Hancock, Tyler; Stevens, Jennifer L; Waites, Stacie F
description
Scarcity is a larger concept than has been previously conceptualized in the literature. E-retailers have more flexibility and greater freedom to communicate scarcity online given that consumers may respond to different depictions of scarcity cues. This research investigates a sample of major online retailers in the United States to create a taxonomy of scarcity cues that influence consumer online purchasing. Our findings suggest that online retail scarcity can be categorized into three types—product-related cues, social cues, and temporal cues.