Abstract: Store crowding is a common phenomenon in shopping. Previous research focus the negative impact of store crowding on store products, or focused on the positive impact of store crowding on store products. However, The impact of store crowding on store product purchase willingness is positive or negative, which lack consistent conclusions. This study believes that the relationship between store crowding and consumer product purchase intentions depends on the consumer’s self-construal, and a dual mediating mechanism of the influence is proposed. The experimental results show that the interaction effect between store crowding and self-construction has an impact on store product purchase intentions. For consumers with independent self-construal, store crowding (vs. non-crowding) makes consumers infer the lack of uniqueness of the product, which has a negative effect on product purchase intention; for consumers with interdependent self-construal, store crowding (vs. non-crowding) makes consumers infer that products are popular, which has a positive effect on product purchase intention.

Keywords: store crowding; product popularity; product uniqueness; self-construal