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The purpose of the present study was to determine whether providing shoppers with a gift upon entering a store would result in an increase in sales. An experiment was conducted in a pharmacy and a total of 200 subjects were used. The results showed that shoppers given a key chain and thanked for patronizing the store spent significantly more than a control group of shoppers who were not given any gift upon entry ($10.76 vs. $9.21). The results of this study are explained by reference to the literature on reciprocity and gift‐giving.

Examines the underlying determinants of in‐store information search for a Christmas clothing gift, specifically focusing on gender differences. Two non‐personal (general and specific) and one personal (sales clerk assistance) in‐store information search domains were obtained from the results of a survey of actual consumers carried out shortly after the Christmas season. Consistent with the predictions of the selectivity model, females appeared to comprehensively acquire in‐store information, whereas males appeared to heuristically limit their search to a smaller subset of in‐store information. More specifically, females scored significantly higher than males on indices of both general and specific information search. Females, compared to males, were also found to start Christmas shopping much earlier, purchase more gifts, and embark on a greater number of shopping trips. Other observed gender differences are discussed.

To date, most research focused on understanding the meanings and mechanism of gift giving behavior and there is little literature on channel usage behavior for gift shopping. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between consumers' retail purchase experiences for their own use and their gift shopping for others in a multichannel retail context.

Using a self‐administered survey method, the paper obtained 171 usable responses from females in a large US Midwestern University. Data are analyzed employing descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and structural equation modeling.

The findings of this paper showed that for all five retail channels (i.e. internet, mail‐order catalog, TV shopping, local stores, and non‐local stores), there are significant and positive relationships between consumers' product purchase experiences for their own use and their gift purchase experiences. Managerial and theoretical implications are provided.

Limitations of the present study include sampling, which prevent the generalization of results to all gift shoppers, and gift product categories focus on in the present study.

As little is known about the consumer gift shopping behavior in a multichannel retail environment, the study provides valuable strategy for multichannel retailers.

To classify internet users into holiday shopper and non‐shopper segments, and to profile the demographic, psychographic, and computer use characteristics of each segment.

Self‐report data come from a national US sample of online internet users. Segments are customer revealed using traditional cluster analysis. Lifestyle measures are reduced to higher order measures using factor analysis. Profiles are analyzed via descriptive statistics, graphs, and radar charts.

Six important segments are identified in the data. Three of the segments characterize customers who resist online shopping, even though they engage in other online activities. Security fears and technological incompetence typically inhibit these users from engaging in electronic exchange. Some internet users simply choose not to shop online. Three of the segments describe active e‐shoppers who are driven by a unique desire to socialize, minimize inconvenience, and maximize value.

Data come from self‐report questionnaires administered and collected electronically through the internet. Focus is placed on holiday gift buying. Since, holiday shopping is very important to e‐retailers, results are managerially interesting, but might not be indicative of other shopping periods.

To be successful, e‐retailers must understand those things that motivate and inhibit customer online shopping. Marketing activities targeted at reticent e‐shoppers should focus on benefits, guarantee safeguards and facilitate technical literacy. Service, value, and online ambiance should be carefully tailored to meet the desires and expectations of each customer type.

The study is a replication and extension of earlier online studies which are summarized in the reviewed literature.

The purpose of the study is to examine the personal, situational and socio‐demographic factors influencing consumer information search strategies whilst Christmas shopping in a religiously‐diverse Middle Eastern country: Lebanon.

A structured questionnaire (adopted from Laroche, Saad, Browne, Cleveland, and Kim) was employed as the data collection procedure. Respondents were chosen by systematic random sampling in malls, department stores and retail outlets in the Lebanese capital, Beirut for over a three‐week period immediately prior to Christmas Day, 25 December 2008. The study sample comprised 400 respondents: 188 female and 212 male.

The study identified the effects of some personal and situational factors on the different consumer information search strategies. Of the personal factors, it was found that the bargain hunters sought general and specific information as well as information from sales staff, whilst the leader type looked for general and specific information. The study also determined that risky and costly gifts, strict budgets and the amount of money spent on gifts were the main situational factors influencing each type of consumer information search.

Most of the literature has focused on Christmas shopping in Western countries, yet this study attempts to investigate it in the Middle East. It is hoped that by enhancing the understanding of the impact of Christmas shopping in non‐Western countries the findings will contribute to the literature on this subject.

The aim of this study is to profile types of gifters via a set of psychographic consumption traits (frugality, gratitude, market mavenism and novelty seeking) and identify differences among the groups regarding their gift-purchasing behavior.

Based on the data from 193 participants, the authors seek to identify and profile unique consumer segments (gifters) generated from the four psychographic consumption traits. Second, once the segments are established, the authors analyze how the segments differ across 16 unique gift-purchasing behaviors.

The data generated four distinct consumer segments: experiential gifters, considerate gifters, convenience gifters and astute gifters. Across the segments, there were differences in their gift consumption behavior (e.g. time/effort spent, desire for customization, gift presentation, derived joy, purchasing frequency, eco-friendliness, seeking assistance, regifting and more).

US-based sample was collected via an online panel in January; this may restrict the generalizability of the research, given that gift consumption customs may vary across different countries. Thus, future research should include participants from other geographic regions to increase the external validity of the research.

Retail managers can use this knowledge to devise marketing strategies focused on the gift-purchasing behaviors of each group.

Segmenting clusters based on differences in consumption traits provides insights to retailers looking to build a competitive advantage, particularly in a gift purchasing context.

Most research related to consumer choice of retailers emphasizes retailer attributes and/or consumer characteristics. Since many retail formats, including online retailing, have emerged in recent years, knowledge of how consumers select retail formats must be updated. A source of influence that has been examined to a very limited extent for store retailers but not for emerging retail formats is situational influence. From a modern interactionism perspective, this study investigates the influence of situational as well as consumer and retailer factors on preference for online, catalog, and store formats. Key results show that situational factors have significant influence on online and catalog format selection and perceptions of attributes that are crucial to that selection.

Shoppers often shop for and purchase products for other individuals during the course of routine shopping experiences. The purpose of this study is to investigate differences in the shopping trip based on whether the shopper is purchasing a product for him/herself, purchasing a product for someone else’s use that is not intended as a gift and gift purchases.

This research utilizes a survey of shoppers to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results of the study indicate differences in positive affect, flow, fantasy, satisfaction, hedonic shopping value and utilitarian shopping value across the three groups of shoppers. Individuals shopping for themselves generally have the lowest overall shopping trip outcomes, followed by those shopping for a non-gift product for another person. Those making gift purchases have highest shopping trip outcomes.

While existing shopping research generally assumes the shopper is making a purchase for him/herself, this study shows previous research by showing differences in the shopping trip based on who the shopper is making a purchase for, either him/herself or someone else. Additionally, this research also shows differences between shoppers making gift and non-gift purchases for another person.

Self-gifting is a performative process in which consumers purchase products for themselves. The literature to date remains silent on a determination and connection between the extents of post-purchase regret resulting from self-gifting behavior. The purpose of this paper is to examine identification and connection of self-gifting antecedents, self-gifting and the effect on post purchase regret.

This study claims the two antecedents of hedonistic shopping and indulgence drive self-gifting behaviors and the attendant regret. A total of 307 shoppers responded to a series of statements concerning the relationships between antecedents of self-gifting behavior and the effect on post-purchase regret. Self-gifting is a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of therapeutic, celebratory, reward and hedonistic imports. Confirmatory factor analysis and AMOS path modeling enabled examination of relationships between the consumer traits of hedonistic shopping and indulgence and the four self-gifting concepts.

Hedonic and indulgent shoppers engage in self-gifting for different reasons. A strong and positive relationship was identified between hedonic shoppers and reward, hedonic, therapeutic and celebratory self-gift motivations. hedonic shoppers aligned with indulgent shoppers who also engaged the four self-gifting concepts. The only regret concerning purchase of self-gifts was evident in the therapeutic and celebratory self-gift motivations.

A major limitation was the age range specification of 18 to 45 years which meant the omission of older generations of regular and experienced shoppers. This study emphasizes the importance of variations in self-gift behaviors and of post-purchase consumer regret.

This research is the first examination of an hedonic attitude to shopping and indulgent antecedents to self-gift purchasing, the concepts of self-gift motivations and their effect on post-purchase regret.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of gift-givers’ perception of relational closeness on their gift-selection attitude and eventual selection when the gift is not a requested-gift.

A conceptual framework was constructed on the basis of five hypotheses, which were tested by field data collected through surveys of urban Indian gift-givers while they shopped for a gift. Logistic regressions were used for validating hypotheses. Mediation effect was computed using the PROCESS macro in SPSS.

The giver may have either a “recipient-centric” or a “giver-centric” attitude towards gift-selection. It was found that givers who feel greater closeness towards recipients are less likely to be “giver-centric” and more likely to believe that the recipient’s preferences are similar to their own. The givers’ belief that the recipient’s preferences are similar to their own mediates the effect of closeness on attitude. Closeness reduces the odds of making a “preference-contrary” selection among “recipient-centric” givers because of a perceived similarity of preferences.

The study was conducted among urban Indian gift-shoppers. Cross-cultural study may be required for general interpretation of the results. In addition, the role of reciprocity in determining giver’s attitude and gift-selection was not studied.

The study found that the odds of making “preference-contrary” gift-selection depend on the closeness of the dyadic relation. This understanding can be used in advertising and promoting products that are used as gifts between close relations.

Previous studies postulated and demonstrated that relational closeness affects gift-giving behaviour, but none connected closeness to gift-selection. This research conceptualised gift-giver’s attitude, which influences giver’s selection.