Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services最新文献

{"title":"GETUSP: Goal-oriented topic modeling framework for unique selling point discovery","authors":"Saeran Park ,&nbsp;Sangmin Lee ,&nbsp;Jiyoon Lee ,&nbsp;Minjeong Ma ,&nbsp;Joonghoon Kim ,&nbsp;Younsun Kim ,&nbsp;Pilsung Kang","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104640","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104640","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Unique Selling Point (USP) is essential for articulating a product’s unique strengths to customers, facilitating its competitive success in the market. However, traditional USP discovery approaches often rely on subjective judgment. This limitation leads to a gap between the USP planned by companies and the USP that truly resonates with consumers. To address this gap, topic modeling has been applied to customer reviews, but existing methods face challenges in performing USP-centered clustering, and the derivation of effective USPs is constrained due to ambiguous topic interpretation. We propose GETUSP, a two-stage USP discovery framework designed to extract and recommend USPs from customer reviews. In the first stage, Goal-Oriented Topic Modeling clusters reviews to identify interpretable, sentence-level USP candidates, overcoming the limitations of traditional methods. In the second stage, the Unique Selling Score quantitatively evaluates these candidates by incorporating consumer-perceived benefits and differentiation from competitors. This approach enables effective identification, evaluation, and prioritization of USPs that align with consumer needs and stand out in the market. Experimental results demonstrate that GETUSP outperforms baseline methods in terms of Precision@k and delivers consistent performance across diverse products. These findings confirm its practical applicability and highlight its potential for guiding data-driven USP discovery in various industries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104640"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advanced shelf space allocation in brick-and-mortar stores: A multi-population differential evolution approach for high-impact planogram design","authors":"Xiaomo Yu ,&nbsp;Ling Tang ,&nbsp;Jie Mie ,&nbsp;Jiajia Liu ,&nbsp;Long Long","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104587","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104587","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Shelf space is one of a retailer’s most valuable assets, yet designing profitable planograms remains a high-stakes, NP-hard challenge. Small layout changes can shift consumer attention, trigger substitution effects, and swing category profits, but conventional heuristics and single-population metaheuristics often collapse under tight spatial and demand constraints. This paper advances a <em>Multi-Population Differential Evolution (MP–DE)</em> framework that redefines retail shelf optimization. The model embeds two-dimensional geometry, contiguous facings, and nonlinear space elasticity, while the algorithm enforces feasibility by design, maintains diversity through island sub-swarms, and triggers adaptive restarts to avoid stagnation. Across sixty benchmark scenarios, MP–DE outperforms Genetic Algorithms, Particle Swarm Optimization, and classical Differential Evolution—delivering <em>profit gains above 15 %</em>, <em>variance reductions exceeding 50 %</em>, and statistically significant superiority on all tests. The results establish MP–DE as a <em>scalable, reliable, and profit-driven optimization engine</em> for modern retailers, bridging cutting-edge evolutionary computation with actionable planogram design.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104587"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Designer-consumer similarity matters: The effect of AI-designed products on purchase intention","authors":"Zhen Yang ,&nbsp;Allen Ding Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104680","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104680","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>AI has become a novel and prevalent source of product design, bringing both opportunities and challenges to the retail industry. However, research investigating AI-designed products from the consumers' perspective remains scarce. Drawing on social identity theory and the similarity-attraction paradigm, this research examined consumers' purchase intention for the products labeled as AI-designed across a series of nine experiments (and a supplementary study). Studies 1A, 1B, and 1C demonstrate that, compared to products labeled as human-designed, consumers have a lower purchase intention for products labeled as AI-designed, and this effect remains robust regardless of the perceived importance of utilitarian/hedonic attributes for a given product category. Studies 2A, 2B, and 2C unveil consumers’ lower perceived similarity with AI designers as the underlying mechanism, and address several alternative explanations, including perceived product aesthetics, decision-making style, maximizing mindset, and psychological distance. Study 3 shows that the indirect effect via perceived similarity is moderated by how closely consumers link a focal product category to their self-identities. Study 4 further reveals that the key effect is attenuated and even eliminated by human-AI collaboration, providing an effective intervention strategy. Study 5 identifies acquisition mode as another theoretically- and managerially-relevant moderator, showing that the negative effect associated with AI design disappears and even reverses when the product is acquired through rental. These results advance the understanding of consumer psychological and behavioral responses to products labeled as AI-designed and provide strategic insights for managers on how to enhance consumer receptivity to products designed by AI.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104680"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hybrid analytical approach to understanding male consumer behavior: Integrating PLS-SEM, ANN, and sentiment analysis in the context of green grooming products","authors":"Shatabdi Sonkar ,&nbsp;Pragya Singh ,&nbsp;Stefanie Wannow","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research investigates the application of chatbots, specifically in the male grooming industry. It explores the transformative potential of solutions enabled by chatbots. While consumers are willing to adopt new technologies, the extent of their adoption of green grooming products and chatbots for purchase decisions remains unclear. This research addresses the gap by developing a conceptual framework grounded in chatbot technology. This study examines male consumers’ interactions with chatbots in purchasing green grooming products, focusing on technological and behavioral factors influencing acceptance and adoption. A two-stage mixed-methods design was employed. In the first stage, consumer reviews (n = 3503) were analyzed to capture insights grounded in real-world experiences. In the second stage, survey data from male consumers (n = 390) were examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling, based on the Technology Acceptance Model. Artificial neural network analysis was conducted to enhance model validation and predictive accuracy, offering nonlinear insights into the differential significance of predictors of purchase intention. This research contributes to the literature on digital adoption in sustainable markets by extending TAM to the underexplored context of green grooming among male consumers. Findings highlight the significance of empathic capacity and responsive communication in chatbot design, revealing consumer preference for human-like and personalized digital interactions. Managerially, the results guide integrating chatbots into green marketing strategies, fostering effective engagement, and encouraging eco-friendly grooming practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104661"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145685977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From TikTok to travel: The impact of sport related user-generated short videos on destination brand attitude and purchase intention","authors":"Xinxin Zhou ,&nbsp;Guanglu Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104709","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104709","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid growth of short-form video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram has transformed the way tourism services and sport-related destinations and events are marketed, yet little is known about how destination-themed <strong>user-generated short videos (UGDSVs)</strong> influence tourists’ attitudes and behavioral intentions compared to official destination marketing videos. This study aims to examine the psychological and social mechanisms through which UGDSVs shape <strong>sport destination brand attitude and sport travel purchase intention</strong>. Specifically, the objectives are to assess the roles of <strong>emotional engagement, perceived authenticity, and social proof</strong> in the sport related decision-making process. Focusing on data collected in <strong>2024 from Asian and European travelers</strong>, we employ a <strong>mixed-methods design combining sentiment analysis of 2000 TikTok</strong> <strong>sport-</strong><strong>travel videos with a structural equation modeling (SEM) survey of 500 respondents</strong>. The findings reveal five key results: (1) sport UGDSVs generate significantly higher perceived authenticity than official sport promotional videos; (2) emotional engagement strongly mediates the relationship between video exposure and sport destination brand attitude; (3) social proof amplifies the positive effect of UGDSVs on sport travel purchase intention; (4) perceived authenticity reduces psychological reactance toward sport destination advertising; and (5) UGDSVs enhance a sense of presence, leading to more favorable evaluations of the overall sport tourism experience. These findings demonstrate that peer-driven short video content can outperform traditional sport marketing in fostering trust and emotional connection. From a policy perspective, sport destination managers and event organizers are encouraged to strategically integrate and incentivize user-generated short-form videos to strengthen competitiveness, credibility, and fan-driven engagement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104709"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145976648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fast thinking, slow shopping: A context-contingent model of impulse buying across retail formats","authors":"Jhong-Min Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104714","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104714","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study challenges the conventional “one-size-fits-all” approach to understanding in-store impulse buying (IB) by proposing and testing a context-contingent Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model. We argue that the psychological pathways driving IB are systematically moderated by the consumer's shopping mission. Drawing on dual-process theory, we operationalize these missions by analyzing three distinct retail formats: convenience stores (‘fast thinking’), supermarkets (hybrid), and hypermarkets (‘slow thinking’). This framework is based on the premise that different retail formats demand systematically varying levels of cognitive elaboration and time resources from the consumer. Using data from a rigorous on-site intercept survey of 539 consumers in Taiwan, a multi-group structural equation model reveals that the drivers of consumer behavior are highly context dependent. While service personnel quality is a universal driver of store image (SI), physical cues like product display and cleanliness have format-specific effects. Most notably, impulse buying is directly triggered by proximal cues (product display) in “fast thinking” contexts, while distal cues (personal, cleanliness) have no direct effect. Critically, our findings uncover that a positive store image does not significantly influence impulse buying in <em>any</em> format. This research enriches the S-O-R model by validating the shopping mission as a key moderator and provides compelling evidence that decouples the cognitive evaluation of a store (store image) from the affective act of an impulse purchase, thereby opening a crucial new avenue for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104714"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145925528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can AI streamers drive purchases in food delivery E-commerce live streaming? Evidence from an O2O platform","authors":"Yuzhou Chen ,&nbsp;Yulin Zhang ,&nbsp;Haowen Fan ,&nbsp;Yiting Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104683","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104683","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>AI-enabled e-commerce live broadcast marketing has become a reality. This study explores the role of AI streamers in driving consumer purchases within the food delivery live-streaming sector. Using real-time behavioral data from the Meituan platform—a leading O2O food delivery service—we find that AI streamers significantly enhance live-stream performance by increasing the rate of purchase compared to human streamers. To uncover the mechanistic pathways through which AI streamers influence consumer behavior, we examine the moderating roles of linguistic emotionality and vocal dynamism. Results indicate that the positive impact of AI streamers on purchases is amplified when their language contains higher levels of emotional expressiveness and when their vocal delivery demonstrates greater variability in loudness. Additionally, while complex language styles tend to inhibit purchase behaviors, speech speed and pitch variability are crucial for sustaining consumer engagement. Visual simplicity in the live-stream background also plays a key role in maintaining audience attention. These findings provide actionable guidance for businesses on integrating AI streamers into food delivery live-streaming practices. Specifically, firms can refine the linguistic and vocal strategies of AI streamers to simulate human-like engagement and optimize consumer purchase behaviors. By leveraging these mechanisms, businesses can enhance the effectiveness of AI streamers in food delivery e-commerce, ultimately increasing both consumer engagement and sales performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104683"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An innovation resistance theory perspective on augmented reality in retail: The moderating role of culture in active and passive resistance","authors":"Daniel K. Maduku ,&nbsp;Joyce I. Mxinwa","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104655","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104655","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As retailers increasingly adopt augmented reality (AR) to enhance shopping experiences, consumer resistance remains a critical barrier to its widespread adoption. This research extends innovation resistance theory (IRT) by introducing a dual-pathway model of resistance, distinguishing between active (deliberate opposition) and passive (non-engagement) forms. Based on a survey of South African consumers (<em>n</em> = 516), we investigate how usage, value, risk, tradition, and image barriers drive passive and active resistance and examine the moderating role of individual-level uncertainty avoidance (UA). The results establish image and value as universal drivers of both resistance forms. However, the pathways diverge: risk and tradition barriers uniquely predict passive resistance, whereas usage complexity specifically fuels active resistance. Furthermore, UA acts as a critical contingency, amplifying the effects of usage and tradition barriers while paradoxically attenuating the influence of value barriers. These findings reveal that AR resistance is a multifaceted phenomenon shaped by the interplay of innovation barriers and cultural predispositions. The study contributes a reconceptualized, culturally moderated model of AR resistance and provides novel insights from an under-explored emerging market context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104655"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145659087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does it matter who owns the AI device? Impact of device ownership on customer dissatisfaction in AI service failure","authors":"Zhongpeng Cao,&nbsp;Liben Zhao,&nbsp;Tong Su","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104715","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104715","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into the service industry. However, AI service failures remain inevitable. Limited attention has been paid to how device ownership influences customers' emotional responses to AI service failures. This study is grounded in attribution theory and social impact theory, examining the impact of device ownership (customer-owned vs. merchant-owned) on customer dissatisfaction in AI service failures, along with its underlying mechanism and boundary conditions. Across four scenario-based experiments, the results demonstrate that customers experience lower dissatisfaction when service failures occur on their own devices rather than merchant-owned ones. This effect is mediated by responsibility attribution, such that using one's own device induces a greater internal attribution of failure. Nevertheless, this attributional process is significantly weakened when the AI is highly anthropomorphized or the service environment is crowded. These findings extend the literature on AI service failure by identifying device ownership as a crucial determinant of customer dissatisfaction, offering practical implications for mitigating negative responses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104715"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145884597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When should sellers offer rebates for consumer reviews","authors":"Lei Xiao ,&nbsp;Ruixiao Dong","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104688","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104688","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Online sellers often use rebates as a means of inducing consumers to share reviews of products, services and experiences so as to optimize the benefits of those reviews. There are generally two formats for the timing of rebate offers, broad and targeted, depending on whether the seller provides review-based rebates to all potential consumers up front (broad) or only to consumers who have bought the item but have not yet reviewed it (targeted). Within a Bayesian social learning framework, this paper develops game theoretical models to analyze the seller's optimal rebate provision strategy for promoting a new product. We show that with dynamic pricing policy, while broad rebate provision can incentivize early-arriving consumers to purchase, the seller incurs the wasteful expense of offering rebates to those consumers who are already actively sharing reviews. While targeted rebate cannot enhance consumer purchase utility, it is more effective at eliciting reviews from consumers who are inherently hesitant to share them. In equilibrium, the seller provides rebates only if the market contains a limited number of consumers that like to share reviews. Moreover, we show that the seller may offer rebates more proactively under targeted format when it becomes more costly for consumers to write high quality reviews. However, if review quality is influenced by consumer types, such that consumers who are more inclined to share reviews generally produce higher-quality ones than those less inclined to do so, and the seller does not require reviews to be informative for rebate redemption, the broad format consistently offers a stronger incentive for the seller to provide rebates than the targeted format. Interestingly, with a fixed pricing policy, the seller provides rebates only if the market contains more consumers who like to share reviews, which contrasts with the dynamic pricing policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104688"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145791046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}