Title
Have your cake and eat it too: how invoking post-purchase hyperopia mitigates impulse purchase regret
Abstract
Impulse purchases are encouraged by retailers and can comprise a significant portion of a retailer’s sales. However, both consumers and researchers generally see impulse purchases as something to be avoided because they tend to be incongruent with consumers’ long-term goals. Using a goal congruence framework, this research finds that taking a broader temporal perspective of a virtuous choice made some time ago (i.e., a distant-past hyperopic choice) is one way for consumers to reduce the regret associated with an impulse purchase. Specifically, recalling a distant-past virtuous choice provides justification for a recent impulse purchase, reducing goal incongruity and thereby reducing associated regret. This effect allows retailers to both encourage impulse purchases and mitigate their potential negative consequences.
Department(s)
Marketing
Document Type
Article
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-020-09536-6
Keywords
Hyperopia, Impulse purchasing, Justification, Regret
Publication Date
1-1-2020
Recommended Citation
Grigsby, Jamie L., Robert D. Jewell, and Colin Campbell. "Have your cake and eat it too: how invoking post-purchase hyperopia mitigates impulse purchase regret." Marketing Letters 32, no. 1 (2021): 75-89.
Journal Title
Marketing Letters
