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Research Paper | Psychology | Volume 15 Issue 9, September 2026 | Pages: 40 - 45 | India
High- vs. Low-Urgency Sales Promotions: Effects on Cognitive Load and Decision Quality in eCommerce
Abstract: Time-sensitive sales, countdown timers and scarcity tactics are making their way onto more and more pages at online retailers, and adult online shoppers are now seeing these urgency tactics on nearly every page of a flash sale or standard sale page they visit. However, there is relatively sparse quantitative evidence that directly links the level of promotional urgency to the cognitive load on shoppers and the quality of the resulting decisions, and most of the previous studies are based on purchase intentions or conversion outcomes. This study was designed to fill this gap, using a quasi-experimental, between-subjects design with a sample of adult online shoppers engaged in a controlled shopping task with a fixed budget in a simulated eCommerce environment, both high-urgency and low-urgency. The primary outcome for cognitive load was the NASA-TLX and the behavioural measures of time to complete the task, product page revisits, and cart reversals during the task. The high-urgency condition was reported to have significantly more cognitive load, be completed in less time, have fewer revisits to the pages, but more cart reversals, than the low-urgency condition, while greater cognitive load is associated with greater post-purchase decision regret. These patterns are consistent with the predictions of the Limited Capacity Model and Cognitive Load Theory, as well as the general predictions of Information Overload Theory and Choice Overload Theory. These results provide evidence-based recommendations to interface designers and platform policy makers when attempting to balance short-term conversion gains with the cognitive/psychological burden on shoppers, and highlight the limits of the single-session, simulated shopping context of the current study in fully capturing effects across multiple real-life shopping experiences.
Keywords: Cognitive Load; Promotional Urgency; eCommerce Decision-Making; NASA-TLX; Decision Regret
How to Cite?: Syed Mohammad Saad, Anviti Gupta, "High- vs. Low-Urgency Sales Promotions: Effects on Cognitive Load and Decision Quality in eCommerce", Volume 15 Issue 9, September 2026, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 40-45, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=SR26831220353, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/SR26831220353