The value of psychological ownership: how buy-online-and-pick-up-in-store enhances consumer loyalty
ISSN: 0309-0566
Article publication date: 29 December 2023
Issue publication date: 30 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Although buy-online-and-pick-up-in-store (BOPS) has been widely implemented by companies, scant attention has been paid to its effect on consumer experience and the concomitant outcomes. Using the psychological ownership theory, this study aims to examine whether and how the BOPS experience (vs online experience) can enhance consumer loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 investigated the consumer loyalty of shopping experience (self-pickup vs delivery) on actual consumer behavior through secondary data. Studies 2, 3 and 4 were controlled experiments to further investigate the mediating effect of product psychological ownership, and the moderating effects of product type and postdecision experience valence.
Findings
The authors found that BOPS shopping led to higher consumer loyalty (i.e. repeat purchase and repeat purchase frequency) compared with online shopping. Furthermore, the authors examined that this effect was mediated by product psychological ownership and moderated by product type and postdecision experience valence.
Research limitations/implications
Theoretical speculations about how BOPS shopping affects consumer experience should be probed in future research.
Practical implications
Retailers with physical stores can offer in-store pickup options for their online consumers to increase their product psychological ownership and consumer loyalty. And the positive effects of the BOPS strategy relied on product type and postdecision experience valence.
Originality/value
This research offers theoretical contributions to research on the BOPS strategy, psychological ownership theory and consumer loyalty.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge with the deepest gratitude to the European Journal of Marketing area editor, regional editor and the three anonymous reviewers, for their valuable comments and insights in the completion of this research.
Funding: The authors acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72102082, 72232003), and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 16H02034, 21K13386.
Since submission of this article, the following authors have updated their affiliations: You Li is at the School of Management, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China and Lixiao Geng is at the School of Business, Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
Citation
Li, Y., Chang, Y., Li, Z. and Geng, L. (2024), "The value of psychological ownership: how buy-online-and-pick-up-in-store enhances consumer loyalty", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 119-142. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-05-2022-0378
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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