DOI - Mendel University Press

DOI identifiers

DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7509-820-7-0162

TEN CENTS DO NOT BUY A MEAL – WHY RETAILERS SHOULD NOT LIMIT DONATIONS OF THEIR CUSTOMERS

Jens-Markus HORN


Rounding up the shopping bill in retail stores is usually restricted to a certain amount, such as a maximum of ten cents. Since customers do not all exhibit the same willingness-to-pay (WTP), some of them would obviously contribute more if they had the possibility, so the arbitrary limitation does not fully utilize the total sum that could be collected if customers were able to choose the size of their donations.
This paper aims to examine whether a free choice for customers to which amount they could round up their shopping bill does result in higher intended donations than various fixed limits or than a selection out of five options. Data collection has been conducted through an online survey of adult customers of German food retail stores. Subsequently, t-tests for dependent samples and analyses of variance (ANOVA) have been employed.
The study reveals that a free choice leads to a significant increase in the sum of customer donations to more than six and a half times, compared to rounding up to the next ten cents. Moreover, the framing of prompting for a contribution has a considerable impact on the willingness-to-donate of customers as well: If specified as a percentage of the shopping bill, donations are significantly larger than if they are stated in terms of an absolute amount or as a share included in the total payment.
The scenarios investigated in this paper constitute a more flexible way of rounding up the shopping bill and therefore are a highly effective means to support a good cause and care for society, e.g. by reducing poverty. Hence, they prove to be an eligible Cause-related Marketing (CrM) concept for food retail companies in the context of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, results refer to intended donations, so in reality amounts might be lower due to an attitude-behaviour gap. Additional research in this area is suggested regarding other retail formats, online shopping, and other countries, as well as involving settings with actual donations.

Keywords: cause-related marketing, corporate social responsibility, retail, rounding up, willingness-to-pay

pages: 162-171, Published: 2021, online: 2021



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