What aspect of service marketing indicates that services cannot be stored for future use?

The concept that services cannot be stored for future use is best captured by the idea of perishability. In service marketing, perishability refers to the fact that services are produced and consumed simultaneously, meaning once they are delivered, they cannot be saved or inventoried for later use. For instance, if a seat on a flight goes unfilled, that opportunity is lost forever: it cannot be stored or sold at a later time.

Perishability underscores the importance of managing supply and demand in service industries. Unlike physical products, which can be produced in advance and stored until needed, services must be provided in real-time and cannot be stockpiled, highlighting the unique challenges businesses face when trying to align their service capacity with consumer demand.

The other concepts mentioned, such as intangibility, inseparability, and variability, pertain to different characteristics of services. Intangibility emphasizes that services cannot be touched or owned, inseparability indicates that services are produced and consumed at the same moment and often require interaction between the provider and consumer, while variability refers to the inconsistency in service quality that can arise due to different providers or circumstances.