Identifying the Picky Shopper

46 Pages Posted: 30 Mar 2018

See all articles by Andong Cheng

Andong Cheng

University of Delaware

Hans Baumgartner

Pennsylvania State University

Meg Meloy

Pennsylvania State University - Smeal College of Business

Date Written: March 29, 2018

Abstract

Shopper pickiness is an individual difference that is fundamentally associated with how individuals make choices. From lay intuition, we all know someone who is “picky”. Yet to date, research in marketing has neither systematically defined the construct nor provided the means by which to assess relative degrees of pickiness among shoppers. This paper theorizes that individual differences in shopper pickiness are characterized by two primary factors: precise preferences (PP) and flaw sensitivity (FS). The authors develop the Picky Shopper scale and find that pickier shoppers describe their ideal products in more detail, are more critical of advertised products, are less susceptible to social influence, are more likely to spread negative word of mouth, and form smaller consideration sets. In addition, the authors find that picky shoppers care about a wide range of attributes when they make selections, even when deciding on horizontal attributes (e.g. color, taste). Finally, the Picky Shopper scale reliably identifies pickiness across various shopping contexts.

Keywords: picky, choice, preferences, horizontal attributes

JEL Classification: M31

Suggested Citation

Cheng, Andong and Baumgartner, Hans and Meloy, Meg, Identifying the Picky Shopper (March 29, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3152610 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3152610

Andong Cheng (Contact Author)

University of Delaware ( email )

Newark, DE 19711
United States

Hans Baumgartner

Pennsylvania State University ( email )

University Park
State College, PA 16802
United States

Meg Meloy

Pennsylvania State University - Smeal College of Business ( email )

University Park, PA 16802
United States

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