Consumer Response to Online Apparel Stockouts

In two online experiments this research investigated the process by which consumers respond to online apparel stock outages (or stockouts) and examined the effectiveness of managerial responses in mitigating the adverse impact of stockouts. Results of Experiment 1 demonstrated that negative emotions evoked by stockouts depressed perception of store image, lowered decision satisfaction, and reduced behavioral intent. In addition, the effect of negative emotion on behavioral intent was mediated by perception of store image and decision satisfaction. The results of Experiment 2 showed that financial compensation was most effective in mitigating the negative impact of out-of-stock occurrences on consumer responses. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.