Recent regulation in the European Union (i.e., the General Data Protection Regulation) affects websites’ information privacy practices. This regulation addresses two dimensions: websites must (1) provide visible notice regarding private information they collect through cookies and (2) give consumers the choice to disagree to such tracking. Policy makers must understand their regulation’s degree of implementation, as well as its effect on consumers. The authors develop a typology of website cookie notices along the dimensions of notice visibility and choice. A field study shows that most websites only offer low notice visibility and limited choice over private information collection. In addition, four experimental studies in the EU and United States explore the effects of information privacy practices. They find that offering choice over whether or which data are collected increases consumer power, whereas visibility of the notice (vs. no notice) only affects risk perceptions. The authors establish the novel suggestion that perceived risk is mitigated if consumers have more choice over their data (indirectly through greater power). Power and risk influence consumers’ affect and purchase intent.

Recent regulatory changes (i.e., General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union) enforce that seller (e.g., retail and service) and all other websites disclose through cookie notices which data they collect and store. At the same time, websites must allow consumers to disagree to the tracking of their browsing behavior. Despite sellers' concern about the loss of consumer insights-as consumers might disagree to the collection of their browsing data-cookie notices might also have a surprising sideeffect: Consumers might accept frequent price changes (from personalized or dynamic pricing) more readily, if they agree through a cookie notice that their behavior can be tracked. Specifically, two experimental studies show that consent to the tracking of browsing behavior increases consumers internal attribution of a price change, as consumers attribute the cause of the change (here: giving up data) to themselves. This increases price fairness perceptions and, in turn, purchase intent. As a result, for online sellers of goods or services the implementation of cookie notice should no longer be thought as a matter to be avoided, but rather a trade-off decision: Loss of a part of consumer insights versus higher acceptance of data-driven marketing mix decisions, such as frequent price changes.

Perceived product size is a key concern in online retail, particularly in fashion and grocery. The screen on which consumers view a product (e.g., desktop or mobile) might constitute a frame that biases size perception, on the basis of assimilation and contrast effects (pool and store theory). The rise of mobile commerce exacerbates this issue, as framing effects might be stronger versus desktop settings as screens are smaller. Further, as mobile phone's screen orientation varies situationally (vertical vs. horizontal), the perceived product size might vary, depending on the interaction of screen and product orientation. By introducing the framing ratio as a means to predict extent, dimensionality and symmetry of size biases, we generalize specific findings from extant research. Empirically, four experimental studies demonstrate that contextual frames (i.e., vertical vs. horizontal screens) and product orientation (e.g., jeans vs. shoes) interact to bias the size perception, in that sizes are overestimated on the dimension that approaches the frame (high framing ratio), compared with conditions where the frame is distant (low framing ratio). If product size is misperceived, willingness to pay might be affected (e.g., for groceries). Thus, size perceptions have a direct impact on managerially relevant variables.

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