New new new! We love new!

Ever wondered why we feel compelled to buy new stuff?

Jie and Li found that “consumers exhibit mere newness preference across many product domains—preferring chronologically newer options over older options with no substantive benefits to newness. . . . consumers are willing to pay a newness premium even for mere newness. . . . Marketers can leverage mere newness preferences by using chronological cues to signal newness. In retail settings, stores can generate incidental newness cues with ‘Product of the Day’ displays to sell specific products even if no promotion is offered (e.g., ‘soup of the day’). . . .  Salespeople can also drum up additional interest for products by emphasizing that they are ‘newly arrived’ (e.g., cars on a lot), ‘just put on shelves’ (e.g., clothes), or even just pointing out that a product has a new advertisement on TV. . . . Part of the appeal of new products may just be that they are new.”

Yun Jie and Ye Li.  “Chronological Cues and Consumers’ Preference for Mere Newness.”  Journal of Retailing, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2021.11.003