Limited Edition for Me and Best Seller for You: The Impact of Scarcity versus Popularity Cues on Self versus Other-Purchase Behavior

Laurie Wu and Christopher Lee

Journal of Retailing, 2016, vol. 92, issue 4, 486-499

Abstract: In the online retailing context, we explore the impact of the consumption target on the relative effectiveness of scarcity versus popularity cues. Purchasing for oneself often triggers a need for uniqueness while purchasing for someone else is more uncertain and risky. We propose that the consumption target moderates the relative effectiveness of scarcity versus popularity cues in marketing promotions. Specifically, we predict that when purchasing for oneself, scarcity cues outperform popularity cues in eliciting purchase intentions, whereas when purchasing for someone else, popularity cues are more effective. In addition, we propose the serial mediation effect of perceived product uniqueness→perceived product value to explain the “scarcity for me” effect and the serial mediation effect of perceived consumption risk→perceived product value to explain the “popularity for others” effect. Further, we propose self-other overlap as a moderator of the “popularity for others” effect. Last but not least, we examine price level as a moderating factor of the proposed theory. Evidence from Google Trends analysis and four experimental studies across a variety of scenarios confirm the theorization. Based on our findings, we discuss theoretical contributions and managerial implications and suggest directions for future research.

Keywords: Scarcity; Popularity; Self-purchase versus other-purchase; Product uniqueness; Consumption risk; Online retailing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435916300239
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jouret:v:92:y:2016:i:4:p:486-499

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2016.08.001

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Retailing is currently edited by A. Roggeveen

More articles in Journal of Retailing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().