IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joreco/v85y2025ics0969698925000475.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Less stress, fewer delays: The role of sophisticated AI in mitigating decision fatigue and purchase postponement in luxury retail

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Jiarui
  • Kang, Jiyun

Abstract

Purchase postponement is a critical issue for luxury retailers, as consumers often browse or try luxury goods but ultimately delay or abandon purchases. This study explores how retail technologies can address this problem. While sophisticated AI offers diversified recommendations and hyper-personalized options, it can overwhelm consumers, increasing their decision fatigue and purchase postponement. However, it also has the potential to facilitate consumers' decision-making. Building on the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study examines whether luxury consumers’ experiences with different levels of AI sophistication (high vs. low) show varying levels of purchase postponement (Study 1) and further explores the underlying mechanisms by which sophisticated AI mitigates decision fatigue and purchase postponement (Study 2). Results from two online experiments indicate that luxury consumers who interacted with highly sophisticated AI exhibited lower levels of purchase postponement, even among those with higher goal orientations. This is because luxury consumers perceive sophisticated AI as having more mind-like qualities (agency and experience), enhancing their perceived trust and empathy, which helps alleviate decision fatigue and purchase postponement, especially when service embarrassment is low. This paper makes a significant contribution to the body of knowledge in AI services, retailing, and luxury consumer research, and provides practical insights for luxury retailers with strategies to prevent and mitigate consumer decision fatigue and purchase postponement.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Jiarui & Kang, Jiyun, 2025. "Less stress, fewer delays: The role of sophisticated AI in mitigating decision fatigue and purchase postponement in luxury retail," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:85:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000475
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104268
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698925000475
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104268?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mick, David Glen & Fournier, Susan, 1998. "Paradoxes of Technology: Consumer Cognizance, Emotions, and Coping Strategies," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 25(2), pages 123-143, September.
    2. Benedict G. C. Dellaert & Suzanne B. Shu & Theo A. Arentze & Tom Baker & Kristin Diehl & Bas Donkers & Nathanael J. Fast & Gerald Häubl & Heidi Johnson & Uma R. Karmarkar & Harmen Oppewal & Bernd H. S, 2020. "Consumer decisions with artificially intelligent voice assistants," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 335-347, December.
    3. Lea Dunn & JoAndrea Hoegg, 2014. "The Impact of Fear on Emotional Brand Attachment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(1), pages 152-168.
    4. Park, Hyejune & Lim, Rachel Esther, 2023. "Fashion and the metaverse: Clarifying the domain and establishing a research agenda," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Herter, Márcia Maurer & Borges, Adilson & Pinto, Diego Costa, 2021. "Which emotions make you healthier? The effects of sadness, embarrassment, and construal level on healthy behaviors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 147-158.
    6. Chen, Tong & Razzaq, Amar & Qing, Ping & Cao, Binbin, 2021. "Do you bear to reject them? The effect of anthropomorphism on empathy and consumer preference for unattractive produce," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Kim, Jungkeun & Kim, Jeong Hyun & Kim, Changju & Park, Jooyoung, 2023. "Decisions with ChatGPT: Reexamining choice overload in ChatGPT recommendations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    8. Moro, Sérgio & Rita, Paulo & Vala, Bernardo, 2016. "Predicting social media performance metrics and evaluation of the impact on brand building: A data mining approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3341-3351.
    9. Ko, Eunju & Costello, John P. & Taylor, Charles R., 2019. "What is a luxury brand? A new definition and review of the literature," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 405-413.
    10. Pantano, Eleonora & Pedeliento, Giuseppe & Christodoulides, George, 2022. "A strategic framework for technological innovations in support of the customer experience: A focus on luxury retailers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    11. Huang, Ming-Hui & Rust, Roland T., 2022. "A Framework for Collaborative Artificial Intelligence in Marketing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 209-223.
    12. Zhao, Taiyang & Ran, Yaxuan & Wu, Banggang & Lynette Wang, Valerie & Zhou, Liying & Lu Wang, Cheng, 2024. "Virtual versus human: Unraveling consumer reactions to service failures through influencer types," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    13. Simon, Françoise, 2013. "The influence of empathy in complaint handling: Evidence of gratitudinal and transactional routes to loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 599-608.
    14. Muthaffar, Aisha & Vilches-Montero, Sonia, 2023. "Empowering retailers: A bounded rationality perspective to enhancing omnichannel journey satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Welté, Jean-Baptiste & Cayla, Julien & Fischer, Eileen, 2022. "Navigating contradictory logics in the field of luxury retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 510-526.
    16. Lunardo, Renaud & Mouangue, Emilie, 2019. "Getting over discomfort in luxury brand stores: How pop-up stores affect perceptions of luxury, embarrassment, and store evaluations," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 77-85.
    17. Jean-Baptiste Welté & Julien Cayla & Eileen Fischer, 2022. "Navigating contradictory logics in the field of luxury retailing," Post-Print hal-04103619, HAL.
    18. Alboqami, Hassan, 2023. "Trust me, I'm an influencer! - Causal recipes for customer trust in artificial intelligence influencers in the retail industry," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Huang, Yu-Shan (Sandy) & Dootson, Paula, 2022. "Chatbots and service failure: When does it lead to customer aggression," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    20. Ertugrul Uysal & Sascha Alavi & Valéry Bezençon, 2022. "Trojan horse or useful helper? A relationship perspective on artificial intelligence assistants with humanlike features," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 1153-1175, November.
    21. Rahman, Muhammad Sabbir & Bag, Surajit & Hossain, Md Afnan & Abdel Fattah, Fadi Abdel Muniem & Gani, Mohammad Osman & Rana, Nripendra P., 2023. "The new wave of AI-powered luxury brands online shopping experience: The role of digital multisensory cues and customers’ engagement," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    22. Liu, Fanjue & Lee, Yu-Hao, 2024. "Virtually responsible? Attribution of responsibility toward human vs. virtual influencers and the mediating role of mind perception," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    23. Sarkar Sengupta, Aditi & Balaji, M.S. & Krishnan, Balaji C., 2015. "How customers cope with service failure? A study of brand reputation and customer satisfaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 665-674.
    24. Yoganathan, Vignesh & Osburg, Victoria-Sophie, 2024. "The mind in the machine: Estimating mind perception's effect on user satisfaction with voice-based conversational agents," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    25. Du, Shuili & Xie, Chunyan, 2021. "Paradoxes of artificial intelligence in consumer markets: Ethical challenges and opportunities," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 961-974.
    26. Dahl, Darren W & Manchanda, Rajesh V & Argo, Jennifer J, 2001. "Embarrassment in Consumer Purchase: The Roles of Social Presence and Purchase Familiarity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 473-481, December.
    27. Katyal, Kanupriya & Dawra, Jagrook & Soni, Nitin, 2022. "The posh, the paradoxical and the phony: Are there individual differences between consumers of luxury, masstige and counterfeit brands?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 191-204.
    28. Gong, Taeshik & Park, JungKun, 2023. "Effects of augmented reality technology characteristics on customer citizenship behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    29. Ogunjimi, Ayotunde & Rahman, Mizan & Islam, Nazrul & Hasan, Rajibul, 2021. "Smart mirror fashion technology for the retail chain transformation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    30. Guha, Abhijit & Grewal, Dhruv & Kopalle, Praveen K. & Haenlein, Michael & Schneider, Matthew J. & Jung, Hyunseok & Moustafa, Rida & Hegde, Dinesh R. & Hawkins, Gary, 2021. "How artificial intelligence will affect the future of retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 28-41.
    31. Xueming Luo & Siliang Tong & Zheng Fang & Zhe Qu, 2019. "Frontiers: Machines vs. Humans: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence Chatbot Disclosure on Customer Purchases," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(6), pages 937-947, November.
    32. Esmark Jones, Carol L. & Barney, Christian & Farmer, Adam, 2018. "Appreciating Anonymity: An Exploration of Embarrassing Products and the Power of Blending In," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 186-202.
    33. Greenleaf, Eric A & Lehmann, Donald R, 1995. "Reasons for Substantial Delay in Consumer Decision Making," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 22(2), pages 186-199, September.
    34. Benjamin D Douglas & Patrick J Ewell & Markus Brauer, 2023. "Data quality in online human-subjects research: Comparisons between MTurk, Prolific, CloudResearch, Qualtrics, and SONA," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(3), pages 1-17, March.
    35. Aslam, Usman, 2023. "Understanding the usability of retail fashion brand chatbots: Evidence from customer expectations and experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    36. Kim, Sanghee & Chang, Hyo Jung (Julie), 2023. "Mechanism of retail therapy during stressful life events: The psychological compensation of revenge consumption toward luxury brands," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leah Warfield Smith & Randall Lee Rose & Alex R. Zablah & Heath McCullough & Mohammad “Mike” Saljoughian, 2023. "Examining post-purchase consumer responses to product automation," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 530-550, May.
    2. Gong, Xiuyuan & Sun, Pengkai, 2025. "Can virtual streamers express emotions? Understanding the language style of virtual streamers in livestreaming e-commerce," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    3. Jana Holthöwer & Jenny Doorn, 2023. "Robots do not judge: service robots can alleviate embarrassment in service encounters," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 767-784, July.
    4. Zhang, Yaqiong & Wang, Shifu, 2023. "The influence of anthropomorphic appearance of artificial intelligence products on consumer behavior and brand evaluation under different product types," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Rese, Alexandra & Witthohn, Lennart, 2025. "Recovering customer satisfaction after a chatbot service failure – The effect of gender," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Ziegler, Alexander H. & Allen, Alexis M. & Peloza, John & Ian Norris, J., 2022. "The nature of vicarious embarrassment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 355-364.
    7. Blut, Markus & Wünderlich, Nancy V. & Brock, Christian, 2024. "Facilitating retail customers’ use of AI-based virtual assistants: A meta-analysis," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 293-315.
    8. Affandi, Sana & Ishaq, Muhammad Ishtiaq & Raza, Ali & Talpur, Qurat-ul-ain & Ahmad, Rehan, 2025. "AI assistant is my new best friend! Role of emotional disclosure, performance expectations and intention to reuse," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    9. Rohit, Kumar & Shankar, Amit & Katiyar, Gagan & Mehrotra, Ankit & Alzeiby, Ebtesam Abdullah, 2024. "Consumer engagement in chatbots and voicebots. A multiple-experiment approach in online retailing context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Joel-Edgar, Sian & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Nagy, Peter & Ren, Shuang, 2025. "Virtual influencers in social media versus the metaverse: Mind Perception, blame judgements and brand trust," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    11. Mehrotra, Ankit & Agarwal, Reeti & Khalil, Ashraf & Alzeiby, Ebtesam Abdullah & Agarwal, Vaishali, 2024. "Nitty-gritties of customer experience in metaverse retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Ding, Zhenbin & Zhang, Yali & Sun, Jun & Goh, Mark & Yang, Zhaojun, 2025. "To reveal or conceal: AI identity disclosure strategies for merchants," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    13. Erik Hermann & Gizem Yalcin Williams & Stefano Puntoni, 2024. "Deploying artificial intelligence in services to AID vulnerable consumers," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(5), pages 1431-1451, October.
    14. Pei Li & Chunmao Wu & Charles Spence, 2023. "Comparing the influence of visual information and the perceived intelligence of voice assistants when shopping for sustainable clothing online," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Hu, Lala & Olivieri, Mirko & Giovannetti, Marta & Cedrola, Elena, 2025. "The retail strategies of luxury fashion firms in the metaverse: Enhancing brand experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    16. Hermann, Erik & Puntoni, Stefano, 2024. "Artificial intelligence and consumer behavior: From predictive to generative AI," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    17. Erik Hermann, 2022. "Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Marketing for Social Good—An Ethical Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 43-61, August.
    18. Li, Tian-Ge & Zhang, Chu-Bing & Chang, Ying & Zheng, Wei, 2024. "The impact of AI identity disclosure on consumer unethical behavior: A social judgment perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Robertson, Jeandri & Botha, Elsamari & Oosthuizen, Kim & Montecchi, Matteo, 2025. "Managing change when integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the retail value chain: The AI implementation compass," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    20. Ulrich Gnewuch & Stefan Morana & Oliver Hinz & Ralf Kellner & Alexander Maedche, 2024. "More Than a Bot? The Impact of Disclosing Human Involvement on Customer Interactions with Hybrid Service Agents," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(3), pages 936-955, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joreco:v:85:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925000475. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.