The negative effect of policy restrictions on consumers’ post-purchase reactions to price-matching guarantees

Price-Matching Guarantees (PMGs) are a mechanism by which retailers can reassure consumers of the competitive price of products they offer. While current research in marketing has studied consumers’ pre-purchase perceptions of the retailer as a result of offering price-matching guarantees, research on the post-purchase impact of PMGs has been relatively limited. While price-matching guarantees are typically assumed to result in positive consumer perceptions of the retailer, no study to date has examined the potentially negative post-purchase impact of PMGs. This paper examines the potential negative effect of policy restrictions which may prevent the disbursement of a price-matching refund, on consumer perceptions. Two experiments (Experiment 1 n = 120, Experiment 2 n = 50) are utilized to dissect the impact of policy restrictions on consumers’ perceptions of service quality, price, and loyalty. The paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of the findings on price-matching guarantee policies. All authors contributed equally to the paper and are listed in alphabetical order. This research has been supported by a research grant from the Fordham University Graduate School of Business, the Babson Board of Research, and the Marketing Science Institute.