Minimalist by design, ambiguous in value: Consumer perspective and the valuation of aesthetically minimalist luxury products in retail contexts

The aesthetic design of a luxury product plays an important role in attracting consumers’ attention in both offline and online retail settings. While minimalist designs may appeal aesthetically, they often suppress visible status cues, creating ambiguity about product value. This research examines how such valuation ambiguity can be reduced by providing high-status cues in the retail environment. We show that the effectiveness of providing high-status cues depends on the consumer perspective, that is, whether consumers express their own willingness to pay (first-order perspective) or what they believe others would pay (second-order perspective). Across a series of studies, we find that high-status cues have a stronger positive effect on valuations when consumers adopt a second-order perspective. This effect arises because consumers believe others are better able to recognize aesthetic minimalism as a genuine expression of luxury, particularly when others are perceived as possessing superior design knowledge. Overall, our findings highlight valuation ambiguity as a challenge to minimalist luxury and show that high-status cues are most effective when consumers are prompted to consider how others would value an aesthetically minimalist product.