Virtual Bundling with Quantity Discounts: When Low Purchase Price Does Not Lead to Smart-Shopper Feelings

Abstract

Previous research has shown that promotional techniques influence both the smart‐shopper feeling and the consumption level at home through a direct mechanism (lower perceived cost) and an indirect consequence of promotions (larger supply). The development in France of virtual bundles with quantity discounts raises questions regarding a consumer's cognitive and affective appreciation of the deal, and therefore promotional efficiency. Four experiments on French consumers confirm the effect of price and supply on declared consumption, but only for “vice” products. In Experiment 2, virtual bundles with quantity discounts lead to the lowest perceived unit price and consequently to the highest level of consumption. Additionally, when compared with more traditional promotional techniques (e.g., physical bundles), virtual bundles with quantity discounts reduce the evaluation of a “good deal” and the smart‐shopper feeling (Experiments 3 and 4). To summarize, such promotional techniques, which might have seemed appealing at first (“buy more to save more”), are preferred less by consumers than more traditional promotional techniques. These preliminary results could be enriched by field studies that go beyond declared consumption and observe consumers evolving in their natural environment across time.

Targeting Smart Shoppers: A Cross-Country Model

“…The emotions arising from shopping experiences leave affective memory traces that consumers process to form postpurchase satisfaction (Cachero-Martínez & Vázquez-Casielles, 2017a). For smart shoppers, the positive affective response generated by a good purchase has been found to affect brand attitude, (Liu & Wang, 2008;Manzur et al, 2011), retail store preference (Labbé-Pinlon et al, 2011), promotion evaluation (Chandon et al, 2000;de Pechpeyrou, 2013), and word-of-mouth communication (Chung & Darke, 2006).…”

“…Previous research focused on smart-shopping conceptualization can be divided into two broad categories: (1) studies focused on shoppers' behavioral traits (i.e., Atkins & Hyun, 2016;Atkins & Kim, 2012;Labbé-Pinlon et al, 2011;Mano & Elliott, 1997) and 2research works focused on consumers' emotional response motivated by a smart purchase (i.e., Bicen & Madhavaram, 2013;de Pechpeyrou, 2013;Schindler, 1998). No prior study has considered or measured both components of the smart shopper in an integrated manner.…”

Developing a Typology of Competitive Intelligence Proficiency: The Case of French SMEs and Funded Intervention Programs

“…A panel of 176 SME decision-makers was accessed using the Createst panel. Createst is an online panel owned by Netetudes, a well-known provider of online surveys for French companies, as well as for academic research (Assaker and Hallak, 2012;Pechpeyrou, 2013). The sample characteristics are presented in Table 6.…”

Integrating partitioned prices via computational estimation

“…Percentage discounts have been shown to exert strong effects on consumers’ perceptions of deal savings (Krishna, Briesch, Lehmann, & Yuan, ). However, the process by which partitioned discounts are evaluated extends to a variety of consumer tasks in which numeric values are integrated including assessing the per‐unit savings stemming from multi‐unit discounts (de Pechpeyrou, ), determining the relative value of prices in different currencies (Lowe, Barnes, & Rugimbana, ), interpreting the absolute value of attributes framed in relative terms (e.g., 40% fewer calories; Xie & Johnson, ) or determining multicomponent attribute values such as square footage or the total product volume of multiple units. The processes by which consumers may evaluate partitioned prices are uncovered via consideration of the scenario described below.…”