Role of Behavioral Motives," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(2), pages 326-346, February.
    11. Reb, Jochen, 2008. "Regret aversion and decision process quality: Effects of regret salience on decision process carefulness," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 105(2), pages 169-182, March.
    12. Vohra, Shalini & Davies, Gary, 2020. "Investor regret, share performance and the role of corporate agreeableness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 306-315.
    13. Monika Kukar-Kinney & Angeline Close Scheinbaum & Larry Olanrewaju Orimoloye & Jeffrey R. Carlson & Heping He, 2022. "A model of online shopping cart abandonment: evidence from e-tail clickstream data," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(5), pages 961-980, September.
    14. Skelton, Alexandra C.H. & Allwood, Julian M., 2017. "Questioning demand: A study of regretted purchases in Great Britain," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 499-509.
    15. Gabler, Colin B. & Myles Landers, V. & Reynolds, Kristy E., 2017. "Purchase decision regret: Negative consequences of the Steadily Increasing Discount strategy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 201-208.
    16. Yukihiro Miwa & Makoto Morisada & Wirawan D. Dahana, 2017. "Investigating the Impacts of Individual Traits and Product Characteristics on Customer Evaluation of Sweepstakes," International Journal of Marketing Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(5), pages 1-16, October.
    17. Roman Kraussl & Carmen Lee & Leo Paas, 2013. "The Effect of Anticipated and Experienced Regret and Pride on Investors Future Selling Decisions," DEM Discussion Paper Series 13-5, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    18. Terry Connolly & Jochen Reb, 2012. "Regret aversion in reason-based choice," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 35-51, July.
    19. Yang, Feng & Wang, Manman & Ang, Sheng, 2021. "Optimal remanufacturing decisions in supply chains considering consumers’ anticipated regret and power structures," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    20. Luyao Zhi & Hong-Youl Ha, 2023. "Do New Luxury Hotel Promotions Harm Member Customers?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-15, May.

    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:jbrese:v:132:y:2021:i:c:p:813-836. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    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.