Using an Integrated Model of Grocery Store Shopping Path and Purchase Behavior

We examine three sets of established behavioral hypotheses about consumers’ in-store shopping behavior (the effect of perceived time pressure, licensing, and the social presence of other shoppers) using field data on shopping paths and linked purchases obtained from an actual grocery store. We incorporate these behavioral hypotheses within an individual-level probability model to examine their empirical support via shoppers’ in-store visit, shop, and buy decisions. Our results provide field evidence for the following empirical regularities. First, as consumers spend more time in the store, they become more purposeful in their trip — they are less likely to spend time on exploration, and are more likely to shop and buy. Second, consistent with “licensing” behavior (Khan and Dhar 2006), after purchasing virtue categories, consumers are more likely to shop at locations that carry vice categories. Third, the social presence of other shoppers attracts consumers towards a zone in the store (Argo et al. 2005), but reduces consumers’ tendency to shop in that zone (Harrell et al. 1980). Implications of this research for store layout decisions, due to an improved understanding of consumer in-store path behavior, are briefly discussed.