Active and upcoming deals: effect on purchase intention

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the interaction of timing cues (active deals vs upcoming deals) and brand familiarity on consumers’ purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach The research design of this paper is based on one experiment conducted in a behavioural experimental laboratory and two experiments in Mechanical Turk. The data received from these experiments were analysed using one-way ANOVA technique and PROCESS models. Findings Results across three experiments show that consumers prefer upcoming deals over active deals when brands are of low familiarity. However, the effect is attenuated for brands with high familiarity. Further, the paper proposes and shows that the effects of timing cues and brand familiarity interactions on purchase intention are explained by temporal distance. Finally, results show that need for cognition moderates the effects. Research limitations/implications The research results may vary when size of discounts is mentioned. There is a need to study various other moderators such as product type, self-other overlap and regulatory focus. Practical implications The paper offers managerial strategies and insights that can be adopted by the online retailing industry. Paper offers practical implications for brands, especially for ones with low familiarity. Originality/value This paper adds to the literature by studying new timing cues to understand the behaviour of consumers in retailing industries.