More promotion, less satisfaction in online shopping: evidence from Chinese university students

China’s e-commerce landscape is characterized by massive promotional festivals that inundate consumers with options, creating a paradox where greater choice often yields lower satisfaction. While “promotion information overload” is pervasive, the psychological mechanisms driving it—and the specific remedies to counteract it—remain insufficiently explored. Grounded in cognitive load theory and self-construal theory, this study investigates how promotion information overload compromises online shopping satisfaction through the mediating role of cognitive load. Furthermore, it examines the moderating roles of list reference and self-construal in navigating these complex promotional environments. Data were collected across three experiments involving 729 Chinese university students (N1 = 169, N2 = 209, N3 = 351), a demographic central to the digital marketplace. The results empirically demonstrate that promotion information overload erodes online shopping satisfaction by inducing excessive cognitive load. Crucially, however, the provision of list reference functions as a heuristic scaffold, effectively buffering the adverse impact of high cognitive load. This protective effect is further nuanced by individual disposition: a three-way interaction reveals that consumers with an interdependent self-construal are significantly more responsive to these external cues than their independent counterparts. These findings suggest that for Chinese university students, leveraging social-proof heuristics offers a viable strategy to mitigate the complexity of modern promotional environments, providing actionable insights for platform design.