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Shopping is an integral part of our everyday lives. Common wisdom suggests that many consumers engage in shopping and buying as a means to repair their negative feelings - a notion commonly referred to as retail therapy. However, does retail therapy really work? The present monograph seeks to address this question by proposing a tripartite approach...
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Purpose
– Psychological perspective has been omitted or considered a secondary issue by past studies focused on e-commerce recommendation systems (RS). However, this perspective is key to gaining a better understanding of consumer behaviours when these systems are used to support purchasing processes at online stores. The paper aims to discuss thes...
Citations
... In other words, when consumers feel good, this good feeling can enable them to shop online. This result is supported by Lee's (2015) research. In addition, Gardner and Rook (1998) found that the emotion that encourages participants to shop is "pleasure" in their experimental study. ...
... In other words, consumers can shop to feel good when they have negative emotions. This result is again consistent with the studies in the literature (Lee, 2015) (Gardner & Rook, 1998) (Trampe & Stapel, 2011). However, when the sub-dimensions of the therapy scale in Percane were examined, it was seen that negative emotional states did not affect therapeutic shopping motivations and positive emotion reinforcement. ...
... Alışveriş, günlük hayatımızın önemli bir parçasıdır. Yaygın olarak, birçok tüketicinin olumsuz duygularını onarmak için bir araç olarak alışveriş ve satın alma yaptığı düşüncesi ileri sürülmektedir ve bu durum perakende terapisi olarak adlandırılmaktadır (Lee L. , 2015). Terapinin perakende bağlamına uygulanmasına perakende terapisi denir ve kişinin kendisi için satın alması konusunda yine kendisini teşvik etmesi olarak tanımlanmıştır (Atalay ve Meloy, 2011). ...
Bu araştırmanın amacı tüketicilerin olumlu ve olumsuz duygu durumlarının online perakende terapi üzerindeki etkisini incelemektir. Araştırma verileri online alışveriş yapan tüketicilerden, 7-21 Nisan 2021 tarihleri arasında toplanmıştır. Çalışmada 466 kullanılabilir veri elde edilmiştir. Çalışmada olumlu duyguların online perakende terapi üzerinde etkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Online perakende terapi ölçeğinin boyutları incelendiğinde ise olumlu duygu durumunun; terapatik alışveriş motivasyonları, pozitif duygu takviyesi ve terapatik alışveriş sonucu üzerinde pozitif yönde etkiye sahipken negatif duygu durumu azalması üzerinde ise istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir etkisinin olmadığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Çalışmada ayrıca olumsuz duygu durumlarının da online perakende terapi üzerinde etkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Yine perakende terapi ölçeğinin alt boyutları incelendiğinde olumsuz duygu durumlarının terapatik alışveriş motivasyonları ve pozitif duygu takviyesi üzerinde etkisinin olmadığı görülmüştür. Buna karşın negatif duygu durum azalması ve terapatik alışveriş sonucu üzerinde etkisi olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Analiz sonucunda elde edilen bulgular ışığında, tüketicilerin duygu durumlarının online perakende terapi düzeyi üzerindeki etkisine ilişkin yorumlar sunulmuş ve araştırma kısıtları belirtilmiştir.
... Yet, it may be short-lived, in that, it gives meaning only during the activity's time span. Moreover, this therapy can have even greater utility, and Lee (2015) generalizes its application range by claiming that it repairs negative feelings, thereby implying their multitude. Now, it would be rational to respond to the findings retrieved. ...
... Retail Therapy Journey. This shopper journey is motivated by the desire to feel better after experiencing negative emotions (Lee 2015). The negative feelings could arise from certain perceived psychosocial deficiencies experienced by consumers. ...
We propose a theory-based model of the shopper journey, incorporating the rich literature in consumer and marketing research and taking into account the evolving retailing landscape characterized by significant knowledge, lifestyle, technological, and structural changes. With consumer well-being at its core and shopper needs and motivations as the focus, our needs-adaptive shopper journey model complements and contrasts with existing models. In addition, we identify 12 shopper journey archetypes representing the paths that consumers commonly follow—archetypes that illustrate the workings and applications of our model. We discuss the nature of these archetypes, their relationships with one another, and the psychological states that consumers may experience on these shopper journeys. We also present exploratory empirical studies assessing the component states in the archetypes and mapping the archetypes onto dimensions of shopping motivations. Finally, we lay out a research agenda to help increase understanding of shopper behavior in the evolving retailing landscape.
... Retail therapy journey: This shopper journey is motivated by the desire to feel better after experiencing negative emotions (Lee, 2015). The negative feelings could arise from certain perceived psychosocial deficiencies experienced by consumers. ...
... Recognizing that consumers do not only shop when they have something specific they want to purchase, Arnold and Reynolds (2003) further define a number of different hedonic motivations (e.g., adventure shopping, social shopping, and gratification shopping) that draw people to retail stores, based on the results of a series of in-depth interviews they conducted. Although these are not the only classifications of shopping motivations in the extant literature (Babin & Griffin, 1994;Ganesh, Reynolds, Luckett, & Pomirleanu, 2010;Stone, 1954;Westbrook & Black, 1985; see Lee, 2015 for a recent review), the various taxonomies share a common thread: shopping is driven not only by utilitarian goals but also by hedonic goals, and that shopping could serve important therapeutic functions. ...
... Before introducing and elaborating on our proposed conceptual framework, it is essential to first clarify our definition of retail therapy. Put simply, retail therapy refers to the use of shopping and buying as a means to repair or alleviate negative feelings (Atalay & Meloy, 2011;Babin & Griffin, 1994;Faber & Christienson, 1996;Isen, 1984;Lee, 2015;Rick et al., 2014). Hence, in order to distinguish retail therapy from shopping in general, we shall limit our discussion to shopping with the goal of repairing one's negative feelings as opposed to amplifying one's already positive feelings or purely utilitarian shopping. ...
... 3. Purchase versus no-purchase -From browsing and deciding, to paying and acquiring, shopping may involve a gamut of activities that may not always follow one another sequentially (Lee, 2015). While retail therapy has traditionally been associated with product purchase, theoretical work on shopping motivations (Arnold & Reynolds, 2003;Tauber, 1972) as well as accumulating empirical evidence (Rick et al., 2014) has shown that consumers do not have to buy in order to reap the benefits of shopping. ...
... Given that the extant literature on affect regulation has focused on the impact of negative affect on hedonic consumption (e.g., "retail therapy"; Atalay and Meloy 2011;Lee 2015;Lee and Böttger 2016;Rick et al. 2014), it would be worthwhile to investigate the extent to which emotions generally associated with low control (e.g., sadness, fear, and anxiety) would also increase people's desire to engage in problem solving and acquire utilitarian products. Future research could also examine whether these emotions would be attenuated following such behaviors. ...
This research investigates how the fundamental desire for control affects product acquisition. The authors propose that consumers compensate for a loss of perceived control by buying utilitarian products (e.g., household cleaning agents) because of these products' association with problem solving, a quality that promotes a sense of control. Study 1 demonstrates this basic effect in a field setting involving real purchases, while studies 2 and 3 show that framing a product as utilitarian (vs. hedonic) moderates the effect of control on purchase intentions. Study 4 shows that a generalized problem-solving tendency mediates the effect of control on eagerness to pursue utilitarian consumption. Given the pervasiveness and ease of using product acquisition as a means to cope with psychological threat, this research has important implications for theory and practice.
... Retail Therapy Journey. This shopper journey is motivated by the desire to feel better after experiencing negative emotions (Lee 2015). The negative feelings could arise from certain perceived psychosocial deficiencies experienced by consumers. ...
Online shopping is a well-recognized business and user activity. Moved by utilitarian and hedonic motives, millions of users visit online stores daily. Literature indicates users’ self-escapism as a crucial hedonic motivation of online shopping engagement. Yet, its influence has rarely been studied on users’ online shopping cart use and buying behavior. The current study assesses the dimensionality of users’ self-escapism motivation of online shopping engagement and its direct and mediated influence on their online shopping cart use and buying behavior. The data were gathered from 308 users of daraz.com and aliexpress.com in Pakistan using an offline survey. The findings indicate users’ self-escapism motivation of online shopping engagement as a two-dimensional construct consisting of self-suppression and self-expansion factors. Users’ self-escapism motivation of online shopping engagement directly but partially influences their online shopping cart use. The flow state and affective attitude toward online shopping play a significant mediating role during users’ online shopping engagement. In addition, users’ self-escapism motivated online shopping cart use influences their online buying behavior. The current study provides important insights about those users who engage in online shopping to regulate the self. Retailers can apply these insights to make the online stores desired spaces for such users and influence them to buy online.
Merely anticipating a future sad event motivates consumers to “accumulate happiness” in order to enhance their ability to cope with the anticipated sadness later—a phenomenon that we call banking happiness. To bank happiness, consumers not only choose positive stimuli over non-positive stimuli when given the choice, but even when such a choice does not exist, tend to recall more positive memories. Consumers bank happiness because of the lay theory that happiness is a resource that can be accumulated (i.e., banked) and consumed later. As a proactive mood-regulation strategy, banking happiness differs from reactive mood regulation: a) the strength of consumers’ happiness-is-bankable lay belief predicts their tendency to bank happiness, but not their propensity to repair their negative moods after actually experiencing sadness; b) consumers who are more future-oriented are more likely to bank happiness in the face of anticipated sadness, whereas those who are more present-oriented are more likely to regulate their negative mood when they actually experience sadness. Further, believing that happiness is bankable increases consumers’ engagement with positive stimuli when anticipating sadness, possibly boosting the hedonic utility consumers obtain from the positive stimuli and helping them to build a stronger buffer against the negative stimuli later.
