Perceptions of assortment variety: The effects of congruency between consumers’ internal and...

Journal of Retailing 81 (2, 2005) 159–169

Perceptions of assortment variety: The effects of congruency betweenconsumers’ internal and retailers’ external organization

Andrea Moralesa,∗, Barbara E. Kahnb, Leigh McAlisterc, Susan M. Broniarczykc

a Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, CA, USAb The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA

c McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA

Abstract

This research shows that consumers’ perceptions of variety and satisfaction are dependent upon how the assortment is organized, bothinternally by the consumer and externally by the retailer. The results of three laboratory studies indicate that for familiar categories, congruencybetween a consumer’s internal categorization structure and the external store layout leads to higher perceptions of variety and higher satisfactionwith product choices, while for unfamiliar product categories, congruency between shopping goals and external structure leads to lowerperceptions of variety but increased satisfaction with the store’s assortment. However, if retailers institute external category filters congruentw satisfactionw©

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ith consumers’ internal shopping goals that allow them to bypass products, consumers have both lower variety perceptions andith the assortment offering.2005 New York University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

eywords:Product assortment; Perceived variety; Satisfaction; Goals; Cognitive structure

Consumers have always enjoyed browsing through storesr “window shopping” to see what products are currentlyvailable. Even while making a purchase, consumers often

ook around to find options for future consideration. Forarketers, this type of window-shopping or browsing is anctivity to encourage if it means consumers may return tourchase something in the future. However, if consumers doot perceive the full range of options offered, they may be

ess likely to return for another shopping trip.In this paper, we examine how the “internal structure”

onsumers have in memory for product categories cannfluence how consumers perceive assortment variety in atore or on a website. Specifically, we build on categorizationheory that suggests a person’s prior category knowledgeomes into play when making evaluations (Sujan 1985).onsumers evaluate new stimuli (in our case, the displayed

∗ Corresponding author.E-mail addresses:[email protected] (A. Morales),

[email protected] (B.E. Kahn),[email protected] (L. McAlister),

assortment in a category) in terms of their prior knowledgthe category. If there is a match between the way consucategorize items in their heads and the way retailers orgitems in their stores, consumers can process the itemseasily. If there is not a match, consumers may havfurther process their category expectations in order toevaluations (Fiske & Taylor 1991).

Unlike previous applications of categorization (eGoodstein 1993; Meyers-Levy & Tybout 1989; OzanneBrucks, & Grewal 1992), we examine how internal/externcongruency can influence perceptions of the amounvariety offered and satisfaction with both choice andoffered assortment. Research shows that consumer atttoward and their probability of shopping at a retail sitepositively related to their perceptions of the variety offerethat site (Arnold, Oum, & Tigert 1983; Broniarczyk, Hoyer& McAlister 1998). In addition, when consumers percethe variety in an assortment to be larger, they may evathe product selected from that assortment more positand be willing to pay more for it (Godek, Yates, & Auh2001). Of course, if the variety becomes overwhelming

[email protected] (S.M. Broniarczyk). can actually decrease the likelihood of purchase (Huffman &

022-4359/$ – see front matter © 2005 New York University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.oi:10.1016/j.jretai.2005.03.007

160 A. Morales et al. / Journal of Retailing 81 (2, 2005) 159–169

Kahn 1998; Iyengar & Lepper 2000), but we do not considerthis boundary condition in this research.

In investigating the effects of congruency between con-sumers’ “internal structure” (the sub-categories into whichconsumers groups items) and retailers’ “external structure”(the sub-categories into which retailers group items), wefocus on two aspects of external structure: the layout ororganization of the assortment and the filtering or screeningmethod that the retailer provides for examination of theassortment. By layout, we mean theclassification systembywhich a product category is literally displayed in the store oron a computer screen. For instance, cereal can be arrangedeither by brand, with all the Kellogg’s cereals together andall the Post cereals together, or it can be arranged by typeof cereal, with all the children’s cereals together and all ofthe healthy cereals together. By filtering, we are referringto how much of the assortment is revealed. For instance,the entire assortment can be presented simultaneously, withevery product visible at the same time (no filter), or theassortment can be presented in sections (filtered), whereultimately the whole assortment need not be viewed. Forexample, it is fairly easy to filter assortments on a website. Aconsumer might click on a specific hyperlink and then viewonly a particular sub-section of the assortment. The layoutof a physical retail store might also serve as a filter, leadingconsumers directly to a sub-section of the assortment. Others s, ors iewm weenc ores’“ dc eenca ety.

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different forces: product category schemas and shoppinggoals.

We conduct three laboratory experiments to examine theimpact of external structure (driven by display organizationor by a filter) and internal structure (driven by mental schemasor shopping goals) on perceived variety and on satisfactionwith both choices and the overall assortment offered. We con-clude that for familiar product categories, where consumershave strong, internal categorization schemas, consumers arelikely to perceive more variety and be more satisfied withtheir choices from the assortment if the internal structure andexternal structure are congruent. However, when consumersare not familiar with the product category, we find that thecongruency of schema-driven internal structure with externalstructure does not have any effect on variety perceptions andsatisfaction, but instead shopping goals are very influential.Specifically, we find that when shopping goals are congruentwith the external structure, consumers view less variety,but are more satisfied with the store’s assortment. Shoppinggoals thus serve as self-imposed filters on the assortment thatallow easier navigation through product categories, therebyincreasing satisfaction. Finally, in contrast to shopping goals,we find if retailers themselves institute external categoryfilters that match consumers’ shopping goals, consumershave lower variety perceptions and satisfaction with theassortment offering because they can go directly to theird

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tore layouts (e.g., escalator routes, elevator locationhelving configurations), might force consumers to vore of the assortment. We propose that a match bet

onsumers’ “internal structure” of an assortment and stexternal structure” (orlayout) for an assortment will leaonsumers to perceive more variety, while a match betwonsumers’ “internal structure” and the “externalfilter” of anssortment will result in consumers perceiving less vari

In investigating “internal structure,” we recognize tonsumers may have many bases for their internal strucr schemas of the product category (Alba & Hutchinson987). Early work in categorization focused primarily

axonomic categories, suggesting that consumers orgroducts into their naturally defined categories (Roschervis, Gray, Johnson, & Boyes-Braem 1976). For instance

ince an apple is a type of fruit it is categorized interns “fruit.” However, later work has shown that consumay also have goal-based categories (Barsalou 1985). For

xample, instead of being categorized only as “fruit,”pple might also be placed in the category of “afternnack.” These internal goal-based categories then beore established in memory with increased frequef use (Barsalou 1985; Ratneshwar & Shocker 1991).ikewise, internal structure can also be created by direroviding consumers with specific shopping goals (HuffmanHouston 1993; Huffman and Kahn 1998). For instance

elling consumers to look for a blue tie will indirectly lehem to organize the category into blue ties or noties—items that match the goal and items that do nohis research, we examine internal structure driven by

esired products without seeing any other options.

Congruency of external layout with internal structure

In order to keep track of the complicated knowlenvolved with learning about a product class, consumersimplified categorizations or schemas (Alba & Hutchinson987), and then process new information received a

he product category according to these schemas (Chase &imon 1973; Chi, Glaser, & Rees 1982; Chiesi, Spilich, &oss 1979; Larkin, McDermott, Simon, & Simon 1980).hen the external organization of the product assort

i.e., the arrangement of a retailer’s display of the assortms congruent with consumers’ internal schema, consure able to perceive the variety of the assortment more ehis congruency between internal schema and extisplay organization should also simplify processing ofisplay, leading to more positive affect about the disnd more satisfaction with the assortment (Stayman, Alden

Smith 1992). This display-driven positive affect aatisfaction with the assortment should lead to higatisfaction with choices made from the display.

However, if the organization of the product assortmenetail store or on a web page isnotcongruent with consumernternal schema, then the reverse will occur. Consumerse confused by what they observe and will have to exdditional processing effort to recognize and categorizarious items in the assortment (Bettman & Zins 1979; BiehalChakravarti 1982, 1986). Consumers may decide not

A. Morales et al. / Journal of Retailing 81 (2, 2005) 159–169 161

expend this additional effort, but even if they do expendsome cognitive effort, it may not be enough to understand thedifferences among the objects (Bettman, Johnson, & Payne1990; Hayes-Roth 1977; Payne, Bettman, & Johnson 1990;Thorndyke & Hayes-Roth 1979), and therefore consumersmay not perceive the extent of the variety offered. Further-more, if consumers are confused and perceive less variety,they will be less satisfied with the assortment offered. Thislower satisfaction with the assortment will lower satisfactionwith choices made from the assortment for two reasons. First,the confusion and lower satisfaction with the assortment islikely to lower any positive affect that might be associatedwith the choice. Further, the lower level of perceived varietywill decrease the assumed likelihood of a match between theretailer’s assortment and the consumer’s need (Baumol & Ide1956; Kahn & Lehman 1991).

Familiar categories—using internal structure for aproduct class

Although we suggest that congruency between retailers’external layout and consumers’ internal schema can leadto increased perceptions of assortment variety, this effectis not unconditional. Rather, it depends on the strength ofconsumers’ internal category schemas—the stronger the in-ternal category structure, the greater the need for congruencyw rnals thep tingk hediR whoa aveh etterd ef lientt

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with the category can quickly scan the options and locate thesub-section of the shelf containing their desired products.Within this sub-section, participants will be exposed to otherproduct attributes arranged in a format to facilitate encoding.However, when the display is incongruent, the inconsistencybetween the internal schema and the external layout willhinder encoding a detailed perceptual representation. Thus,assortment judgments based on initial perceptual represen-tations should be higher for more familiar consumers whenshelf displays are congruent rather than incongruent withinternal schemas.

On the other hand, since consumers less familiar withthe category have a weak internal schema for the productcategory (if any), matching the internal structure with theexternal layout is not critical. Due to their limited knowledgestructure, less familiar consumers will engage in minimalprocessing of the product display. Thus, for consumers lessfamiliar with the category, the congruency of the productdisplay and their internal schema is not predicted to impactassortment perceptions. Thus, we hypothesize:

H1. Congruency between consumers’ internal schema of acategory (e.g., by brand or by attribute) and retailers’ externallayout of the product category has a greater effect on assort-ment perceptions for familiar than unfamiliar consumers.

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ith the external layout. The strength of consumers’ intechemas is likely to depend upon their familiarity withroduct category. If the category is very familiar, the exisnowledge of the category is likely to be well establisn memory either by brand or by attribute (Johnson &usso 1984). Prior research has shown that consumersre more familiar with a product category and who higher product category knowledge are likely to have beveloped schemas (Sujan & Bettman 1989). Thus, the mor

amiliar consumers are with a category, the more saheir internal schema for the category will be.

The salience of consumers’ schemas for familiargories is further reinforced by the external structureretailer provides with its category display. Prior w

uggests that upon frequent exposure, consumersnternalize the external structure of the category displaybserve in the store (Buchanan, Simmons, & Bickart 199;utchinson, Raman, & Mantrala 1994). This suggests thonsumers’ internal structure for a category will be etronger if they frequently encounter the category displan the same manner. As a result, consumers will comxpect that category to be displayed in stores or on web

n a manner congruent with their internal schema ande dissatisfied when the category is not.

For consumers who are familiar with a product categhe processing of the product assortment is done with gnce from their internal schemas. This makes it criticalonsumers’ internal schema and the external structuretore layout be congruent to heighten perceptions of vahen the external layout is congruent, consumers fam

1a. For consumers who are familiar with a product cory, congruency between internal schema and externaut will result in higher perceptions of variety and higatisfaction with choices from the category.

1b. For consumers who are not familiar with the categongruency between internal schema and external layouot effect perceptions of variety nor satisfaction with cho

rom the category.

Experiment 1

In order to testH1 we used a product category that varn familiarity—microwavable popcorn. In addition, to tehe congruency aspects ofH1, participants each neededustomized external layout of the product category baseheir own internal schema. To determine each individunternal schema we relied on previous research in mee.g.,Hutchsinson 1983), which suggests that internal schef a category are related to the importance of specific prottributes.

To show that importance ratings were indeed conneo participants’ internal categorization of the microwave porn category, we ran a categorization test on a separatele of respondents. Since the classic categorization l

ure uses card sort tasks to assess internal memory strRosch et al. 1976), participants sorted 25 cards describifferent microwavable popcorns on four different attribubrand, flavor, size, price), and also rated the attribute


importance. These two tasks were counterbalanced and par-ticipants performed a distracter task between them. For the63 participants involved in this task, 86 percent displayed astrong match between their attribute importance weights andtheir sort classification, with 56 percent of subjects sortingbased on their most important attribute and 30 percent of sub-jects sorting based on their second most important attribute.We believe this offers strong support for our assumption thatinternal structure is determined by importance weights in thisproduct category.

Participants, stimuli, and procedure

Experiment 1 was a 2 (congruency: congruent vs. in-congruent)× 2 (familiarity: high vs. low) between-subjectsdesign. Seventy-seven undergraduate students participatedin exchange for extra credit. Congruency was manipulatedby organizing the shelf display to be either congruent orincongruent with participants’ internal schema of the productcategory, as determined by their attribute importance weights.Familiarity was determined by a self-reported frequencyscale. Familiar participants reported eating microwavablepopcorn at least once a month, whereas unfamiliar partici-pants reported eating it on average only four times a year.

Individual importance weights for the same four attributesdescribed in the categorization test, as well as a frequency ofu huan1 . Thep d de-b etestt

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The target category, microwavable popcorn, was the fourthcategory viewed and was organized based on the participant’scorresponding condition. The other five categories were alsoorganized by attribute, but the attribute differed across cate-gories. Participants chose products from each of the lists andreaction times were recorded. To motivate realistic choices,participants were told they would receive one of the six prod-ucts they chose as a free gift.

After completing the six choices, participants reported theamount of variety they perceived in the microwavable pop-corn category on a scale ranging from 1 (low variety) to 5 (toomuch variety) and their level of satisfaction with their finalchoice on a scale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (verysatisfied). In addition, participants listed all the informationthey could recall about the microwavable popcorn options onthe list.

Results

The data were analyzed using ANCOVA with congruencyand familiarity as between-subjects factors and need forcognition as a covariate. Twenty-seven participants wereclassified as familiar microwavable popcorn users and 46 asunfamiliar.

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se and need for cognition scales (Cacioppo, Petty, & C984), were collected one month prior to the actual studyretest was imbedded in a series of other questions anriefing revealed that participants did not connect the pr

o the actual experiment.Using the importance weights from the pretest,

xternal layout of the assortment was custom tailoredither congruent or incongruent with participants’ intechema of the category. In the congruent layout condhe products were arranged first by their most importtribute, followed in sequence by their second, thnd least important attribute. Likewise in the incongru

ayout condition, products were arranged first by their lmportant attribute, followed in sequence by their thecond, and most important attribute. There was consble heterogeneity in attribute importance orderings,5 different importance orderings being reported, butrderings accounted for more than 80 percent of particip1) brand, flavor, price, size; (2) flavor, brand, price, sizeavor, price, size, brand; (4) flavor, price, brand, size; anrice, flavor, size brand. There was no obvious relationetween attribute importance and frequency of use.

Participants completed the experiment in small groueparate computer stations. Each participant had a uomputer disk corresponding to his or her own intechema of the category and congruency condition. Afterere seated at the computer station, participants firswered questions concerning their grocery shopping hnd opinions about local grocers. They then saw produc

rom six different categories, with 25 products in each

To check that congruency was manipulated successarticipants reported “ease of use” of the microwavopcorn display where 1 was very difficult to use and 5ery easy to use. A model with “ease of use” as a depenariable and congruency and NFC as independent varieveals a main effect for congruency (F(1,69) = 3.22< .08), where participants in the congruent condition fo

he display easier to use (M= 3.68) than the incongrueondition (M= 3.45). Not surprisingly, the congruenanipulation was also more successful for high thanFC participants (F(1,69) = 4.02,p< .05).

ypothesis testingIn support ofH1, the results indicate a significant co

ruency by familiarity interaction on perceived variF(1,68) = 4.63,p< .05). Consistent withH1a, familiar userseported higher perceived variety in the congruent (M= 3.78)han the incongruent (M= 3.17) external layout conditioF(1,25) = 4.65,p< .05). SupportingH1b, external layout diot affect perceived variety for unfamiliar users (M= 3.59 vs= 3.74, congruent and incongruent, respectively,F< 1).1

he satisfaction results are directionally consistent witherceived variety results although the congruency by fa

arity interaction was not significant (F< 1). Familiar user

1 Note mean levels of variety perceptions suggest that familiar usersn overall lower mean of assortment variety for our selections than d

amiliar users. This is reasonable, as familiar users would likely havexposed to more variety in their personal consumption. Our chief inere though is not in the absolute levels, but rather in the difference beongruent and incongruent displays.


reported directionally higher satisfaction in the congruent(M= 4.41) than the incongruent (M= 4.16) external layout(F< 1), whereas unfamiliar users reported equal satisfactionfor congruent (M= 3.73) and incongruent (M= 3.70) externallayout.

To explore the mechanisms driving variety perceptions,an ANCOVA analysis was conducted only on the familiarusers. In this analysis, variety perceptions were a functionof congruency, response time, and satisfaction with choice(R2 = .66). The results show a significant main effect ofcongruency (F(1,20) = 4.13,p< .05),2 such that participantsperceived more variety in the congruent (M= 3.80) than theincongruent condition (M= 3.17). This is consistent withH1athat argues familiar users make instant perceptual judg-ments of assortments such that when the layout is congruentwith their internal schema, they register a wider range ofproduct offerings and perceive more variety. The resultsalso indicate significant interactions between congruencyand response time (F(1,20) = 6.20,p< .05), and congruencyand satisfaction (F(1,20) = 6.07,p< .05), suggesting that theinitial holistic perception of variety is modified as consumersproceed to a deeper level of processing where they attend tospecific product information.

For familiar participants exposed to congruent layouts,the more time taken to make a decision, the more infor-mation they processed and the more variety they perceived( idn entl pro-c uentl ec ctt

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higher perceptions of variety and greater satisfaction withthe chosen items. The flipside is that when the productsare displayed in a manner incongruent with their internalschema, more familiar consumers become confused andfrustrated. Although familiar consumers may spend moretime looking at an incongruent display and may evenremember more about the items in the display, they do notperceive more variety. Instead, the incongruency inducesnegative affect and actually lowers variety perceptions.

This same pattern, however, does not hold true for con-sumers who are less familiar with the product category. Forunfamiliar consumers, congruency between external layoutand internal schema has no effect on perceived variety. Sinceunfamiliar consumers do not have established schema, theexternal structure cannot cause interference.

In the next experiment, we focus on cases where con-sumers are unfamiliar with the product category and have nointernal structure. As a result, we impose an internal struc-ture of the category by giving consumers a specific shoppinggoal. We show that imposing this internal structure can in-crease perceived variety and can also increase satisfactionwith the assortment offered.

Unfamiliar categories—imposing internal structure for aproduct class

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F(1,13) = 8.65,p< .05). This relationship, however, dot hold for familiar participants exposed to incongru

ayouts. For these participants, the high amount ofessing required to make choices from an incongrayout resulted in higher recall (M= 8.75) than those in thongruent condition (M= 7.87), but did not directly affeheir variety perceptions (F(1,10) = 2.61,p> .10).

Although increased processing by familiar participan the incongruent conditions had no effect on varerceptions, the lower satisfaction they experienced

ead to lower perceived variety (F(1,10) = 28.33,p< .001).he same was not the case for familiar participants inongruent conditions. For these participants, satisfaad no effect on perceptions of variety (F< 1).

iscussion

The results of experiment 1 provide support forH1,howing that familiar participants have more well-defichemas, thereby making the congruency between inchema and external layout an important predictoerceived variety. When consumers are very familiarproduct category, if products are organized in the sto

e congruent with their internal schema, they can quio a perceptual match with the entire display andoom in on one section for deeper processing. This lea

2 TheF-statistics and means are slightly different in this analysis thhe one reported above because some participants had missing data oesponse time or satisfaction.

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The first hypothesis suggests that when consumerstrong internal schemas for product categories, they perore variety when the internal schema matches the ext

ayout. However, when the internal schema is not strongruency between the external layout and the intechema is less relevant. In this latter case, it may also bhat consumers are not particularly motivated to procesptions available in the external structure. Providing aay be necessary to motivate the level of processing ne

o increase variety perceptions and to increase satisfaith the assortment offered.Prior research has shown that internal structure can

lly be created through consumers’ shopping goals (Bar983;Loken & Ward 1990). More specifically, consumeave been shown to take in the assortments they obased on their goals and organize their learning aroundoals (Huffman & Houston 1993). So when internal schemre weak, a specific shopping goal can serve as an orga

ramework. In this case, congruency of the external disith the internal structure imposed by a shopping goal

ncrease perceived variety (Broniarczyk et al. 1998). Theoal serves two purposes: (1) to motivate consumers toess the range of alternatives being offered, and (2) tos a lens through which consumers will view the offelternatives.

We predict, however, that congruency between intetructure imposed by a shopping goal and external disay act differently than congruency between internal schnd external display. In looking at congruency betw

nternal schema and external displays, we suggested


congruency allows consumers to scan options quickly andlocate the sub-section containing their desired products.Within this sub-section, participants are exposed to otherproduct attributes arranged in a format to facilitate encoding.However, when displays are incongruent, the inconsistencyhinders encoding of a detailed perceptual representation. Agoal, on the other hand, does not represent such a systematicorganization of the product category. Rather, a shopping goalcan serve as a screen. A consumer with a shopping goal willprocess items by determining whether or not each item in theassortment matches the goal. Goal-directed search in cataloglayouts has been found to make information gathering moreefficient and less time consuming (Janiszewski 1998). In thiscase, we predict that perceived variety may actually be higherwhen goals are incongruent with external displays because itforces consumers to evaluate more options in the assortmentand does not allow them to zone in only on items that matchthe goal. However, although consumers may perceive morevariety when goals are incongruent, their satisfaction withthe assortment being offered is likely to be lower becauseof the resulting more complicated processing. We thereforehypothesize:

H2a. For unfamiliar categories, congruency effects with ex-ternal display will be with shopping goals rather than internalschema.

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trinkets. They were instructed to pay close attention to theinformation presented in preparation for questions asked ata later time. The learning task described the most importantattribute of trinkets being either the brand or scent, dependingon condition. It listed the three different types of brands(scents) and told them that all three brands (scents) had thesame market share, while still being unique products. It alsomentioned that any store selling trinkets would stock eachof the three brands (scents). After reading the information,participants were asked a series of questions about what theyhad read. Specifically, they were asked to list the three brands(scents), to name the most popular brand, to list the trinketsin alphabetical order and to name the least popular brand(scent). After reading each set of questions, participants typedtheir answers in the appropriate boxes and were then giventhe correct answers to reinforce the learning of the internalschema.

After completing the learning task, participants in the twolearning conditions were told to look over the assortment oftrinkets on the following screen. Participants in the no internalorganization condition proceeded immediately to look at theassortment of products bypassing the learning task.

Goal manipulation

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2b. When consumers unfamiliar with a product categre given a shopping goal that is congruent with the extisplay, consumers will perceive less variety in the cateut will be more satisfied with the assortment of goods offhan when the shopping goal is incongruent with the exteisplay.

Experiment 2

In this experiment, we created a hypothetical proategory, “trinkets,” for two reasons: (1) with hypothetroducts we could insure that consumers were unfamith the category, and (2) we could manipulate participapecific internal organization of a product category. Tere 27 “trinkets” in the assortment, generated from tttributes (brand, scent, and size) each possessingttribute levels. Experiment 2 was a 3 (internal schema: nos. brand vs. scent)× 3 (goal: none vs. brand vs. scent)× 2external display: brand vs. scent) between subjects dewo-hundred and one undergraduates completed the e

ment for course credit on individual personal computarticipants were asked to look over and make a choicen assortment of “trinkets.” The 27 trinkets were shownt once on one computer screen.

nternal schema manipulation

Participants in both the brand and scent internal oization conditions were asked to learn information a

he assortment screen with no further instructions, whearticipants in the brand goal condition were told they ne

o buy an “Energy” brand trinket, and participants in the soal condition were told they needed to buy a “Fresh” s

rinket.

xternal display manipulation

The trinkets were organized on the screen either by br by scent, depending on the external organization co

ion. For the brand external organization condition, therinkets were organized into three blocks of nine, each borresponding to a different brand and labeled as such.ise for the scent external organization condition, there

hree blocks of nine, each block corresponding to a diffecent. In both external organization conditions, all 27 trinere shown on the same screen with the three blocks pext to one another horizontally.

Once participants made their final selection, they repoheir overall perceptions of variety on a scale ranging frolow variety) to 5 (too much variety) and the extent to whiche store offers the trinkets they would like to buy on a sanging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (to a great degree). On acale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied),hey also indicated how satisfied they were with the chhey had made (although in a hypothetical product catet is not clear this question had any meaning to them. Inhere were no significant effects on this variable and weot discuss it further.) Finally, as a manipulation check

he internal schema instilled by the learning task, particip


indicated how they generally organized the trinket categoryin their heads.

Results

Two-hundred and one subjects participated in experiment2. The manipulation check screened to insure that only sub-jects for whom the internal schema was created were includedin the analysis. Based on the results of the manipulationcheck, 161 participants reported a match between the ma-nipulated internal organization condition and their reportedinternal organization and were therefore included in the anal-ysis.

We found a main effect of goal on overall perceptionsof variety. Across all internal and external organizationconditions, participants who were not given a specificgoal perceived significantly less variety (M= 3.66) thanparticipants in the brand goal (M= 4.16) or scent goalconditions (M= 4.22; F(2,143) = 5.99,p< .01), supportingthe general notion that consumers can organize their learningof a product category around a goal. However, this maineffect should only be interpreted in light of the two-wayinteraction between goal and external organization. As pre-dicted, there was a significant interaction between goal andexternal organization on perceived variety (F(2,143) = 7.92,p< .001). In the no goal conditions, there was no differencei tionc ,p ntsi fortt tion(s ntlyl ation( l or-g rt o thee thea rnals xter-n pportH

ons thea rossa antsw goryi whatt tsi onct tionw thate oductd

As predicted inH2b, there was also a significant interac-tion between goal and external organization on satisfactionwith the assortment (F(2,143) = 4.11,p< .05). In the no goalconditions, there was no difference in how much participantsfelt the assortment had what they wanted across the two ex-ternal organization conditions (Mbrand= 3.40,Mscent= 3.33;F(1,155) = 0.01, p> .90). In the brand goal condition,however, participants indicated that the assortment had moreof what they wanted in the congruent, brand external organi-zation (Mbrand= 3.71), than in the incongruent, scent externalorganization (Mscent= 3.17;F(1,155) = 2.40,p< .15), thoughthe difference was not significant. Similarly, in the scentgoal condition, participants indicated that the assortmenthad more of what they wanted in the congruent, scent ex-ternal organization (Mscent= 3.92), than in the incongruent,brand external organization (Mbrand= 3.18;F(1,155) = 5.72,p< .05). Together these results indicate that when goals(imposed internal structure) and external organization arecongruent, people actually see the assortment as offeringmore of what they actually want.

Discussion

The results of experiment 2 indicate a difference in howcongruency between external organization and goal-driveni , asc ands sultsi rnaloi y.L theys tt thani ety,a ivelyw

filter,b howm ernalfi wew ietyc weres e as-s eoust kingf ltersr h thea

thea howm ime.

n perceived variety across the two external organizaonditions (Mbrand= 3.44, Mscent= 3.87; F(1,155) = 2.34> .10). In the brand goal condition, however, participa

ndicated significantly lower perceptions of varietyhe congruent, brand external organization (Mbrand= 3.76),han for the incongruent, scent external organizaMscent= 4.6; F(1,155) = 10.35,p< .005). Similarly, in thecent goal condition, participants perceived significa

ess variety for the congruent, scent external organizMscent= 3.95), than for the incongruent, brand externaanization (Mbrand= 4.49;F(1,155) = 5.75,p< .05). Togethehese results indicate that when a goal is congruent txternal organization, people see less overall variety inssortment. There were no significant main effects of intechema, or interaction effects of internal schema with eal display on perceived variety. These results thus su2aandH2b.There was a main effect of internal organization

atisfaction with the assortment offering (i.e., whetherssortment had what participants actually wanted). Acll goal and external organization conditions, participho were not given an internal organization for the cate

ndicated that the assortment had significantly less ofhey actually wanted to buy (M= 3.09) than participann the brand (M= 3.57) or scent internal organizationditions (M= 3.71; F(2,143) = 3.87,p< .05). Althoughhere were no congruency effects of internal organizaith external display (as predicted) this result showsven weak internal schema help consumers interpret prisplays.

nternal structure influences overall variety perceptionsompared to congruency between external organizationchema driven internal structure (experiment 1). Ren experiment 2 showed that when a goal and exterganization do not match, people seemoreoverall variety

n the assortment, butlessof what they actually want to buikewise, when a goal and external organization match,eelessoverall variety, butmoreof what they actually wano buy. Further, our results show that goals are strongernternal organization in influencing perceptions of varit least when the internal schema is new and relateak.A shopping goal serves the consumer as an internal

ut retailers can also impose external filters that limituch of the assortment can be viewed at once. If the ext

lter is congruent with a consumer’s shopping goal,ould expect a further reduction in the amount of varonsumers perceive. Self-imposed shopping goalshown above to increase consumer satisfaction with thortment. Retailers may therefore believe it is advantago institute external filters to ease consumer decision-marom an assortment. Is it possible that such external fieduce rather than enhance consumer satisfaction witssortment?

External filters can restrict appreciation of variety

Retailers can choose not only the manner in whichssortment is organized, but often times can influenceuch of the assortment is viewed at any given point in t


Although a highly filtered presentation of an assortment mayallow consumers to find exactly what they need very quicklyand may decrease their frustration and search time, a filteredassortment may also decrease consumers’ perceptions of howmuch variety is available. In supermarkets, retailers oftenplace high penetration and frequency items such as milk inthe back of the store to force consumers to be exposed to moreof the store assortment (Kahn & McAlister 1997); similarlywebsites can either make it easy to find what a consumerwants (in a filtered approach) or force them to go deeper intothe website to find what they want.

Earlier we argued that goals can serve as a lens throughwhich the assortment can be viewed and categorized, whichin turn can affect the amount of variety consumers perceive.In this experiment we investigate how goals completelyaligned with the retailer’s filtering mechanism influencevariety perceptions. In this case, the consumer will likelyavoid large parts of the assortment by going directly to theitem(s) that match the goal. Rather than scanning through theentire assortment and coding all of the available products asone that either meets their shopping goals or not, as a result ofthe filter, consumers will immediately jump to a small subsetof the assortment that matches their goal (although theycertainly could browse the site if they were so inclined). Insuch cases, where the filtering mechanism leads consumersto focus on only a few items in the assortment, we predictp thata ietyc mersc thatt

ers 0)h tmenta thatl forea itht

H ureo osedi andb

fort tailerb mento ea-s e dos tmenti arlyb neffi-c nt ase daryc

Experiment 3

In this experiment we used a real product class, carryingbags, but one with which participants were generally unfa-miliar and had at best weak internal structures. Further, aninvestigation of these types of websites indicated no consis-tent classification pattern. Across all conditions of our exper-iment, the bags were organized in the same format, but wemanipulated the degree of external filtering.

In the first condition (no filtering) the products wereviewed all at once by participants. In the second condition,the hyperlink external filter condition, the website wasdesigned so that participants could click on a link that wouldtake them directly to the sub-category in which they were in-terested. Even though they could go to that category directly,the other links and their names were visible on the screen andcould theoretically have influenced perceptions of variety. Inthe third condition, primed, the bags were once again viewedall at once but the classification system used to organize thebags was described to participants (and this classificationsystem was the same as the system used to create the linksin condition two). Thus, in this condition, the rational for theorganization was made clear but the participants were stillforced to view the entire assortment, whereas in the tabbedcondition they could literally choose to view only part ofthe assortment. They could, however, also view the entirea ignedt entw , thep witht thesed he fil-t ualfi nt).

P

whoc wasa t buti jectsd ed as hado bal-a goalsw packt ackst par-t ats:n nkfi ftert rietym bagso atedt rang-i

erceptions of variety will be lower. It should be notedlthough fewer items will be viewed, perceptions of varouldbe higher in the filtered situation, because consuould infer that there is much more to the assortmenthey did not observe directly.

Such external filtering is also likely to affect consumatisfaction with the assortment.Iyengar and Lepper (200ave shown that consumers are attracted to large assornd value the freedom of more choices. An external filter

imits consumers’ exposure to the entire offering is therelso likely to negatively impact consumers’ satisfaction w

hat assortment. Thus, we hypothesize:

3. If the external filtering mechanism imposing structn the assortment is congruent with a shopping goal imp

nternal structure, consumers will perceive less varietye less satisfied with the assortment offered.

AlthoughH3 suggests filters may lead to efficiencieshe consumer, they may also bring about a cost to the rey allowing the consumer to have a less positive assessf the overall assortment variety. It is our goal here to mure the costs associated with a filtering approach and wo in situations where the exposure to more of the assors not overwhelming for our participants. There are cleoundary conditions where consumers may resent the iiencies of not being able to get exactly where they wafficiently as possible, but we do not consider those bounonditions in this research.

s

ssortment if they so chose. This experiment was deso testH3, which argues if an external filter is congruith the internal structure imposed by a shopping goalarticipant will perceive less variety and be less satisfied

he assortment offered. In addition, it also tests whetherecreases are due to congruence with the structure of t

er (which is mimicked in the primed condition) or the actltering (i.e., the ability to view only a part of the assortme

rocedure

Participants were 237 undergraduate studentsompleted the study for course credit. The experimentdministered on personal computers over the Interne

n a laboratory setting. It was a one-factor between subesign. Once seated at a computer, participants reviewimulated website selling various kinds of bags. Theyne of four different, specific goals that were counternced across the experimental conditions. The specificere: (1) buy a bag, (2) buy a backpack, (3) buy a back

hat also carries your laptop, and (4) check out the backphat also carry a laptop. The 32 bags were presented toicipants in one of three different external filtering formo filter, no filter with primed organization, or hyperlilter that allowed partial viewing of the assortment. Ahey completed the shopping task, for the perceived vaeasure participants reported the number of businessffered in the store. In addition, participants also indic

heir satisfaction with the assortment offered on a scaleng from 1 (not satisfied at all) to 7 (quite satisfied) and the


degree to which they felt overloaded by the number of prod-ucts and amount of information provided on a scale rangingfrom 1 (not at all) to 7 (a great deal). Finally, participantslisted all of the bags they could recall having seen.

Results

In support ofH3, the results indicated a main effect of ex-ternal filter on perceived variety (F(2,212) = 2.94,p< .05).Participants in the hyperlink external filter condition per-ceived significantly less variety (M= 17.3) than participantsin the no filter (M= 20.98) or primed (M= 22.04) conditions.Similarly, the results also reveal a main effect of externalfilter on satisfaction with the assortment (F(2,218) = 7.35,p< .001). Again, participants in the hyperlink external filtercondition were less satisfied with the assortment (M= 4.25)than participants in the no filter (M= 5.06) or primed(M= 5.01) conditions.

The results also reveal a significant main effect of ex-ternal filter on cognitive overload (F(2,220) = 3.34,p< .05).Participants in the no filter (M= 2.48) and primed (M= 2.63)conditions indicated they found the assortment to be signifi-cantly more overwhelming than participants in the hyperlinkcondition (M= 1.96). This finding supports the idea that whenconsumers are presented with an external filter that matchestheir shopping goal, they are able to go directly to their de-s ctso

ter-n ,p ionr tsi .T typeo

D

tingc t 3,w ernals filterp iety.I n ac goala ivedv eeng theo gru-e aseds ed.S wedc heirs ther enceb focus

on the items of interest without formally cutting off the otherpossibilities and this seemed to increase satisfaction.

Although we examine the filtering concept in an on-lineenvironment where filtering is easy to implement, thisconcept could also occur in physical stores. For example,retailers could provide detailed maps or guides on kiosksthat could guide consumers directly to the product ofinterest or alternatively they could lead consumers throughcircuitous paths (e.g., IKEA does this in their furniturestores) that force consumers to view more of the assortment.Our findings provide support for retailers who design storelayouts or websites that require their customers to roam thestore before being able to purchase their desired products.Even if customers do not engage in impulse buying whilewalking through the store or browsing through the site, ourresults indicate that they are likely to perceive more varietyand feel more satisfaction with the overall assortment.

Experiments 2 and 3 also demonstrate that it is not the con-gruence between a shopping goal-driven internal structureand the external organization that yields the lower variety per-ceptions and satisfaction with the assortment, but rather theexplicit ability not to view parts of the assortment. Providingconsumers with an external filter that allows easier navigationthrough the assortment decreases perceptions of variety andsatisfaction with the offering. However, providing consumerswith an understanding of the structure of the assortment( y ors t thats videt witha uctureo e( itsa rnals entd

nt ofv mersd icesa ationi a ord rga-n turew reeno d forp

iliarp istingi sultsi emsc trong,e ries,

ired item without having to look through all the produffered in the assortment.

Lastly, we also found a significant main effect of exal filter on the number of bags recalled (F(2,211) = 5.18< .01). Participants in the hyperlink external filter condit

ecalled significantly fewer bags (M= 4.48) than participann the no filter (M= 5.06) or primed (M= 5.18) conditionshere were no significant effects or interactions due tof goal.

iscussion

The findings of this experiment provide an interesomparison with the previous findings. In experimene found that congruence between a consumer’s inttructure imposed by a shopping goal and the externalrovided by a website, results in lower perceived var

n experiment 2, we found that congruence betweeonsumer’s internal structure imposed by a shoppingnd external organization also resulted in lower perceariety. However, in experiment 2 the congruence betwoal and external display increased satisfaction withverall assortment, whereas in this experiment the connce between external filter and shopping goal decreatisfaction, although participants felt less overwhelmince the match between goal and external filter alloonsumers to find the subset of products that fit thopping goals immediately, they essentially ignoredest of the assortment. In experiment 2, the congruetween goal and display allowed the respondents to

i.e., primed condition) has no effect on perceived varietatisfaction with the assortment. These results suggesimply understanding the external layout does not prohe same benefit for perceived variety and satisfactionssortment as does congruence between the external strf the assortment and a consumer’sexistinginternal structurexperiment 1). Thus, congruent external filtering limppreciation of the assortment while goal-driven intetructure congruent with the organization of the assortmoes not.

Conclusions

Results from three experiments show that the amouariety that consumers perceive and satisfaction consuerive from the assortment offering and their final chore largely dependent on whether the internal organiz

nside the consumer’s head (either due to internal schemue to a shopping goal) is congruent with the external oization provided by the store. To examine external struce manipulated both the layout of the products on the scr in the store, as well as the filtering mechanisms useroduct search.

In the first experiment, we demonstrated that for famroduct categories congruency between a person’s ex

nternal structure and the external layout of the store ren higher perceived variety and more satisfaction with ithosen from the assortment. Since consumers have sstablished internal schemas of familiar product catego


it is critical that the external layout of the assortment matchthe internal organization. When the two organizations arecongruent, people are better able to process the assortmentand therefore perceive more variety. On the other hand, whenthe two organizations are incongruent, consumers becomeconfused and overwhelmed by the assortment and are unableto perceive the full extent of variety that is offered.

We used a hypothetical category in experiment 2, wherewe manipulated a weak internal structure and providedshopping goals. This experiment showed that in unfamiliarcategories, the shopping goal trumps the weak internalstructure at organizing the category. Further, when shop-ping goal-driven internal structures are congruent withexternal displays, consumers perceive less variety but aremore satisfied with the assortment, while the reverse istrue when shopping goals are incongruent with externaldisplays. Further research should examine the interactionbetween shopping goals and internal categorization for morewell-developed internal schemas than those examined here.

The last experiment examined the effects of shoppinggoal-driven internal structure being congruent with thefiltering mechanism used by a retailer to navigate searchof the assortment. When consumers’ shopping goals arecongruent with the external filtering structure, consumersperceive less variety and are less satisfied with the offeringthan when the entire assortment is presented on one screen.T rnals ceedi theirn otherp alsoo uctsd thep ervea lessv therh enti entirea thisc ent io culars rallp theo

tionso e.g.,Hv thats antsw ted.H uchv ringm pingp rch),e tment(

Together the results of these experiments all suggestthat the congruence or incongruence between the internalorganization inside consumers’ heads and the externalorganization of the assortment provided by stores influenceshow consumers perceive the variety offered. This workcontributes to the existing literature on the application ofcategorization theory to consumer domains (e.g.,Goodstein1993; Meyers-Levy & Tybout 1989; Sujan 1985), byexamining the role of internal categorizations or schemas inthe evaluation of the external structure of an assortment. Thiswork also contributes to the perceived variety literature (e.g.,Broniarczyk et al. 1998; Hoch, Bradlow, & Wansink 1999;Kahn & Wansink 2004) that suggests consumer perceptionsof variety are dependent on more than just the actual numberof individual items in the assortment. Retailers should beaware of several factors in order to try and get consumers toperceive more variety in their assortments.

First, the more familiar consumers are with a category,the more important it is for a retailer to match the assortmentlayout with the targeted consumers’ schema for that category.Second, for unfamiliar categories, shopping goals are usefulin helping consumers perceive the full extent of the varietybeing offered. If consumers are likely to browse, it may beuseful for retailers to provide in-store or on-site display cuesto suggest shopping goals for their customers. These shouldnot only help consumers to perceive more variety in thea hasea s ofh fore mayd cana eingl oulda s to“ reef nalo l bec andh nds

portf poreM dget rlierv

A con-.

A s incom-

he congruence between shopping goal-driven intetructures and external filters allows consumers to prommediately to the small number of products that meeteeds for that shopping trip. Consumers still see theroducts and categories of products that the websiteffers, but they do not actually have to view the prodirectly. As a result, they do not process the rest ofroducts offered in the assortment. Since they only obssmall sub-section of the assortment, they perceive

ariety and are less satisfied with the offering. On the oand, when no filter is provided and the entire assortm

s viewed at once, consumers must search through thessortment looking for items that fit their goal. Since inase consumers are forced to process the entire assortmrder to find an item that meets their needs for that partihopping trip, they leave the store with higher oveerceptions of variety and increased satisfaction withffering.

Future research could consider the boundary condif our results. Certainly, as others have pointed out (uffman & Kahn 1998; Iyengar & Lepper 2000), too muchariety can be overwhelming. We have not really reachedtage in our research. In all of our experiments, participere able to cope with the amount of variety we presenowever, one can certainly imagine situations with too mariety (e.g., consider a kitchen tile shop) and then filteay be useful in increasing satisfaction with the shoprocess (a measure we did not consider in this reseaven at the expense of satisfaction with the overall assorwhich we did measure).

n

ssortment, but may also increase the likelihood of purcs well. Finally, retailers should consider the tradeoffaving filtering mechanisms on their websites that allowasy navigation through their assortments. While theyecrease confusion for a particular shopping trip, theylso result in consumers perceiving less variety and b

ess satisfied with the offering in their store. Retailers sht the very least offer ample incentives for consumerpop-out” of their directed path. Knowledge of these thactors will allow retailers to predict whether the exterrganizations they choose for their assortments wilongruent to consumers’ internal organizations or not,ow their choices will affect perceptions of variety aatisfaction with their overall assortments.

Acknowledgments

Barbara E. Kahn acknowledges the financial suprom a Wharton-SMU research center grant from Singaanagement University. The authors also acknowle

he substantial assistance from Cynthia Huffman on eaersions of the paper.

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