The Size Matters: How Shopping Trolley Size Influences Consumers’ Purchase
(A2024-119348)

AUTHORS

Bingjie Li, Warwick Business School; Miaolei Jia, University of Warwick; Nick Lee, The University of Warwick; Yining Yu, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

ABSTRACT

Current research provides empirical evidence to show how the physical size of shopping carts influences consumer in-store purchases. Through two field experiments and a controlled laboratory experiment, we found that consumsers with large (vs. small) shopping carts purchased more products, spent more money and stayed longer time at the store. The contributions of current research are twofold: first, it enriches the literature on the effect of shopping carts, the most common tool used for in-store purchases, on consumer purchasing behavior; second, our studies provide very practical suggestions for retailers to increase their profits, by simply adjust the size of the shopping carts in the store.