It’s not there, I love it! The impact of stock-out relevance to consumers’ needs and preference on emotions, store image and behavior in a fashion setting.
(A2019-4994)

AUTHORS

Liliana Kowalczyk, KU LEUVEN; Els Breugelmans, KU Leuven

KEYWORDS

Stock-outs; Emotions; Store Image

ABSTRACT

We investigate the impact of stock-outs with different levels of relevance to consumers’ needs and preference, on positive and negative affect, store image and number of items bought, in an online fast fashion setting. We simulated an online fast fashion store and employed a 2 (stock-out relevant vs. not relevant to consumer’s needs) x 2 (stock-out of the most preferred item vs. stock-out of a non-preferred item) experimental design. We find that stock-outs relevant to both consumers’ needs and preference lead to negative emotions, a lower store image and a discouragement to buy. However, our results also show that stock-outs not relevant to the consumer’s needs, can signal scarcity, leading to positive emotions and an improvement in store image. In addition, to our surprise, when stock-outs concern non-preferred items relevant to needs, consumers are encouraged to buy more, which we attribute to anticipated regret that triggers them to act now.