Consumer's perceptions and evaluations of virtual bundling

Virtual bundles are promotional offers in which obtaining free product or money discount is linked to the purchase of a certain number of products presented separately. As it offers numerous advantages to retailers and manufacturers, virtual bundling is more and more used in mass marketing. Nevertheless, till now, no research has focused on its efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to identify the relative efficiency of virtual bundles compared to real bundles from the consumer's point of view. From a qualitative study based on nine consumers, the perceived costs associated with virtual bundles have been identified. An experimentation on a sample of 120 adult consumers was then set up to test the hypotheses derived from the literature and the qualitative study. The findings suggest that consumers associate virtual bundles with higher economic benefit but also with cognitive costs.