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The paper proposes investigating the timing of consumer requests for price‐matching refunds, the relationship between the refund timing and consumer repeat store purchase and the reasons for buying from the price‐matching store when a lower competitive price is found before purchase.

In Study 1, qualitative research (consumer interviews) was conducted; Study 2 uses a shopping simulation in which the timing of consumer refund‐seeking behavior is observed, and Study 3 involves a consumer survey in which information on consumer refund‐seeking behavior at real stores is gathered.

The paper finds that consumers request price‐matching refunds more frequently at the time of purchase than after the purchase. Seeking (and receiving) the price‐matching refund is associated with higher repeat store purchase behavior than not having had a refund‐seeking experience. Key reasons for buying from the price‐matching retailer when a lower competitive price is found before purchase include convenience, tangible extras, and store reputation/service quality.

A student convenience sample was used. In Study 2, fictitious stores were used. In Study 3, the timing of refund seeking may have been different on other (not reported) occasions. Ability to seek the refund was not accounted for.

The majority of the retailer's price‐matching cost will come from issuing at‐the‐time‐of‐purchase refunds, when consumers possess more bargaining power. A positive refund‐seeking experience may create a more loyal customer. In addition to being a low‐price signal, price‐matching policies can serve as signs of retailers' customer orientation.

This research fills the gap in understanding the consumer price‐match refund‐seeking behavior and offers practical implications for retailers employing price‐matching guarantees.

In this paper, the authors explore the consequences of showrooming and price matching strategy to combat showrooming under the consideration that brick-and-mortar (BM) stores and online retailers hold different costs.

The authors use a duopoly model to analyze the impact of showrooming behavior on competition between a BM store and an online retailer with different types of customers and different costs. Then, they consider the price matching strategy that a BM store could employ to combat showrooming and explore the effect of such a strategy.

Showrooming behavior is detrimental to the profit of the BM store, and the online retailer suffers a loss of their profit unless the relative cost of the BM store is high and only part of the customers exhibit showrooming behavior. As the fraction of customers who seek price matching increases, profits of both the BM store and the online retailer initially decrease and then may increase, even if there is no showrooming.

Unlike existing studies that ignore different costs between online and offline retailers, the authors set different costs between the BM store and the online retailer to consider the effects of showrooming and price matching strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of three price-matching guarantee (PMG) variables, including refund depth, refund period and competitive scope, on consumer response; the moderating role of consumer search costs is also examined.

This study uses a scenario simulation method with a 2×2×2 factorial design to test the research model and hypotheses.

The results indicate that refund depth has a significant effect on price perception and purchase intention, while competitive scope has a significant effect on purchase intention. In addition, the effects of both refund depth and competitive scope on price perception are moderated by consumer search costs.

This study is a pioneering effort to explore the effects of PMGs variables on consumer response in the context of online retailing. These findings provide several important theoretical and practical implications for the PMG strategy of online retailing.

Seeks to study the effect of a low‐price guarantee (PG) on store price image and store patronage intention. Two kinds of low‐price guarantee are studied: a price‐matching guarantee (PMG) where the price difference is refunded and a price‐beating guarantee (PBG) where a retailer offers an additional compensation.

A questionnaire is used to collect information on 180 non‐student respondents in an experimental framework where low‐price guarantee dimension is manipulated through three advertisements for printers.

Findings are: first, that PG indeed lowers store price image, increases the confidence that the store has lower prices and increases patronage intention; second, that, compared with a PMG whose effects are positive but rather small, a PBG further lowers the store price image on the low prices dimension without increasing the intention to search for lower price, this intention being already rather high in the PMG condition; third, that a larger effect is observed for non‐regular customers.

Research limitations are associated with the data collection. For greater reality the study uses an existing retail chain, so specific effects coming from this chain could influence the results but this bias cannot be evaluated as the experiment involves one retailer only.

Practical implications are that price image can be manipulated without any change in pricing policy by a low‐price guarantee and that the interest to adopt a price‐beating guarantee is real.

The contribution of this study lies in its focus on a large PBG level that retailers already apply and in demonstrating that a PG depends on the relationship between the consumer and the retailer with a stronger effect on non‐regular customers.

Platforms in two-sided markets are known to provide subsidies to either buyers or sellers, in order to take advantage of cross-group externalities inherent in such industries. Online travel agents can be thought of as platforms facilitating trade between passengers and travel service providers (airlines). This chapter evaluates the effects of a buyer subsidy provided by one major US online travel agent – a low-price guarantee offered by Orbitz. We find evidence consistent with increased airline participation with this travel agent upon implementation of the low-price guarantee policy. Our results also confirm the theoretical claims that most-favored customer low-price guarantee policies are procompetitive.

This paper aims to examine the status of service guarantees specifically, and cues to quality more generally.

Reflection on the 1998 Journal of Services Marketing article with views both to the academic literature and the presence of guarantees in industry.

Service guarantees still exist, sometimes in their original form (e.g. “100 per cent satisfaction guaranteed!”) and sometimes in a morphed form (e.g. retailers’ promises of price-matching). Research has continued to focus on understanding service guarantees yet there are additional questions left to be addressed. There are also numerous other types of information, in addition to service guarantees, consumers may use as cues to quality.

Service guarantees remain an important and useful tool for services marketers to signal their quality to their customers and to reduce the uncertainty surrounding many services purchases. Other information such as online ratings and reviews through social media can also serve as strong informational cues.

In providing cues to customers about quality, while marketers have long considered the value of price and brand names, the usefulness of service guarantees is still under-studied.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two popular price promotion strategies – price matching guarantees (PMGs) and everyday low prices (EDLP) – and their effects on Chilean consumer behavior in terms of consumer perceptions of low prices, search behavior and purchase intention.

A quasi experiment with three scenarios was conducted to test price promotion effects. Subjects were instructed to respond a questionnaire that included the dependent variables.

Results show that EDLP and PMG strategies increase perceptions of low prices and affect purchase intentions. These effects are significantly higher for stores offering EDLP than PMG. However, when consumers are exposed to two or more price promotion strategies (rather than one) they reduce their purchase intentions for a specific store and increase their search intentions.

This is an initial study exploring the effects of price promotion strategies on consumers. Future research could test the hypotheses advanced in the study across different samples and contexts (supermarkets, department stores, convenience stores, and other retailers) and might privilege external validity, using experiments mimicking decisions with real consequences.

Retailers and marketers in Latin America – particularly those companies stressing price or value as their differential advantage – should consider the use of price promotions when designing marketing strategies. On the other hand, retailers should be aware that an intensive use of these of promotions could lead to increases in consumer search behavior.

While findings from the USA suggest that price promotion strategies can be effective in several contexts, there has been a limited number of studies addressing whether such strategies are effective in other countries, particularly in Latin America and emerging nations.

Given the widespread adoption of low-price guarantees and discussion of their anti-competitive effects in the theoretical literature, it is unfortunate that there is little empirical evidence available on the subject. This chapter analyzes the effects of low-price guarantees on advertised tire prices, based on P185/75R14 retail tire prices collected from U.S. Sunday newspapers. We find that although a tire retailer's own price-matching or price-beating guarantee has no significant effect on the retailer's advertised tire price, an increase in the percentage of firms in the market announcing low-price guarantees tends to raise the firm's advertised tire price. In particular, we find that the predicted tire prices are approximately $4 higher (about 10 percent of the average advertised price of a P185/75R14 tire) in markets in which all firms advertise an LPG when compared to markets without any LPGs.

The main purpose of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of “scratch and save” (SAS) promotions, which are popular store‐level promotional tools. This paper particularly focuses on investigating the moderating effects of consumers' price consciousness and savings expectations.

Two laboratory experimental studies were employed to examine consumer responses to SAS promotions.

The results of two experiments show that SAS promotions positively affect consumer perceptions of offer value and store prices, and consumers' intentions to shop and spread positive word‐of‐mouth. In particular, the effects of SAS promotions are moderated by consumer price consciousness and expected savings. Furthermore, the first study shows that the level of claimed savings of SAS promotions does not favorably affect consumer reactions. The second study also shows that consumers' discounting of expected savings increases as the level of claimed savings of SAS promotions increases.

Although SAS promotions are widely used by various types of retailers, there really is little known as to how consumers respond to SAS promotions. By providing evidence of the effectiveness of SAS promotions, this paper enables pricing researchers to extend issues related to such promotional tools.

For retailers, the most distinctive finding of this paper is that the level of claimed savings may not significantly affect consumer perceptions and shopping intentions, although an SAS promotion would be an effective promotional tool.

As a preliminary effort to examine the effects of SAS promotions, this paper offers a discussion of the future research opportunities.