Exploring The Impact Of Product Scarcity On Purchase Intention And Moderating Effect In Online Scenarios

With the advent of the Internet era and the acceleration pace of life,online shopping has become one of the dominant shopping methods nowadays because of its convenience across time and space.It allows consumers to shop anytime and anywhere.Therefore,how to attract online consumers becomes an important concern for businesses and enterprises.Scarcity promotion strategy is widely used by online merchants due to the scarcity of commodities or the scarcity of time-limited or quantity-limited made by merchants,which can significantly promote consumers’ purchasing behavior.However,it has not been conclusively concluded how different scarcity promotion strategies affect consumers’ purchasing behavior and whether they vary with product types.In addition,there is no systematic research to explore the time distance from certain holidays and other large promotional activities,as well as the influence of historical reference price on consumer behavior in the process of scarcity promotion.Therefore,this study aims to explore the above problems through experimental research methods.To this end,we conducted three experiments to explore the influence of product scarcity on purchase intention and moderating effect in online scenarios.Experiment1 tried to explain the impact of product scarcity on purchase intention from the perspective of visual attention,and to explore the role of product type by eye-tracking and questionnaires.Experiment 1 was a mixed experimental design of 4(product scarcity: time-and quantity-limited scarcity,time-limited scarcity,quantity-limited scarcity,control group)×2(product type: search goods,experience goods).A total of 121 valid participants participated in the eye-tracking experiment.The results showed that product scarcity affected consumers’ visual attention and purchase intention significantly.Among them,the fixation duration time of scarce information of LTQ and LT groups was significantly longer than that of control group,but no significant difference was found between LQ group and control group.Search goods gained longer fixation duration time of specifications than experience goods,and also had higher scores on perceived competitiveness.More importantly,there was an interaction between scarce promotion strategies and product types.Search goods gained longer fixation duration time of the full advertisement except scarce message than experience goods in the LTQ group.The experiment 2a aimed to explore the role of time distance in the impact of product scarcity on purchase intention.A total of 63 participants were recruited.The results of experiment 2a showed that time distance(one week/month before Singles’ Day)does not moderate the relationship between product scarcity and purchase intention.But it and product scarcity(time-and quantity-limited,Control)both significantly affect consumers’ purchase decisions.Among them,the group whose date was set as a month before Singles’ Day chose to wait for Singles’ Day to buy more frequently than the group whose date was set as a week before Singles’ Day.The liking and purchase intention scores on the current promotion product of LTQ group were higher than that of Control group,and the frequency of waiting for Singles’ Day to buy of LTQ group was significantly lower than that of Control group.However,time distance had no significant effect on purchase intention and liking,and no moderating effect on the effect of product scarcity on purchase intention.In addition,perceived stress(PSS)and fear of missing out(Fo MO)also had impacts on consumers’ purchase decisions.The higher the individual’s level of PSS,the lower the purchase intention scores on the current promotional product,the higher frequency of waiting for Singles’ Day to buy.On the contrary,the higher the individual’s Fo MO,the higher the purchase intention and liking scores on the current promotional product,the lower frequency of waiting for Singles’ Day to buy.On the basis of experiment 2a,experiment 2b further explores the influence of reference price on the relationship between product scarcity,time distance and purchase intention.Experiment 2b focused on the moderating effect of reference prices and recruited a total of 73 participants.The results of experimental 2b showed that the reference price(60% lower than last year’s Singles’ Day-50% higher than last year’s Singles’ Day,a total of 12 levels)significantly influence consumers’ purchase decision.Firstly,the reference price had a moderating effect on the influence of product scarcity on purchase intention.Secondly,consumers’ perceived value and perceived competitiveness decreases with the increase of promotion price relative to the reference point.Accordingly,the probability of choosing to wait for Singles’ Day increases.In addition,experiment 2b examined the influence of perceived stress and fear of missing out on purchase decision again.In general,the present research found that:(1)Scarce information could attract consumers’ attention and increase their fixation duration time,and the higher the perceived scarcity,the stronger the purchase intention.(2)Time distance does not moderate the relationship between product scarcity and purchase intention.But it had a significant impact on consumers’ pruchase decisions.The longer the time until the next Singles’ Day,the lower frequently consumers chose to wait for Singles’ Day to buy.When it’s far from Singles’ Day,consumers were more inclined to participate in current promotions and chose to buy now.(3)The reference price played a moderator between product scarcity and purchase intention.Only when the promotional price decreased significantly from the reference price,the product scarcity had a significant impact on the purchase intention.The research results can provide some theoretical guidance for online merchants to formulate marketing strategies.For example,before the actual implementation of marketing strategy,we can use eye movement technology to preliminarily evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy and select the most effective marketing plan.Online merchants should adapted marketing strategies base on various product types,take the time diatance away from the next grand promotionform into account when they want to launch promotions,and provide reference price optionally according to the float range of price.