Consumer Response to Seasonal Clearance Sales: Experimental Analysis of Consumer Personality Traits in Self Service Stores

Abstract

Consumer responses to clearance sales, both in terms of consumer satisfaction with the decision process and in terms of subsequent store choice behavior, are explored in the paper through four controlled experiments conducted involving clearance sales in a consumer choice and decision satisfaction context. The results suggest that consumer response to clearance sales is driven to a large extent by two factors: the effect of a clearance sale on the available options of goods and the degree of store loyalty. Response to a clearance sale was found to be a function of two primary forces - the degree to which a consumer was personally committed to the discount sales alternative, and changes in the difficulty of making a decision due to limitation of buying options. Overall, the discussion of results of the four studies presented in the paper demonstrates that consumer response to clearance sales, both in terms of decision satisfaction levels and observed store-loyalty behavior, are strongly influenced by the variables of price sensitivity, attractiveness of products, store-loyalty and perceived value on available brands.

Keywords: Seasonality, discount sales, consumer behavior, store loyalty, buying decision process, customer value

JEL Classification: C12, C91, D11, M30