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Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s). A long-lasting debate in marketing literature is whether retail buyers who purchase consumer products behave like consumers or like industrial purchasing managers. We address this question empirically, by focusing on retail buyers’ behavioral responses to price discounts. Cooperating with a national wholesaler of drugstore products, we conduct a field experiment on the wholesaler’s product ordering platform. We expose the retail buyers (n = 780) to a new product offer that either includes a price discount or not. Simultaneously, we vary peripheral cues included in the offer (package color and organic claim). The results support the “industrial buyer resemblance” argument: The price discount decreases the retail buyers’ purchase likelihood, and there is no significant interaction effect between the price discount and the peripheral cues. An additional qualitative study reveals that retail buyers speculate on the motivations behind the price discount, which elicits suspicions about the product’s quality and resale potential.

This thesis studies effects of shelf layout in a department store on buyer behavior and then extends the research to cover the similar issue in layout of e-bazaars. Shelf layout –in terms of parameters which influence buyer behavior- is formulated by two variables; pattern of prices and pattern of popularity. In measuring both of these variables, a weighting system should be used to fine tune effect of distance between customer and different items in the layout which are also in the eyesight of the customer. In this study, weights are manipulated in such a way to optimize prediction power of the model. As a result, these weights determine an average span of vision for buyers. This measure can be used then in analysis to improve shelf layouts. Based on the analysis, we came to conclusion that in our case study –Shahrvand department stores – the first factor is the key determinant in customer buying decision. A rather similar result was obtained in e-bazaars case but with much greater lack of fit measure. At the end, a set of recommendations for shelf layout is developed based on the results of the research. Contacts: Reza Movarrei Phone: +982188831395 +982166934995 Cellphone: +989123271396