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1 – 10 of 141Merve Coskun, Shipra Gupta and Sebnem Burnaz
The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of store messiness and human crowding on shoppers' competitive behaviours, in-store hoarding and in-store hiding, through the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of store messiness and human crowding on shoppers' competitive behaviours, in-store hoarding and in-store hiding, through the mediating effect of perceived scarcity and perceived competition.
Design/methodology/approach
2 (store messiness: messy × tidy) × 2 (human crowding: high × low) between-subject factorial experiment was conducted online to manipulate retail store atmospheric factors. A total of 154 responses were collected through Amazon MTurk. The hypotheses were analysed using ANOVA and PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) procedure.
Findings
Results suggest that store messiness and human crowding within a fast-fashion store lead to perception of scarcity and competition that further affects competitive behaviours. When consumers experience store messiness, they are likely to hide merchandise in store, thus making it inaccessible for other consumers. Further, when they experience human crowding in the store, they feel that the products will be gone immediately so they have a tendency to hoard them.
Research limitations/implications
This study examined the effects of scarcity perception by studying the case of fast-fashion retailers; generalizability needs to be established across different contexts.
Practical implications
Retailers by manipulating human crowding and store messiness can create a perception of scarcity in their stores, thus enhancing sales. However, they should also pay attention to deviant behaviours such as in-store hoarding and in-store hiding as these behaviours may decrease the store sales.
Originality/value
This research contributed to the retailing literature by finding a significant relationship between human crowding, store messiness and competitive behaviours through perceived scarcity and competition.
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Astha Sanjeev Gupta and Jaydeep Mukherjee
COVID-19 pandemic-related Government restrictions on the movement of people resulted in consumers moving away from retail outlets. However, sporadic instances of an unexpected…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 pandemic-related Government restrictions on the movement of people resulted in consumers moving away from retail outlets. However, sporadic instances of an unexpected surge in retail buying happened across the world immediately after the lifting of such restrictions. This uncommon phenomenon, termed revenge buying, offered an opportunity to revive retail businesses. This paper applies Reactance Theory (RCT) and Self-determination Theory (SDT) to model consumers' revenge buying intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from 384 respondents in India using validated scales. The study used structural equation modelling for model testing.
Findings
COVID-19 restrictions resulted in autonomy need frustration in consumers, which induced psychological reactance and perceived stress. Psychological reactance positively impacted, while perceived stress negatively impacted revenge buying intentions. Thus, revenge buying was observed only when the psychological reactance was more than perceived stress.
Research limitations/implications
This study, conducted in only one country with a limited convenience sample, limits the generalizability of findings.
Originality/value
This research model the psychological consequences of need frustration to explain the sporadic incidences of revenge buying in retail outlets. Further, it proposes sales recovery strategies for retailers in the immediate post-pandemic market scenarios. Retailers' strategies should focus on alleviating stress and anxiety because of health concerns, highlighting the retail buying experience to stimulate the need to visit the outlet and positioning retail buying as a potential reactance response by consumers.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore fast-fashion consumers’ post-purchase behaviours and examine relationships among fast-fashion purchase, disposing, hoarding, participation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore fast-fashion consumers’ post-purchase behaviours and examine relationships among fast-fashion purchase, disposing, hoarding, participation in recycling, and environmental attitudes.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey questionnaire was developed and a total of 335 college students completed it in a classroom setting. Of the data collected, 274 students who purchased fast-fashions were used for this study. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data and Pearson correlations were conducted to examine relationships among the variables.
Findings
Results of Pearson correlations indicated that fast-fashion purchase was positively related to disposing and hoarding, but negatively related to participation in recycling. Apparel hoarding was positively related to recycling, but no relationships were found between environmental attitudes and any of the following: fast-fashion purchase, disposing, hoarding, or participation in recycling.
Practical implications
Fast-fashion suppliers should encourage consumers’ participation in recycling and should take responsibility for collecting their post-purchase products.
Originality/value
This paper provides important contributions to the literature about fashion retailing/marketing and post-purchase behaviours. Although young fashion-oriented consumers easily purchase and dispose of trendy and cheap fast-fashions, little is known about their post-purchase behaviours. Findings of this study showed that fast-fashion consumers had positive attitudes towards the environment, yet they did not participate in recycling. The finding implies that fast-fashion suppliers need to develop a culture to support sustainability of consumption.
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Gurmeet Singh, Asheefa Shaheen Aiyub, Tuma Greig, Samantha Naidu, Aarti Sewak and Shavneet Sharma
This paper aims to identify factors that influence customers' panic buying behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify factors that influence customers' panic buying behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 357 participants in Fiji, and structural equation modeling to analyze the collected data.
Findings
Results indicate that expected personal outcomes is positively associated with customers' attitudes while expected community-related outcomes negatively impact customers' attitudes. Factors such as attitude, subjective norms, scarcity, time pressure and perceived competition were found to positively influence customers' panic buying intention. Furthermore, scarcity and time pressure were confirmed to positively influence perceived competitiveness while perceived social detection risk negatively influences customer's panic buying intention.
Practical implications
The findings highlight the need for better measures to ensure that every customer has access to goods and services and is not deprived of such necessities in times of a crisis. These results will assist store managers and policymakers in introducing better management, social policies and resource utilization mechanisms to mitigate panic buying during the pandemic.
Originality/value
This study's findings contribute to the literature on customer's panic buying behavior during a global pandemic. Research in this area remain scarce, inconsistent and inconclusive. Novel insights are generated as this study is the first to combine the theory of planned behavior, privacy calculus theory and protection motivation theory. Applying these theories allows new relationships to be tested to better understand customer behavior during a global pandemic. With most studies on customer behavior during crises and disasters in developed countries, this study generates new insights by exploring customer behavior in a developing country.
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Nitha Palakshappa, Sarah Dodds and Sandy Bulmer
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many consumers to pause and rethink the impacts of their consumption behavior. The purpose of this paper is to explore changes to consumers’…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many consumers to pause and rethink the impacts of their consumption behavior. The purpose of this paper is to explore changes to consumers’ preferences and shopping behavior in retail using a sustainable consumption lens to understand the long-term effects of the pandemic on retail services.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 participants to gain insights into shopping behaviors and preferences during the pandemic and to investigate changes in attitudes or behaviors toward sustainable consumption as a result of the pandemic. Data analysis involved an iterative inductive process and subsequent thematic analysis.
Findings
The results reveal a strong move toward sustainable and conscious consumption with three key changes occurring as a result of the pandemic, including changes in consumers’ ethos, move to purpose-driven shopping and drive to buy local and support national.
Practical implications
This paper reveals insights into consumer shopping behaviors and preferences that can potentially counter the collapse of “normal” marketplace activities in the face of the current global pandemic by providing a framework for how retail services can respond, reimagine and recover to move forward long term.
Originality/value
This study uncovers the importance of services marketing in endorsing and promoting sustainable consumption by shaping subtle shifts in conscious consumption as a way to recover from a global pandemic and move to a “new” service marketplace.
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Gizem Merve Karadag and Irem Eren Erdogmus
The digitalization process has been influential on the way marketing is conducted. However, luxury brands have not yet fully channeled the benefits of the integration of various…
Abstract
The digitalization process has been influential on the way marketing is conducted. However, luxury brands have not yet fully channeled the benefits of the integration of various touchpoints. The aim of this chapter is to provide insights into building a luxury fashion omnichannel strategy through the integration of online and offline consumer journeys, based on the emerging needs and lifestyles of different luxury consumer segments. Accordingly, exploratory research is designed to understand luxury consumer typologies and luxury fashion shopping journeys. In-depth interviews were conducted for data collection in Istanbul, with 16 participants. Grounded theory coding was used for analyzing the data. Findings revealed four-consumer typologies –Luxury Beginners, Nouveaux Riches, Conservatives, Established Luxury Consumers. Luxury fashion journey map covering three major steps – pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase – was illustrated based on the usage of both digital and non-digital channels and agents through the journey with discussions to present consumer differences. The results of the study add to the current literature and provide an omnichannel roadmap for the practitioners.
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Ahmed Zaky, Hassan Mohamed and Gunjan Saxena
This study aims to conceptualise the panic buying behaviour of consumers in the UK during the novel COVID-19 crisis, using the assemblage approach as it is non-deterministic and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to conceptualise the panic buying behaviour of consumers in the UK during the novel COVID-19 crisis, using the assemblage approach as it is non-deterministic and relational and affords new ways of understanding the phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
The study undertakes a digital ethnography approach and content analysis of Twitter data. A total of 6,803 valid tweets were collected over the period when panic buying was at its peak at the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2020.
Findings
The panic buying phase was a radical departure from the existing linguistic, discursive, symbolic and semiotic structures that define routine consumer behaviour. The authors suggest that the panic buying behaviour is best understood as a constant state of becoming, whereby stockpiling, food waste and a surge in cooking at home emerged as significant contributors to positive consumer sentiments.
Research limitations/implications
The authors offer unique insights into the phenomenon of panic buying by considering DeLanda’s assemblage theory. This work will inform future research associated with new social meanings of products, particularly those that may have been (re)shaped during the COVID-19 crisis.
Practical implications
The study offers insights for practitioners and retailers to lessen the intensity of consumers’ panic buying behaviour in anticipation of a crisis and for successful crisis management.
Originality/value
Panic buying took on a somewhat carnivalesque hue as consumers transitioned to what we consider to be atypical modes of purchasing that remain under-theorised in marketing. Using the conceptual lenses of assemblage, the authors map bifurcations that the panic buyers’ assemblages articulated via material and immaterial bodies.
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Astha Sanjeev Gupta, Jaydeep Mukherjee and Ruchi Garg
COVID-19 disrupted the lives of consumers across the globe, and the retail sector has been one of the hardest hits. The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' retail choice behaviour…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 disrupted the lives of consumers across the globe, and the retail sector has been one of the hardest hits. The impact of COVID-19 on consumers' retail choice behaviour and retailers' responses has been studied in detail through multiple lenses. Now that the effect of COVID-19 is abating, there is a need to consolidate the learnings during the lifecycle of COVID-19 and set the agenda for research post-COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
Scopus database was searched to cull out academic papers published between March 2020 and June 6, 2022, using keywords; shopping behaviour, retailing, consumer behaviour, and retail channel choice along with COVID-19 (171 journals, 357 articles). Bibliometric analysis followed by selective content analysis was conducted.
Findings
COVID-19 was a black swan event that impacted consumers' psychology, leading to reversible and irreversible changes in retail consumer behaviour worldwide. Research on changes in consumer behaviour and consumption patterns has been mapped to the different stages of the COVID-19 lifecycle. Relevant research questions and potential theoretical lenses have been proposed for further studies.
Originality/value
This paper collates, classifies and organizes the extant research in retail from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies three retail consumption themes: short-term, long-term reversible and long-term irreversible changes. Research agenda related to the retailer and consumer behaviour is identified; for each of the three categories, facilitating the extraction of pertinent research questions for post-COVID-19 studies.
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Chuanlan Liu, Sibei Xia and Chunmin Lang
This study aims to discover clothing consumption shifts and explore the effect of consumer resilience in changing clothing consumption patterns or establishing new clothing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to discover clothing consumption shifts and explore the effect of consumer resilience in changing clothing consumption patterns or establishing new clothing consumption routines after experiencing disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-phase multi-method approach was employed. The first phase of qualitative inquiry was conducted to identify clothing consumption shifts using a content mining approach on a text data sample of 17,195 tweets posted from 1 January to 30 September 2020. The second phase of the quantitative study was conducted to explore consumer resilience's effect on clothing consumption shifts based on a collected national sample of 418 respondents through an online survey.
Findings
This study identified clothing consumption changes including value shifts, style shifts and spending shifts. It was also found that resilient consumers care about a company's ethical practices and value the quality instead of the number of items in their wardrobe. Consumers spend more time wearing comfortable clothing and are used to the working-from-home lifestyle.
Originality/value
This study explored approaches to making use of social media data for a better understanding of consumers' clothing behaviour. Also, this study attempted to explore and understand clothing consumption practices during and post the Covid-19 global pandemic, focusing on identifying shifts that might last longer for fashion businesses to explore growth opportunities.
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Sasikarn Chatvijit Cook and Jennifer Yurchisin
The current research explored both pre-purchase and post-purchase factors of consumer behaviour. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships that…
Abstract
Purpose
The current research explored both pre-purchase and post-purchase factors of consumer behaviour. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships that may exist among consumers’ perceptions of perishability, scarcity, low price, attitudes, impulse buying, post-purchase emotions, and product returns within the context of the fast fashion environments.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 246 usable questionnaires completed by female undergraduate students, who made purchases and product returns at fast fashion retailers, were analysed in SPSS and AMOS 23.0. Structural equation modelling was employed to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Consumers who are attracted to scarcity due to limited supply and scarcity due to time, referred to as perceived perishability, have a positive attitude towards the fast fashion retailers in which products are presented in scarce environments. Likewise, consumers have a positive attitude towards fast fashion retailers due to low priced merchandises they offer. Consequently, consumers who have a positive attitude towards the fast fashion retailers are likely to purchase products from them impulsively. Moreover, impulse buying behaviour positively influenced some negative post-purchase emotional responses, which in turn positively influenced product returns in the fast fashion environments.
Research limitations/implications
The results of the current study contribute to a greater understanding of apparel-related consumer behaviour in general. A theory formation of fast fashion consumer behaviour from acquisition to disposal can be drawn from the results of this study. Because some fast fashion retailers do sell clothing for both men and women, researchers could compare the responses of males and females to examine differences in consumer behaviour related to demographic characteristics. In the future, an examination of actual emotional responses and return behaviour would be beneficial for a more complete understanding of post-purchase consumer behaviour.
Practical implications
Fast fashion retailers could use this information to carefully design shopping environments that induce impulse buying behaviour because it may result in product returns. Fast fashion retailers need to understand the causes of the return behaviour, whether consumer related or product related, to better meet the needs of their target market. Return policies must be considered.
Originality/value
This research is the first to examine the impact of negative emotions following consumers’ impulse buying on product returns in the fast fashion retail environments.
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