Pre-sale Or Spot Sales?—The Impact Of Online New Product Sales On Consumers' Purchasing Intention

New products often face many unknown risks,leading more and more online merchants to choose pre-sale rather than spot sales when launching new products.Under the reality that online shopping is flourishing and online pre-sale is becoming more and more common,this paper examines the impact of different online new product sales methods on consumers' purchasing intentions,hoping to provide reference for enterprises' marketing practice.Consumer's purchase decision of new products is essentially a process of achieving goals.According to the Regulatory focus theory,individuals will be constrained by self-regulation in the process of pursuing goals.Therefore,regulation focus will affect consumers' adoption of new products.According to the S-O-R model,external stimulus(S)can affect the body's psychological response(O),and then affect its behavior(R).Therefore,consumer's psychological response is the intermediary connecting marketing stimulus and its purchase behavior.In the pre-sale situation,the product arrival time is long,leaving more time and space for consumers to fantasize.In the spot sales situation,consumers can get more product information and have higher perceived authenticity.Therefore,in the face of pre-sale and spot sales,long-term fantasy and near-term perceived authenticity may play mediating roles respectively.Based on these,the paper explores the interaction between pre-sale and spot sales modes and consumers' regulatory focus on purchase intention through three experiments,and verifies the mediating role of fantasy and perceived authenticity.Experiments 1 explored the direct impact of sales methods on purchase intention.The study finds that there is no significant difference between pre-sale and spot sales of new products on purchase intention,but if consumers are divided into two groups: promotion focus and prevention focus,the influence of different sales modes appears.The purchase intention of promotion focus individuals in pre-sale situation is significantly higher than that in spot sales situation,while the purchase intention of prevention focus individuals in spot sales situation is significantly higher than that in pre-sale situation.In experiment 2,the group design of 2(pre-sale VS spot sales)and 2(promotion focus VS prevention focus)was adopted to further prove the interaction between sales modes and regulatory focus on consumers' purchase intention.When stimulating consumers' promotion focus,consumers' purchase intention in pre-sale situation is higher than that in spot sales situation.When stimulating consumers' prevention focus,consumers' purchase intention in spot sales situation is higher than that in pre-sale situation.Experiment 3 re-examined the conclusion of Experiment 2 and further explored the mediating role of fantasy and perceived authenticity: When stimulating consumers' promotion focus,consumers' purchase intention in pre-sale situation is higher than that in spot sales situation,and consumers' fantasy plays a mediating role;When stimulating consumers' prevention focus,consumers' purchase intention in spot sales situation is higher than that in pre-sale situation,and consumers' perceived authenticity plays a mediating role.The conclusion enriches the theory of pre-sale and provides more theoretical basis for understanding consumers' purchase intention and behavior of new products.For enterprises,after knowing the influence of different sales modes on purchase intention,they can adopt marketing means which are easier to stimulate consumers' purchase intention to improve product sales.For consumers,the conclusions of this paper help them realize the cognitive and emotional process behind their buying behavior.It is helpful for consumers to make rational purchases and choose the right way to buy products that are more suitable for them.