Abstract:

Sleep deprivation is becoming a common problem, but little research has been done to link sleep deprivation to consumer behavior. This study investigates the relationship between sleep deprivation and post-purchase regret by analyzing a large-scale individual-level dataset (N = 1,625,472) from a leading online retailing website in China. Drawing on ego depletion theory, we postulate that when consumers are sleep-deprived while shopping (past midnight), they are more likely to make impulsive or unplanned purchases, resulting in a higher likelihood of post-purchase regret.

We measure consumer post-purchase regret by product return. First, we use Logit regressions to analyze the relationship between sleep deprivation and product return choice. The results show that sleep deprivation is positively associated with product return choice (b = 0.0136, p < 0.001, 95% confidence interval = [0.0150]), suggesting that consumers had a higher probability of returning an item when they made a purchase after midnight (between 12:00a.m. and 5:59a.m., see Table 1). The regression results for other control variables are as expected: price is positively related to product return choice (b = −0.0006, p = 0.006); both the ratio (b = −0.0438, p < 0.001) and the amount (b = −0.0006, p = 0.006) of the promotion offer decrease product return; website sales period is positively related to product return (b = 0.0109, p < 0.001); gender is not significantly related to product return (b = −0.0003, p = 0.525); experienced consumer has a higher likelihood of returning product (b = 0.0098, p < 0.001).

Second, we use Cox proportional-hazards regressions to analyze the relationship between sleep deprivation and product return duration. The results show that sleep deprivation is associated with a significantly higher risk of product return, with a corresponding hazard ratio greater than 1 (hazard ratio = 1.2144, 95% confidence interval = [1.1924, 1.2369], see Table 2).

Third, we explore the boundary conditions of the relationship between sleep deprivation and product return. As shown in Table 3, the price of the product positively moderates the relationship between sleep deprivation and product return choice (b = 0.0030, p < 0.001), whereas the promotion offer ratio negatively moderates the relationship between sleep deprivation and product return choice (b = −0.0227, p = 0.032).

The study suggests several managerial implications. First, companies could adjust the timing of intensive promotion activities from midnight to the evening (e.g., 8:00p.m. to 11:59p.m.). Such adjustment may prevent consumers from staying up late at midnight to shop, thereby reducing their impulsive and unplanned actions and post-purchase regret. Second, companies could provide more central cues (e.g., product information, promotion information, etc.) to stimulate rational decision-making processing for those consumers who shop after midnight. Finally, for consumers who are predicted high risk of post-purchase regret, companies can send targeted messages to better communicate the value of the product and reduce their propensity to return the product.

Key words: sleep deprivation, post-purchase regret, product return, large-scale individual-level data