“I’m not keeping that”: Understanding bracketing purchase behaviour in e-commerce

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Volume Title

School of Business | Master's thesis

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Date

2024

Department

Tieto- ja palvelujohtamisen laitos

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Information and Service Management (ISM)

Language

en

Pages

77+9

Series

Abstract

With the prevalence of online shopping among consumers with apparel and footwear, new behavioural patterns have concurrently emerged. Bracketing purchase behaviour, which refers to actions of a consumer ordering various of sizes or styles from e-commerce, trying them on at home, and retaining only the most appropriate ones, has arisen primarily due to consumers’ inability to examine items prior to an online purchase. By engaging in bracketing behaviour, consumers ensure improved product fit and enhanced satisfaction, while simultaneously increasing product returns and the associated costs and inconveniences for companies. This thesis explored the main motivations for engaging in bracketing purchase behaviour and its impact to platform satisfaction and loyalty. These were examined with a research framework applied from expectation-confirmation theory to demonstrate the relationship between prior experiences and uncertain expectations regarding future product performance, leading to bracketing purchase behaviour. This study employed a qualitative research approach involving semi-structured interviews with both consumers displaying bracketing behaviour and those who did not, that lead to a total of ten interviews conducted. Data analysis was done using a thematic approach to investigate the primary themes connected to bracketing behaviour and motivation including product fit uncertainty, lenient return policies and platform satisfaction and loyalty. The identified bracketing motivations were divided into three distinct categories: product-, consumer- and company-related factors, each varying based on the underlying bracketing orientation. Although product fit uncertainty was the prevalent theme among various of these nuanced motivations, findings indicate that consumers simultaneously value time and effort savings while also comparing multitude of options for emotional security and personal enjoyment. The reasons for bracketing behaviour appeared to be personal and seemed influenced by consumers’ prior experiences and attitudes, in addition to the evident insufficiency of the product information. Furthermore, an extensive product selection, lenient returns policies and an effortless return experience were noticed as determinants of platform loyalty. These and other study findings suggest that the ability to bracket is an essential component of bracketers’ satisfaction and loyalty to the platform, and the easier the ordering and returning process is, the higher the likelihood of consumer retention on the same e-commerce platform will be.

Description

Thesis advisor

Tuunainen, Virpi

Keywords

bracketing, product return behaviour, e-commerce, consumer behaviour, planned returns, expectation-confirmation theory

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Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202501191326

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[gradu] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ