An empty store shelf tempts shoppers to buy the next best thing, according to a new study from the University of Alberta.
“Sold-out products create a sense of immediacy for customers; they feel that if one product is gone, the next item could also sell out,” said Paul Messinger, a professor at the U of A’s School of Business who studied the sale of numerous items including ski passes and wine.
“Our research shows there’s also an information cascade, where people infer that if a product is sold out, it must have been good and therefore a similar available product will also be desirable,” he said.
The study, published this month in the Journal of Retailing, found 61 per cent of shoppers would buy a particular five-hour ski pass for $20, but that figure rose to 91 per cent when they thought a 10-hour ski pass for the same mountain slope for $40 had sold out.
A similar study of merlot wines found 49 per cent of consumers would buy a bottle if they had one choice, but when they thought a similar wine had sold out next to it on the shelf, nearly twice the number of shoppers would take home the available bottle.
–
You should follow me on Twitter here or subscribe to this blog’s feed. If you’re a regular reader please support the blog by doing your book and movie shopping at the store. You’ll find all my recommendations there. Here are the site’s most popular posts of all time.
97 
982 
4944