The Impact of a Complement-Based Assortment Organization on Purchases

This article examines whether and why organizing product categories according to the consumption goal they serve (i.e., complement-based assortment organization) may increase purchases compared with organizing product categories according to their attributes or physical characteristics (i.e., substitute-based assortment organization). Across two field experiments, a virtual reality experiment, and a lab experiment, the authors show that a complement-based assortment organization, compared with a substitute-based assortment organization, leads to increased numbers of purchases and increased expenditures. Ease of visualization of the consumption process mediates the results. The impact of the complement-based organization on purchases is more pronounced for less involved consumers and for consumers with a less specific shopping goal. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications.

• 저널Journal of Marketing Research · 56(3) · 459–478
• 토픽Consumer Retail Behavior Studies · Marketing
• DOI10.1177/0022243718823698
• 저자Panagiotis Sarantopoulos, Aristeidis Theotokis, Katerina Pramatari, Anne L. Roggeveen