Is returning a product worth my time? The impact of time cues on consumer product returns

Abstract

Considering that returning a purchased product involves time costs to consumers, we posit that making a time cue salient will influence their likelihood of returning a product. Four studies reveal that consumers primed with time cues are less willing to return a product. Specifically, presenting time cues can reduce product returns by amplifying consumers' perception of time pressure and alleviating their psychological discomfort. Furthermore, private self‐awareness is found to moderate the time‐cue effect through perceived discomfort. The results are replicated even when time pressure and psychological discomfort are directly manipulated, supporting the causal account. This study contributes to the literature on consumer product returns by proposing the time‐cue effect and its psychological mechanisms and helps retailers manage product returns using various time cues.

Investigating a Moderated Mediation Model of the Impact of Personalized Message Appeal and Privacy Threat Extent on Consumer Behaviour

“…For H2 and H3, we predicted that the indirect relationship between high-personalized advertising and consumer behaviour through consumer's psychological comfort is conditional and depends on the level of privacy threat extent as a source of stress. Building on the gain spiral principle of COR (Hobfoll, 1989(Hobfoll, , 2002, when the level of privacy threat extent is profound, it imposes higher risk on consumers' personal resources, so consumers seek an external resource to get relieved from shopping complexities and by obtaining and possession of psychological comfort, they are more likely to purchase the product and re-experience their pleasant state by recommending the brand to others (Carroll et al, 2006;de Matos & Rossi, 2008;Lee and Yi, 2022).…”

“…Since personalized advertising provides the most compatible options or recommendations, it enables consumers to save time on their purchases, getting relieved from time pressures and as a result feeling a sense of happiness, satisfaction, and enjoyment (Lee & Yi, 2022). Customers consider products as resources enabling them to fulfill a goal and are motivated to acquire them following a relief from purchase pressures (Hobfoll & Ford, 2007;Maslow, 1954).…”