Consumer ambivalence in luxury shopping experience

Consumer research on emotions confirms their pivotal role in consumer decisions. Traditionally, people look for positive emotions and avoid negative ones, however literature shows that emotions of opposite valence can coexist in people’s experiences, for instance when consumers voluntary look for both positive and negative emotions (such as fear and happiness) during the same consumption experience and integrate them into overall evaluative judgments. This consumer ambivalence evidence is particularly relevant in hedonic experiences where emotions play a central role for consumer outcomes (e.g. shopping behavior, satisfaction, loyalty ). Given the paucity of consumer ambivalence literature in hedonic retail experience, a luxury setting was chosen to explore the co-occurrence of consumer positive and negative emotions and its overall effects on consumer outcomes. Indeed, luxury embodies characteristics, such as exclusivity and conspicuousness, that can evoke contextually positive and negative emotions. Through a multiple qualitative method approach, including the Shopping With Consumer Technique and Zaltman’s Metaphore Elicitation Technique, twelve luxury shoppers were observed and interviewed to better understand consumer emotions and outcomes before, during and after a purchase in an hedonic retail experience. Preliminary findings indicate that some negative emotions are unavoidable and they can activate positive ones orienting consumers to adopt specific behaviors. Accordingly, luxury store managers should consider consumer ambivalences in hedonic retail experiences in as something not always to avoid or to cope with, but to take advantage of to improve their business.