The influence of human crowding and store messiness on consumer purchase intention– the role of contamination and scarcity perceptions

The current research explores how store environmental cues – human crowding and store messiness influence consumer purchase intention across two product type (ingestible and non-ingestible). Importantly, the research also examines the mediating role of contamination perception on these effects. Specifically, for ingested products (e.g., eggs), crowded and messy store environments signal contamination and lead to decrease in purchase intention. However, for non-ingested products (e.g., dishwashing liquid), contamination inferences are observed for store messiness but not for human crowding. Further, role of perceived scarcity is examined which suggests that in ingestible product category perception of scarcity can mitigate the negative effect of contamination on purchase intention.