Highlighting supply-abundance increases attraction to small-assortment retailers

Yangjie Gu and Yuechen Wu

Journal of Retailing, 2023, vol. 99, issue 3, 420-439

Abstract: Over the past few years, traditional big-box retailers such as Walmart and Target have increasingly opened small-format stores. Venturing into small-format retailing requires a rethink of product assortment, as this strategy involves truncating assortment variety. Literature suggests that consumers are less attracted by retailers that offer a small variety of product options, as small assortments are associated with the fear of not having much choice, which threatens consumers’ need for personal control. The present paper provides small-size retailers or service providers with an approach to enhance the attractiveness of their assortments. With six studies the authors show that highlighting supply abundance—by creating a sense of abundant availability of each product option within an assortment—compensates for the lowered sense of personal control that consumers may experience with a small assortment. Consequently, it enhances consumers’ evaluation of small assortments. The positive effect of supply abundance is mitigated when consumers review a large assortment or when product options are highly curated, as sense of personal control has likely been satisfied in those cases.

Keywords: Supply abundance; Product supply; Assortment size; Personal control; Small retailers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jouret:v:99:y:2023:i:3:p:420-439

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2023.08.002

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