What’s in it for Me? Exploring Intrusiveness for Online Ads When Intending to Sell Products versus When Intending to Buy Products: An Abstract
Book Chapter
Sewak, S, Taylor, KA. (2022). What’s in it for Me? Exploring Intrusiveness for Online Ads When Intending to Sell Products versus When Intending to Buy Products: An Abstract
. 179-180. 10.1007/978-3-030-95346-1_60
Sewak, S, Taylor, KA. (2022). What’s in it for Me? Exploring Intrusiveness for Online Ads When Intending to Sell Products versus When Intending to Buy Products: An Abstract
. 179-180. 10.1007/978-3-030-95346-1_60
A large body of research has explored how online customized ads can drive the perception of intrusiveness and result in customer behavioral intentions when the intention is to purchase a new product. However, little is known about how the perception of intrusiveness differs when the intention is to sell used products and the resultant behavioral intentions, like clickthrough and intent to sell. This is an issue of significant importance as more and more retailers from various product segments are offering customers options for selling their used products along with the options of buying their new products. For example, companies like ThredUp that provided an avenue for selling good quality clothes have partnered with Walmart, Gap, Reebok, and many other brands for providing resale experience to customers (Rosenbaum and Caminiti 2020). Further, it is not only in the apparel segment where reselling used products is prevalent; this trend has shown an upward trajectory in many other segments such as electronics and furniture as well, besides being a well-established business model for cars already. Recently, IKEA launched its first refurbished store in Sweden, taking advantage of this trend. Also, as more and more companies face the pressure of presenting themselves as a “sustainable” brand, and adding the current crisis faced by all due to the pandemic, this issue will only gain momentum. Our daily lives are replete with examples of times when we are faced with the option of letting go of something that has been sitting idle or not being used for a long time. With the opportunities provided by secondary markets, defined as markets for selling used goods, (Shulman and Coughlan 2007), it is imperative to ask how are the customized ads encouraging consumers to sell are received. What about that crib lying in the garage now that the kid is all grown up? Or that expensive Calvin Klein dress that is hanging in your closet with the hope of someday fitting you like it once did? Apps like Letgo and platforms like eBay provided great opportunities to people wanting to get rid of such stuff, that someone else might be interested in buying. Given the widespread use of the internet by all age groups, how receptive are customers when they are faced with a customized ad for a product they have been deliberating to sell online? Our research takes the first step towards attempting to answer such questions by linking the perception of intrusiveness associated with such customized ads, with a concrete established measure like Clickthrough.
