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‘Smart shopping carts’ make consumers spend happily ever after, says professor Koert van Ittersum

04 September 2013
Van Ittersum
Van Ittersum

If there was a cash register on your grocery cart, would you spend more -or less? Professor Koert van Ittersum (Marketing and Consumer well being) investigated the effects of real-time feedback on how much consumers are spending. It leads budget shoppers to spend even more and feel better about it, but they lead nonbudget shoppers to be more frugal. The findings of Van Ittersum’s study appear in the November issue of the American Marketing Association’s Journal of Marketing.

“Real-time spending feedback –via ‘smart shopping carts’ enables budget shoppers to spend more of their budget and feel good about it,” says Van Ittersum. “It makes people smarter shoppers, but that doesn’t always mean they’ll buy less.”

The study further found that when budget shoppers know exactly how much they’re spending, they were more likely to splurge on items like chocolate and brand name cookies, and even though they spent an average of almost 22% more, they left the store happier than those who did not receive this feedback. But this real-time shopping feedback actually leads nonbudget shoppers to be more frugal. On average, they spend 19% less, and purchase fewer national brands and more of the less-expensive store brands.

One of the practical implications for retailers could be that storekeepers in lower-income areas, or retailers with a successful store brand, may profit from smart shopping carts.


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Professor Koert van Ittersum

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