Scarcity vs popularity time bound sales cues and their impact on customer buying behaviour

Abstract

Basis our model and research conducted we see that - when purchasing for self, the interaction of selling cue “Limited Edition” and “time scarcity” may or may not have any impact on purchase intention and the decision is influenced by many other factors. However, we can conclude that when purchasing a product like headphones which have a lot of features and configuration specifications, when purchasing for oneself, customers are very choosy and conscious of other factors as perceived risk is high. Comparatively, when buying the same for gifting, they tend to not pay much attention to detailed features. Our research suggests that the selling cues tied with popularity cues are more effective when a person is purchasing headphones as a gifting option than for self. Thus, brands may want to consider this input before designing a campaign to launch neutral products. For limited edition selling cue, the marketing team might want to explore relevant product lines for which the perceived value is high and scarcity cue will trigger a sense of urgency leading to purchase.