Persuasive location-based messaging to attract consumers to a physical store: a construal level theory approach

Although it appears increasingly important yet potentially challenging to attract consumers to physical stores, location‐based messaging has been said to enable such attraction. Still, existing studies offer very limited insight into which particular location‐based persuasion approach retailers should use. This study aimed to establish and compare the potential of two discrepant persuasion strategies to influence consumers’ experiences and thereby stimulate them to visit the retailer's physical store. Drawing on persuasion theory and construal level theory, and using a vignette‐based online survey method, we determined that scarcity is a more effective persuasion strategy in the studied context than social proof; scarcity‐focused messages are experienced as more informative, more entertaining and less irritating, are therefore valued more, and are thus more likely to induce store visits. We discuss these findings and their implications for theory as well as for practice.