Impact of promotion design on retail operating performance: Evidence from Chinese Chain retailers

Despite the widespread adoption of electronic coupons as a promotion tool for attracting customers and increasing operating revenue, there are few empirical studies that focus on the impact of promotion design under smart retail circumstance. How do consumers handle dazzling coupon information? Which coupon distribution method best encourages consumers to redeem coupons? To answer those questions, we collected promotion data from 24 Chinese chain retailers for this paper and matched that design data to the corresponding retail performance data. Our unique data set allows us to reveal the relationship between promotion design and retail operating performance. Our analyses show that promotion depth and width both have significant positive effects on coupon redemption. Unlike quick response (QR) code coupons, location-based coupons, feed ad coupons and payment gift coupons all exert negative effects on coupon redemption. Among retailers, specialty stores have a lower coupon redemption ratio than supermarkets, while the coupon redemption ratio of convenience stores shows no difference from that of supermarkets. In addition, retailer reputation has a positive effect on coupon redemption. We also investigate the moderating effect of retail format and retailer reputation for further discussion.