Abstract

We know there are many attributes like price, brand, appearance, quality, etc. that have an effect on the decision process of people purchasing certain products. In order to analyze what aspects of buying situation drive a person to buy the product, we asked thousands of shoppers across a variety of products what their key factors are when purchasing an item. Our results show that Homo economicus exists, but it’s not about price mainly – although price is very important. Price is extremely important for a number of items, and then almost irrelevant for a lot of other items. The significance of price was not related to either the product type or to high vs. low price items. Consumers are less price sensitive when purchasing more indulgent products. And when customers are affluent relative to the price of emotional attraction like appearance or taste becomes more important in their buying decision.