Is a Gift on Sale “Heart-discounted”? Givers’ Misprediction on the Value of Discounted Gifts and the Influence of Service Robots
Year
2022
Author(s)
Yookyung Park, Youjae Yi
Journal
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services
Volume
65
Pages
1-12
The main purpose of this research is to investigate whether, why, and when givers and recipients perceive the value of a discounted gift differently. The studies provide convergent evidence that givers perceive discounted gifts as less valuable than regular-priced gifts whereas recipients do not perceive them as different. Givers' devaluation of the discounted gift is driven by their concern about the thoughtfulness of a gift. Moreover, the giver-recipient asymmetry is mitigated when the in-store interaction with a salesperson is substituted by technology via a service robot. This research contributes to the gift-giving literature and the growing literature on service robots by revealing how promotional offers influence consumers’ evaluation of gifts and how technological advance in retail may affect the proposed effect. Managerial implications for planning and executing price promotions for gifts are also discussed.