The Product to Space Ratio Effect: How Store Density Influences Perceptions of Scarcity and Product Preference

Past research has shown that consumers use cues in the retail environment when making inferences about the properties of a product (Zeithaml 1988). In this work, we investigate an important aspect of a store environment, product density, which is the amount of space devoted to a constant number of items. Despite the importance of this factor as a potential determinant of store and product perception, this component of the retail environment has been widely understudied. Unlike past research on store density, which has focused on human or overall crowding (e.g. Eroglu and Harrell 1986; Machleit et al. 1994; Machleit et al. 2000), the present research considers how varying the density of products affects consumer preferences towards them. In our studies we keep the number and characteristics of a set of products constant and manipulate the amount of space devoted to their display. Our results systematically show that a lower product to-space-ratio (more space per product) has a positive effect on product preference, valuation, and likelihood of purchase. These findings are consistent with research on the use of white space in advertising (Pracejus et al. 2006), which suggests that this visual trope is effective due to its socio-historical meaning. However in contrast, we show that the effect of product to space ratio in the retail environment is due to a less deliberative process, that of increased perceptions of product scarcity.