Clearance vs. sale: promotion keywords and their implications for retailers and public policy

ABSTRACT

Promotion keywords (e.g. sale, clearance) are a frequent component of retail advertising, store signage, and point-of-purchase displays. Despite retailers’ frequent use of promotion keywords, past research has not examined their meaning. To address this void, the authors conducted studies examining both consumers’ and retail managers’ perceptions of promotional keywords within the United States market. Using an experimental approach, the authors predict and find that clearance leads to relatively deep retail discount expectations compared to sale (across samples including consumers and retail managers) and that the attractiveness of price promotions is dependent upon associated promotional keywords.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Across each study, a series of exploratory measures were captured but not reported in the manuscript. Please contact the corresponding author for the results of the exploratory measures.

² Harman single factor tests were conducted to consider the possibility of common method bias (CMB). Across all studies, the variance explained by the loadings was within acceptable ranges (<36%), suggesting CMB is unlikely.

³ Please contact the corresponding author for the stimuli used in study 2.

⁴ Attitudes toward the promotion in time 1 were included as a control variable to appropriately measure changes in attitudes between time 1 and time 2. Expected depth of discounts from Stage One were included as a control variable to account for any differences between our anticipated sale and clearance discount levels (i.e. “sale” at 25% and “clearance” at 45%) and participants’ depth of discount expectations.