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Shopping motivation is one of the key concepts in research on consumer shopping behavior and continues to be vividly discussed. Providing a revised theoretical perspective on this issue, the authors propose three hierarchical levels including purpose-specific, activity-specific, and demand-specific shopping motivation. A hierarchical model of shopping motivation is developed based on the theoretical properties introduced by corresponding research in the areas of social and organizational psychology and tested by means of a cross-contextual survey design. Evidence for the mediating nature of the established framework is provided and the findings reveal the dynamics of how purpose-specific shopping motivation predicts activity-specific motivation, which, in turn, determines demand-specific motivation. The moderating impact of the shopping context is tested, demonstrating in which way the relationship between activity and demand-specific motivation is more idiosyncratic in nature than the interrelation of purpose and activity-specific motivation. The utility of the study for future research and its managerial implications are discussed.

In order to facilitate a systematic discussion of the existing research findings, an analytical framework was established following the suggestion by Doty and Glick (1994) to employ typologies as a form of theory building. Our literature analysis is based upon two fundamental dimensions, namely, the generic and the hierarchical dimensions of shopping motivation. The framework presented in Fig. 1 summarizes these analytical guiding principles and is characterized as follows.

The present research started out by detecting signs of a hierarchical structure among existing shopping motives. The development and application of an analytical framework facilitated a systematic review of the literature, suggesting the existence of three levels of the hierarchical dimension of shopping motivation, namely, purpose-specific, activity-specific, and demand-specific shopping motivation. Building upon principles from the areas of social and organizational psychology as well as previous work on shopping behavior, a hierarchical theory of shopping motivation was specified and tested by means of a cross-contextual consumer survey. Overall, the evidence provided by our structural equation modeling procedures underline that (a) purpose-specific shopping motivation predicts activity-specific motivation, which, in turn, determines demand-specific motivation, (b) activity-specific motivation at least partially mediates the impact of purpose on demand-specific motivation, (c) the proposed structural model demonstrates substantial validity across shopping contexts, and (d) the relationship between activity and demand-specific motivation tends to be more idiosyncratic in nature than the influence of purpose on activity-specific motivation. This study points toward some interesting differences of the interrelationships of shopping motives between shopping contexts. Several of these differences relate to the dynamics of self-gratification shopping. Our findings indicate that the impact of recreation on gratification tends to be superior in a food shopping context. That is to say, gratification shopping is considered a particularly effective means to generate enjoyment from a food shopping experience. This dominant effect corresponds to the potentially immediate enjoyment facilitated by the consumption of food products. By the same token, gratification shopping for food products does not lead to increased demands for retailers’ store atmosphere, and service convenience as it does during non-food shopping. Thus, gratification shopping for non-food products seems to be a more holistic experience where consumers may derive positive affect likewise from the assortment, store atmosphere, and service convenience. Food shoppers, on the contrary, tend to be largely product focused in their need for enjoyment. Food retailers aiming to increase the recreational value provided by their shopping environment might exploit this superior effect by offering more pre-prepared and ready-to-eat meal solutions as well as designating a section of their store space to an area with a food court character where shoppers can sit down and enjoy a meal instantly. Whereas such retail solutions have been traditionally regarded as functional and convenience-oriented, the present findings suggest that they might be more effective in catering to shoppers’ recreational needs than previously assumed. Another interesting cross-contextual finding pertains to the consequences of efficiency shopping. Efficiency shopping leads to increased demands for service convenience in both contexts alike. Additionally, efficiency shopping is negatively related to assortment innovation and assortment uniqueness during food shopping. This finding is particularly noteworthy, since it suggests that highlighting such products through in-store promotional activities might actually entail negative consequences for food retailers with a strategic orientation toward providing shopping convenience. For instance, new as well as original products are often featured on end-caps displays in grid store layouts to maximize their exposure to shoppers. Yet such perceptions may represent a disturbance for task-motivated food shoppers, concentrating on attaining shopping efficiency by means of habitual behavioral patterns. These findings may stimulate convenience-oriented food retailers to rethink about such promotional strategies. Across contexts, our findings show that shoppers’ need for recreation impacts on their goals of sensory stimulation, inspiration, gratification, gift shopping, socialization, as well as bargain hunting, and that task-fulfillment impacts efficiency shopping, gift shopping, and also bargain hunting. The evidence regarding the impact of both recreation and task-fulfillment on gift shopping and bargain hunting underscores the hybrid nature of these motives which demonstrate dual qualities. However, recreation appears to be a more powerful predictor of gift shopping and bargain hunting than task-fulfillment, suggesting a predominantly hedonic inclination of these two dependent motives. Evidence across shopping contexts demonstrates that consumers’ need for increased levels of sensory stimulation leads to elevated demands for pleasant store atmospheres as well as unique products. On the contrary, exhibited assortment innovation does not seem to correspond to such stimulation needs and respective in-store promotional and decorative strategies may not be effective. However, assortment innovation shows a superior potential to satisfy shoppers’ intrinsic desire for inspiration, which appears to be less positively related to assortment uniqueness and store atmosphere pleasantness. Interestingly, no support was found relating gift shopping to either assortment uniqueness or assortment innovation. This finding suggests that the attractiveness of merchandise per se may exert a fairly limited influence upon gift shoppers, whose psychological processes seem to be largely preoccupied with matching the recipient's unique anticipated preferences with corresponding merchandise items. Socialization leads to elevated needs for friendly personnel in both shopping contexts alike. Evidence for this effect underlines the role of shopping as a social experience in contemporary society, which is not only facilitated through shoppers’ interaction with accompanying family members, friends, or other consumers, but through the mere contact with retailers’ store employees. An effective human resources management including adequate store personnel selection and specific employee guidelines may help to ensure the quality of the social component of the shopping experience provided by retailers. The impact of bargain hunting on demands for low prices is more pronounced in a non-food than in a food shopping context. This effect might occur since non-food items typically relate to higher price levels than food products, thus shoppers might be particularly driven to identify distinctively lowest prices. Price-related advertising as well as corresponding promotional efforts might be especially effective for non-food retailers trying to attract bargain shoppers. The present research contributes to existing knowledge in three ways. First and foremost, we provide a revised conceptualization of one of the key theoretical concepts used in research on retail marketing and shopping behavior. Since its very beginning, scholarly work on shopping motivation has concentrated on identifying relevant motives guiding consumers’ shopping behaviors. In particular, past research has been very successful in explaining various facets of recreational shopping motivation. This important body of literature provides us with a detailed understanding of what we label as the generic dimension of shopping motivation, that is, a differentiated perspective on various task-driven and recreational shopping motives. Building upon the insights provided by past shopping research and acknowledging corresponding theory developments in the areas of social and organizational psychology, we introduce the hierarchical dimension of shopping motivation. In doing so, (a) the present theoretical discussion expands the dimensionality and thereby our fundamental understanding of this core concept and (b) the empirical investigation provides evidence suggesting the existence of a hierarchical structure inherent in consumers’ shopping motivation. Identifying different levels of shopping motivation and explaining their interrelationships extends the domain of this theoretical concept and provides us with a more complete understanding of the complexities underlying consumers’ motivational processes determining their shopping behaviors. Second, this research provides additional insights regarding the influence of contextual factors on shopping motivation. Whereas there appears to be a wide acknowledgment that shopping motivation constitutes a situational phenomenon; past empirical findings have been limited in which they tend to concentrate on one given shopping context. The present study provides additional insights into which motives tend to be predominantly activated in varying shopping contexts and, more importantly, provides first empirical findings suggesting how the relationships among shopping motives are impacted by contextual factors. Third, even though the managerial relevance of shopping motivation is frequently emphasized, this does not seem to be a comprehensive theory explaining how different motives predict consumers’ preferences of particular store characteristics. Yet this kind of knowledge represents the “interface” between consumer behavior and marketing strategy, enabling retailers to correspond to shoppers’ motivation with their marketing strategies. By investigating the relationship between activity-specific and demand-specific shopping motivation; the present research helps to reduce the shortcoming of current motivational theories to “account for specific actions and to point to particular strategies for influencing behavior” (Bagozzi et al., 2003, pp. 915–916).