Consumer’s Perceptions of Values Regarding Different Shelf Levels in Terms of Price

Abstract: Retail shelves acts as extrinsic cues which influence consumers’ perceptions and facilitates them in their purchase dilemma. This study is about determining any possible association between vertical shelf levels and consumers’ perception of values. The assumption that consumers perceive a product at higher place as of higher value (quality) was analyzed by means of primary data and further explained by cue utilization theory. The research attempts to quantify values (extrinsic cue effect) by means of prices of the products. Here, both shelf levels and price are considered as extrinsic cues. In other words, this research analyzed the influence of one extrinsic cue on the other and thus how this affects consumer perception of the product’s value. For this purpose, a primary research was conducted involving consumer group of Swedish people (N=90) and price data was collected for three products placing at different shelf levels. Results from the questionnaire were analyzed by means of one way ANOVA test. The results disapproved hypothesis that was tested yet showed a positive trend for one the value product e.g., coffee. On the basis of result, it can be deduced that further research with different experimental techniques could be applied on the same subject matter to bring more accurate results.