Buyer success and failure in bargaining and its consequences

This study aims to investigate the process of buyers’ subsequent attitudes and subsequent actions and their relationships depended on the bargaining outcomes. Depth interviews were employed in order to explore the success, the failure, and the consequent actions in dyadic bargaining under the condition of one buyer and one seller. Ten international respondents were invited to be interviewed. Approximately one hour of each interview is taken, while English is the medium of the interviews. After the interviews, respondents were given five USD as an incentive. The results show that successful bargainers tended to be younger people and easterner, compared to unsuccessful bargainers who tended to be older people and westerner. When buying product in computer and vehicle category, it might provide higher chance in getting the discount, while buying product in garment category gave the partial tendency to win the bargain. Since garment seems to have fewer profit margins when compared to the other category like computer or vehicle, it thus is obligatory for the seller to avoid discounting this kind of product. During the interviews, author found that confident interviewees shared their successful bargaining experiences; whereas, interviewees with very calm and quiet attitude seemed to express about their unsuccessful bargaining stories. This research also provides insights of buyer as bargainer profoundly. It therefore helps the seller, especially in computer, garment, and vehicle industry, knows how to balance mutual-interest and maintain the strong relationship with customer.