Investigating consumer behavior in an online grocery context: The impact of the adopted stock-out policy and virtual shelf placement

This dissertation investigates how consumers make purchase decisions in an online grocery context and if and to what extent these decisions are influenced by online retailers' merchandising actions. We focus on two merchandising actions that are not or difficult to implement in a traditional supermarket: (i) retailer actions aimed at recovering some of the stock-out losses (stock-out policy) and (ii) the placement of products in the virtual store (virtual shelf placement). Results from an extensive and realistic online grocery shopping experiment show that both actions have a significant impact on online purchase behavior.; First, our results reveal that the stock-out policy has a significant impact on consumers' category purchase and choice decisions. Making stock-outs not immediately visible creates confusion and intensifies the consumer's loss experience, thereby reducing the tendency to buy in the category. Suggesting a replacement item, in contrast, facilitates the substitution decision and reduces the purchase cancellation rate. It also substantially increases the suggested item's choice probability. Yet, these effects disappear when higher-priced---suspicious---items are suggested. Overall, our results indicate that online grocery retailers have an interest in pursuing open and convenience-oriented stock-out policies.; Second, our results show that the placement of products on the virtual shelf has a significant impact on choice decisions. While consumers are more likely to select products on the first screen (across screens effect), we do not find an effect of the horizontal and vertical position of products on a computer screen. We also find that consumers confronted with a stock-out for a preferred product are more likely to pick one of the items located next to this stock-out item (proximity-effect). Our results further show that the visibility and proximity heuristics become especially important when consumers perceive more difficulty with finding and choosing an alternative in the assortment. The latter is a function of both assortment size and composition.; In general, both projects show that online consumers tend to use task-simplifying heuristics that help them to make a satisfactory, yet quick and effortless decision.