From Point of Purchase to Path to Purchase: How Preshopping Factors Drive Unplanned Buying

Abstract

Many retailers believe that a majority of purchases are unplanned, so they spend heavily on in-store marketing to stimulate these types of purchases. At the same time, the effects of "preshopping" factors-the shoppers' overall trip goals, store-specific shopping objectives, and prior marketing exposures-are largely unexplored. The authors focus on these out-of-store drivers and, unlike prior research, use panel data to "hold the shopper constant" while estimating unbiased trip-level effects. Thus, they uncover opportunities for retailers to generate more unplanned buying from existing shoppers. The authors find that the amount of unplanned buying increases monotonically with the abstractness of the overall shopping trip goal that is established before the shopper enters the store. Storelinked goals also affect unplanned buying; unplanned buying is higher on trips in which the shopper chooses the store for favorable pricing and lower on trips in which the shopper chooses the store as part of a multistore shopping trip. Although out-of-store marketing has no direct effect, it reinforces the lift in unplanned buying from shoppers who use marketing materials inside the store. The authors discuss the implications for retailers.

When and why we forget to buy

“…Although prior research has not addressed these search strategies per se, studies documenting consumers' paths through stores provide support for their existence (Hui, Bradlow, & Fader, 2009; Hui, Huang, et al, 2013; Hui, Inman, et al, 2013). Prior research also suggests that although both strategies (and a mix of the two strategies) are common, the majority of consumers do not use a pure stimulus‐based strategy (Bell, Corsten, & Knox, 2011; Hui et al, 2009; Hui, Huang, et al, 2013; Hui, Inman, et al, 2013; Inman, Winer, & Ferraro, 2009; Stilley, Inman, & Wakefield, 2010) despite the fact that walking the aisles helps memory (Gilbride, Inman, & Stilley, 2015; Hui, Huang, et al, 2013) as in‐store shelf facings benefit memory, consideration, and choice (Chandon, Hutchinson, Bradlow, & Young, 2009). In addition, walking the aisles is often stimulated by retailers working hard to motivate shoppers to browse their assortment.…”

Deconstructing the “First Moment of Truth”: Understanding Unplanned Consideration and Purchase Conversion Using In-Store Video Tracking

“…One of the first articles to study unplanned purchase behavior using store interview data is Kollat and Willett (1967). Bell, Corsten, and Knox (2011) expand their analysis to consider the role of "preshopping" or "out-of-store" factors such as the abstractness of the shopping trip goal in driving unplanned purchases. Similarly, Beatty and Ferrell (1998) report that several situational variables (time and money availability) and psychographic variables (shopping enjoyment and impulse buying tendency) are key drivers of impulse purchase behavior.…”

“…With a few notable exceptions (Hui et al 2013;Stilley et al 2010b), academic research on unplanned purchase behavior has relied mostly on survey and scanner data (Beatty and Ferrell 1998;Bell, Corsten, and Knox 2011;Bucklin and Lattin 1991;Inman, Winer, and Ferraro 2009;Park, Iyer, and Smith 1989). With a few notable exceptions (Hui et al 2013;Stilley et al 2010b), academic research on unplanned purchase behavior has relied mostly on survey and scanner data (Beatty and Ferrell 1998;Bell, Corsten, and Knox 2011;Bucklin and Lattin 1991;Inman, Winer, and Ferraro 2009;Park, Iyer, and Smith 1989).…”

Study of the strategies of merchandising, promotion and private label in retail

“…We can find studies that classify promotions and analyze which type of them is most appropriate for a particular type of product (Chandon et al, 2000;Hardesty and Bearden, 2003;Palazón and Delgado-Ballester, 2013;Volle, 2001), but not for merchandising techniques. Despite the continued growth of the unplanned purchase (Bell et al, 2011;Stilley et al, 2010), which trigger the continued growth of the investment made by the retailers and manufacturers in the study of the purchasing decisions within the store in recent years (Stilley et al, 2010;, we find a lack of studies that analyze deeper all the possibilities that merchandising within the store can give in order to optimize the retailer and manufacturers' profits, as Breugelmans and Campo (2011) do it for online groceries. Despite the growing importance of these techniques and the fact that they are highlighted as an important line to be development Shankar et al, 2011), we do not find papers focus on merchandising techniques that (1) analyze the effectiveness of these techniques depending on the products characteristics, (2) analyze the temporary effects of these techniques (3) analyze comparatively the effectiveness of different merchandising techniques and (4) analyze the effectiveness on private labels.…”

“…Investments in these techniques have increased in recent years, compared with advertising or communication (ACNielsen, 2013;Infoadex, 2013), because of the increased trend of unplanned purchases (Bell et al, 2011;) and the high benefit-cost ratio they offer . Yet analyses of these techniques have been limited; most empirical articles include simply a "display" variable when studying promotional techniques Van Heerde et al, 2004).…”