We investigate the role of sales assistance in driving customer’s purchase decision using unique observational video data from a cosmetics retail chain. The data contain visual descriptors of customers and their in-store activities including the time they spent in interacting with salespersons (sales assistance), and are linked to their purchase decisions. Our empirical specification is based on the process of customer deciding to engage in sales assistance to acquire information meaningful toward purchase decision. Thus, we treat sales assistance as endogenous construct, and employ a control function approach to correct for this endogeneity using instruments pertaining to the supply of sales assistance. Our analysis quantifies the role of sales assistance in driving a customer’s purchase decision, and it shows that the effectiveness of sales assistance diminishes with its amount. In addition to highlighting the importance of sales assistance towards purchase decisions, our results also quantify how the retailer can influence sales assistance by increasing the availability of salespersons. We also examine the effect of sales assistance on in-store search carried out by the customer. Finally, we offer number of context specific insights into the heterogeneity of customers’ shopping and purchasing behavior.

中文翻译：

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销售协助对购买决策的影响：使用零售视频数据进行的分析

我们使用化妆品零售链中独特的观察性视频数据来调查销售协助在推动客户购买决策中的作用。数据包含客户及其店内活动的直观描述，包括客户与销售人员互动所花费的时间（销售协助），并与其购买决定相关联。我们的经验指标基于客户决定参与销售协助以获取对购买决策有意义的信息的过程。因此，我们将销售协助视为内在构造，并采用控制功能方法使用与销售协助的供应有关的工具纠正这种内生性。我们的分析量化了销售协助在驱动客户购买决策中的作用，并且表明销售协助的有效性随其数量而减少。除了强调销售协助对购买决策的重要性之外，我们的结果还量化了零售商如何通过增加销售人员的可用性来影响销售协助。我们还将检查销售协助对客户进行店内搜索的影响。最后，我们提供了针对特定上下文的洞察力，以了解客户购物和购买行为的异质性。