The impact of perceived display completeness/incompleteness on shoppers’ in-store selection of merchandise: an empirical study

• Published in: Journal of retailing and consumer services 2001, Vol.9 (1), p.31-35
• Main Authors: Razzouk, Nabil Y., Seitz, Victoria, Kumar, Vijay
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0969-6989; 1873-1384
• DOI: 10.1016/S0969-6989(01)00008-X

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived completeness/incompleteness of a display stack of consumer products and shoppers’ choice of items from the stacks. By means of a field experiment in which displays of canned foods were manipulated and controlled, it was determined that the stack that appeared to have been picked from (containing evidence of a missing can) was the stack of choice in a majority of cases. Out of 645 different product selections (cans picked) recorded, 76% were picked from the stack that appeared to have been picked from ( χ 2 of 171.92 at α=0.05). This test was conducted utilizing three different display modalities: Regular shelf displays, island displays, and end-cap displays within the same store. The results of the experiment were consistent across the various display modalities investigated. Moreover, the results indicated that shoppers were more likely to pick items from the incomplete stack, when the degree of known difference between product items was relatively low or non-existing.