PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Too many returns this holiday? How loyal customers can hurt sales

2014-12-09
(Press-News.org) Many people have strong habits when it comes to shopping, preferring favorite stores and favorite brands. But a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research suggests that these same shoppers may have hidden habits that are hurting sales.

"Evidence suggests the existence of customer habits, beyond repeat purchases, that have serious implications for profits and firm performance. Whereas repeat purchase habits have been studied and shown to have a positive impact on sales, there are other common habits which have a notably negative effect on a company's bottom line," write authors Denish Shah, V. Kumar, and Kihyun Hannah Kim of Georgia State University.

Authors examined the habits of customers at a major national chain store to see whether they exhibited habits beyond simply coming back to the store and repeatedly buying the same products. They found that a significant percentage of customers had a strong habit of returning products, or a habit of buying items only if they were on sale. The authors found this very significant, because many of the same customers who were thought to be helping the company through repeat purchases were actually hurting the company by returning products, or by rarely buying products at full price.

The authors suggest that a high level of returns may require the introduction of a more stringent return policy, and that if many customers only buy items when they're on sale, the company may need to examine its overall pricing policy. The authors warn, however, that people with strong habits are the most likely to resent change, and decisions must be made carefully to avoid driving these customers to competing stores.

"It is possible for managers to analyze how habit-prone their customers are, and then work on a marketing strategy that helps to cultivate customer habits which benefit the company, and deter habits which hurt it," the authors conclude.

INFORMATION:

Denish Shah, V. Kumar, and Kihyun Hannah Kim. "Managing Customer Profits: The Power of Habits." Forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research. For more information, contact Denish Shah at (shah@gsu.edu).



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Twitter posts may shine a fresh light on mental illness trends

2014-12-09
Johns Hopkins computers scientists, who have already used Twitter posts to track flu cases, say their techniques also show promise as a tool to gather important information about some common mental illnesses. By reviewing tweets from users who publicly mentioned their diagnosis and by looking for language cues linked to certain disorders, the researchers say, they've been able to quickly and inexpensively collect new data on post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder. In research presented at three scientific conferences ...

Controlling obesity with potato extract

2014-12-09
Take a look in your pantry: the miracle ingredient for fighting obesity may already be there. A simple potato extract may limit weight gain from a diet that is high in fat and refined carbohydrates, according to scientists at McGill University. The results of their recent study were so surprising that the investigators repeated the experiment just to be sure. Investigators fed mice an obesity-inducing diet for 10 weeks. The results soon appeared on the scale: mice that started out weighing on average 25 grams put on about 16 grams. But mice that consumed the same diet ...

'Tis the season for youth to curb binge-drinking

2014-12-09
This news release is available in French. Montreal, December 9, 2014 -- With the holidays around the corner, we're all a little more likely to indulge, especially when it comes to alcohol. While a few extra drinks might be brushed off as holiday cheer, they can actually signal a problem in young adults. That's because the bad habits we pick up in our youth may stay with us later in life, according to a new study from Concordia, in collaboration with the Université de Montréal and University of Massachusetts. Its findings, which were published recently ...

Holiday contributions: What makes people upgrade to a recurring donation?

2014-12-09
Smaller recurring donations are generally more beneficial to a non-profit than larger, one-time donations, yet non-profits struggle to convince donors to move beyond one-time contributions. According to a new study in the Journal of Marketing Research, if donors believe that upgrading to a recurring donation will result in a matching donation, many will make the leap. "Imagine you are given the option to upgrade to a recurring donation. Now imagine that the charity will match all donations made that day, if and only if 75% of donors agree to upgrade to a recurring donation. ...

What quails can teach us about the gait of dinosaurs

What quails can teach us about the gait of dinosaurs
2014-12-09
Dinosaurs did it. Human beings and monkey do it. And even birds do it. They walk on two legs. And although humans occupy a special position amongst mammals as they have two legs, the upright gait is not reserved only for man. In the course of evolution many animals have developed the bipedal gait - the ability to walk on two legs. "Birds are moving forward on two legs as well, although they use a completely different technique from us humans," Dr. Emanuel Andrada from the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Germany) says. Human beings keep their upper bodies generally ...

Composite materials can be designed in a supercomputer 'virtual lab'

Composite materials can be designed in a supercomputer virtual lab
2014-12-09
UCL scientists have shown how advanced computer simulations can be used to design new composite materials. Nanocomposites, which are widely used in industry, are revolutionary materials in which microscopic particles are dispersed through plastics. But their development until now has been largely by trial and error. The 'virtual lab' developed using supercomputer simulations greatly improves scientists' understanding of how composite materials are built on a molecular level. They allow the properties of a new material to be predicted based simply on its structure and ...

Online students give instructors higher marks if they think instructors are men

Online students give instructors higher marks if they think instructors are men
2014-12-09
A new study shows that college students in online courses give better evaluations to instructors they think are men - even when the instructor is actually a woman. "The ratings that students give instructors are really important, because they're used to guide higher education decisions related to hiring, promotions and tenure," says Lillian MacNell, lead author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student in sociology at NC State. "And if the results of these evaluations are inherently biased against women, we need to find ways to address that problem." To address whether ...

Cancer therapy shows promise for nuclear medicine treatment

2014-12-09
Reston, Va. (December 9, 2014) - Cancer therapy can be much more effective using a new way to customize nuclear medicine treatment, researchers say in the December 2014 issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The process could also be useful for other diseases that could benefit from targeted radiation. Targeted therapy with radiopharmaceuticals--radioactive compounds used in nuclear medicine for diagnosis or treatment--has great potential for the treatment of cancer, especially for cancer cells that have migrated from primary tumors to lymph nodes and secondary organs ...

Distraction, if consistent, does not hinder learning

Distraction, if consistent, does not hinder learning
2014-12-09
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Maybe distraction is not always the enemy of learning. It turns out in surprising Brown University psychology research that inconsistent distraction is the real problem. As long as our attention is as divided when we have to recall a motor skill as it was when we learned it, we'll do just fine, according to the new study. Most learned motor tasks -- driving, playing sports or music, even walking again after injury -- occur with other things going on. Given the messiness of our existence, said lead researcher Joo-Hyun Song, assistant ...

Technology-dependent emissions of gas extraction in the US

Technology-dependent emissions of gas extraction in the US
2014-12-09
This news release is available in German. Not all boreholes are the same. Scientists of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) used mobile measurement equipment to analyze gaseous compounds emitted by the extraction of oil and natural gas in the USA. For the first time, organic pollutants emitted during a fracking process were measured at a high temporal resolution. The highest values measured exceeded typical mean values in urban air by a factor of one thousand, as was reported in ACP journal. (DOI 10.5194/acp-14-10977-2014) Emission of trace gases by ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Anna Krylov and Mikhail Yampolsky are the new George Gamow award laureates

Methane from overlooked sources higher than predicted in Osaka

World’s largest rays may be diving to extreme depths to build mental maps of vast oceans

Can we hear gravitational-wave "beats" in the rhythm of pulsars?

New survey shows many are unaware of advancements in obstetrics care

New combination therapy shows promise for aggressive lymphoma resistant to immunotherapy

Photocatalytic olefin double bond cleavage acylation

Unveiling the impact of compound drought and wildfire events on PM2.5 air pollution in the era of climate change

A bioadhesive sponge inspired by mussels and extracellular matrix offers a new way to stop internal bleeding

Poorer health linked to more votes for Reform UK, 2024 voting patterns suggest

Loneliness and social isolation linked to heightened risk of death in those with cancer

Ditch ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach to women’s running shoes, manufacturers urged

Domestic abusers forge ‘trauma bonds’ with victims before violence begins

UK food needs radical transformation on scale not seen since Second World War, new report finds

New AI tool makes medical imaging process 90% more efficient

Nitrogen-fortified nanobiochar boosts soil health and rice productivity

Generative art enhances virtual shopping experience

Fluid-based laser scanning for brain imaging

Concordia study links urban heat in Montreal to unequal greenspace access

Hidden patterns link ribosomal RNAs to genes of the nervous system

Why does losing the Y chromosome make some cancers worse? New $6.5 million NIH grant could provide clues

Xiao receives David W. Robertson Award for Excellence in Medicinal Chemistry

Boron isotopes reveal how nuclear waste glass slowly dissolves over time

Biochar helps Mediterranean vineyards hold water and fight erosion

Checking the quality of materials just got easier with a new AI tool

Does hiding author names make science fairer?

Fatal Attraction: Electric charge connects jumping worm to aerial prey

Rice physicists probe quark‑gluon plasma temperatures, helping paint more detailed picture of big bang

Cellular railroad switches: how brain cells route supplies to build memories

Breast cancer startup founded by WashU Medicine researchers acquired by Lunit

[Press-News.org] Too many returns this holiday? How loyal customers can hurt sales