The impact of monetary rewards on product sales in referral programs: The role of product image aesthetics

Monetary rewards are widely used in marketing practice to encourage referral behaviors and boost sales. To understand the effectiveness of monetary rewards in different contexts, this study examines how and why product image aesthetics moderate the relationship between monetary rewards and product sales in referral programs. The authors first analyzed a dataset obtained from a large e-commerce platform and calculated product image aesthetics using a computational approach. The results reveal that larger monetary rewards will lead to higher product sales in referral programs, and this effect will be attenuated or even reversed as product image aesthetics increase. Subsequently, the authors conducted a well-controlled laboratory experiment to replicate the documented effect and further validate extrinsic and intrinsic motivation as the underlying mechanisms. These findings extend the extant literature on referral programs by determining the importance of visual presentation of products and providing meaningful managerial implications.