Evaluating consumer response to EDLPs

This paper reports on an investigation of factors influencing consumer response to every-day low prices (EDLP) policies. In study 1, an experimental study, sale proneness was found to have a significant effect on attitude toward EDLP and patronage intentions for the store implementing a new EDLP policy. Store loyalty affected patronage intentions but not attitude toward the EDLP. While there were no significant interactions between sale proneness and store loyalty, follow-up univariate tests revealed that consumers' level of sale proneness has an impact on attitude toward the EDLP policy when store loyalty is low but not when store loyalty is high. In a follow-up survey, a number of predictions regarding the relationships among sale proneness, store loyalty, and income level and the dependent variables of attitude toward EDLP, attitude toward the retailer, and patronage intentions were made and tested. Support was found for all but two of the 9 hypotheses. Implications of the findings for retailers and future research agendas are discussed.