Manufacturers may be looking more closely at the printed labels on their products after a study in the US revealed an interesting phenomenon scientists have dubbed 'the carryover effect'.

Wendy Attaya Boland from American University and Merrie Brucks and Jesper Nielsen from University of Arizona were interested in the buying habits of shoppers when the items they intended to purchase were out of stock.

Although they expected to find people going for a similar item to the one they were looking for, the team discovered that consumers instead rejected it and went for something different altogether.

For instance, when a man hunting for a new pen with an extra-fine nib and blue ink found it was out of stock, he did not buy a pen with an extra-fine nib and black ink.

Instead, he chose a ballpoint pen with blue ink, rejecting the attribute that had previously been the most important.

Manufacturers could therefore benefit from creating promotional labels to highlight their other products for when popular items go out of stock.

Last month, the Windows on Impulse Shopping Revisited study by Shoppercentric found that 41 per cent of people would stray from their shopping list if they spot an unbeatable price.

Denny Bros Ltd, 19th July 2011