Product Assortment and Consumer Choice

Product Assortment and Consumer Choice examines existing literature and builds on the current theoretical developments across different research domains to develop a set of research propositions delineating the impact of product assortment on consumer choice. Taking a consumer’s perspective to examine how product assortment influences decision making and choice, this review defines the consumer aspect of assortment research to answer three key questions.First, how do consumers perceive the variety of items in an assortment? The first part of thisreview examines factors that influence consumer perceptions of the variety of an assortment.In particular, it investigates how factors such as assortment size, the degree of distinctivenessof assortment options, the dispersion of option frequencies, and the organization of theassortment influence consumer perceptions of assortment variety. Second, how do consumerschoose an item from a given assortment? The second part discusses factors that influenceconsumer choice of an item from a given assortment. It examines the impact of assortment sizeon the purchase likelihood from a given assortment, the number of options purchased, and theparticular options chosen from the assortment. Third, how do consumers choose amongassortments? The third part examines factors that influence consumer choice amongassortments. In particular, it investigates how assortment size, assortment structure, andpurchase quantity influence consumers’ choice of an assortment. Conceptual analysis of theexisting research in each of these three areas is summarized in a series of research propositionsthat integrate current findings and offer directions for future research.Product Assortment and Consumer Choice concludes with a discussion of the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of existing product assortment research and identifies venues for further investigation.