Deviances from planned purchases: consumer learning history and behavior setting implications for consumer spending

Abstract

Purpose-Identifying the factors that influence consumer spending in retail has been a challenging topic for academics and marketing managers. Changes in consumption buying situations can encourage or discourage these expenses. We propose that deviations from planned purchases are specific classes of consumer behavior and can explain expenses. Design/methodology/approach-The research project involved a field experiment in a supermarket where 372 purchases were observed for 13 weeks. Findings-The results show the importance of both the learning history and the consumer scenario in forecasting deviations from planned purchases and the importance of these deviations in explaining expenses. Originality/value-The results highlight that deviance groups are primarily responsible for spending more or less money on purchases, as well as the importance of consumer learning history and behavioral configuration in explaining behavior. This broadens the scope of the BPM, which often focuses on brand-level results.