Executive Summary
The study identifies factors which influence consumer donations in U.S. retail stores, based on a review of cause marketing, consumer behavior and psychology literature. These factors are categorized as:
- Consumer-related factors, including: consumer-retailer identification, consumer-cause affinity, impure altruism, civic engagement and post-purchase cognitive dissonance.
- Retailer-related factors, including: retailer-cause fit, retailer’s commitment to the cause, retailer image as being altruistic, and retailer credibility.
- Context-related factors, including: time pressure, social pressure, shopping amount, and perceived savings during the shopping trip.
Based on the literature review, the study’s author proposes that willingness to donate at a retail checkout counter increases:
- the more that the consumer identifies with the retailer
- the higher the consumer-cause affinity
- the stronger the consumer’s egoistic motives
- the higher the consumer’s civic engagement
- the higher the retailer-cause fit
- the higher the retailer’s commitment to the cause
- the more conflicted a consumer feels about a purchase
- the higher the retailer’s perceived credibility
- the more the retailer’s image is perceived as altruistic
- the greater the time pressure
- the higher the visibility of social influence
- as the ratio of donation amount to purchase amount gets smaller
- as the perceived savings during the shopping trip increases
Research Notes
See also: The Effect of Checkout Charity Requests on Consumer Donation Behavior.
Full Report
Instructions to access the full report of: Factors Affecting Donations in U.S. Retail Stores
Publication Date
2016/11/01
Publication
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Author(s)
Selen Savas