Why impulse purchase

In recent years, the study of consumer behavior has been marked by significant changes, mainly in decision-making process and consequently in the influences of purchase intention Stankevich, The markets are different and characterized by an increased competition, as well a constant innovation in products and services available and a greater number of companies in the same market.

In this scenario it is essential to know the consumer well Varadarajan, It is through the analysis of the factors that have a direct impact on consumer behavior that it is possible to innovate and meet their expectations.

This research is essential for marketers to be able to improve their campaigns and reach the target audience more effectively Ding et al. The sales promotion has become one of the most powerful tools to change the perception of buyers and has a significant impact on their purchase decision Khan et al.

Advertising has a great capacity to influence and persuade, and even the most innocuous, can cause changes in behavior that affect the consumer's purchase intention. Falebita et al. Kumar et al. It is essential to understand the mental triggers behind the purchase decision process, which is why consumer psychology is related to marketing strategies Ding et al.

It is not uncommon for the two areas to use the same models to explain consumer behavior and the reasons that trigger impulse purchases. Consumers are attracted by advertising and the messages it conveys, which is reflected in their behavior and purchase intentions Varadarajan, Impulse buying has been studied from several perspectives, namely: i rational processes; ii emotional resources; iii the cognitive currents arising from the theory of social judgment; iv persuasive communication; v and the effects of advertising on consumer behavior Malter et al.

The causes of impulsive behavior are triggered by an irresistible force to buy and an inability to evaluate its consequences. Despite being aware of the negative effects of buying, there is an enormous desire to immediately satisfy your most pressing needs Meena, The importance of impulse buying in consumer behavior has been studied since the 's, since it represents between This type of purchase obeys non-rational reasons that are characterized by the sudden appearance and the in satisfaction between the act of buying and the results obtained Reisch and Zhao, According to Burton et al.

This tendency to buy spontaneously and without reflection can be explained by the immediate gratification it provides to the buyer Pradhan et al. Impulsive shopping in addition to having an emotional content can be triggered by several factors, including: the store environment, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and the emotional state of the consumer at that time Gogoi and Shillong, The buying experience increasingly depends on the interaction between the person and the point of sale environment, but it is not just the atmosphere that stimulates the impulsive behavior of the consumer.

The sensory and psychological factors associated with the type of products, the knowledge about them and brand loyalty, often end up overlapping the importance attributed to the physical environment Platania et al. The impulse buying causes an emotional lack of control generated by the conflict between the immediate reward and the negative consequences that the purchase can originate, which can trigger compulsive behaviors that can become chronic and pathological Pandya and Pandya, Sohn and Ko , argue that although all impulse purchases can be considered as unplanned, not all unplanned purchases can be considered impulsive.

Unplanned purchases can occur, simply because the consumer needs to purchase a product, but for whatever reason has not been placed on the shopping list in advance. This suggests that unplanned purchases are not necessarily accompanied by the urgent desire that generally characterizes impulse purchases. The impulse purchases arise from sensory experiences e. This type of shopping results from the stimulation of the five senses and the internet does not have this capacity, so that online shopping can be less encouraging of impulse purchases than shopping in physical stores Moreira et al.

This situation can be explained by the fact that consumers must wait for the product to be delivered when they buy online and this time interval may make impulse purchases unfeasible. Following the logic of Platania et al. Impulse shopping, we all do it. For some, our weakness strikes at the end of a crazy day. Impulse buying happens when we want to pamper ourselves, or discover a great deal, discount or buying incentive.

But what else makes us vulnerable? As consumers, we usually believe that we make conscious choices based on what we need and want.

Most of us feel sure about the reasons behind our various purchases — from clothes and furniture, to breath-mints. But the scientists who delve into the intricacies of human consumer behavior think that there is a lot more at play. It would seem that our mood, memories, fears and even our personality can be used to predict what we might pick up on a whim; and how much.

The science suggests that impulse purchases may be motivated by a number of different factors :. We tend to pick up things that make us happy. The thought of immediate, pure pleasure can be insanely powerful; particularly when we are stressed out. Getting something new or getting a treat is a pick-me-up on a bad day, adds spice to a boring one, and can work as a strong incentive for a lazy day. This happens because our brain can often get fooled by the idea that something MAY be a good deal.

As a species that fears running out of resources; we have a tendency to stock up on things we think we should have. Therefore, social media can represent a powerful tool to boost impulse buying. The literature review points out a controversy regarding which channel, online or offline, leads to more impulse buying Verhagen and van Dolen, This research contributes to this debate by examining whether consumers perceive the online channel to be more or less encouraging of impulsive buying than the offline channel when they carry out purchases.

With this goal, we focus on the factors or characteristics of the internet that can encourage or discourage impulse buying through this medium. Finally, to obtain a more complete and current picture of the phenomenon of impulse buying, we explore the possible influence of social media on this behaviour.

To sum up, we propose the following research questions: RQ1. Which channel — online or offline — is considered by the consumer as leading to more impulse buying? Table I summarizes the conceptual framework that attempts to address the research questions.

Furthermore, despite the fact that the internet prevents consumers from touching and trying on garments McCabe and Nowlis, , this limitation can be overcome by good quality product presentation, with realistic pictures and detailed information about sizes and measures. Offering the possibility of free shipping or in-store refunds can also be used to overcome the limitations of online shopping. The previous literature review has pointed out that impulse buying is hedonically complex and has a strong emotional character Luna and Quintanilla, ; Sharma et al.

Emotions and hedonic experiences are strongly related to sensory stimulation Krishna, To the extent that physical stores are able to stimulate the senses better than the internet, we might expect that consumers will perceive the physical channel as more impulsive than the online channel.

A recent report by Kearney revealed that 40 per cent of the participants in a survey 3, consumers from the USA and the UK spent more money than planned in physical stores, while the percentage doing so in the online channel was 25 per cent. Finally, several authors argue that, beyond channel characteristics, personal and situational characteristics also determine impulse buying Badgaiyan and Verma, ; Lim and Yazdanifard, Sociodemographic variables, such as gender or age, can strongly affect behaviour Youn and Faber, As we noted in our introduction, the economic crisis of the past years may have changed consumer behaviour and the way they use new technologies, pivoting in general towards more planned purchases.

The literature review also reveals differentiating characteristics of the online and the offline channels that can encourage or discourage impulse buying Table I. Among the encouraging factors with regard to online impulse buying, we find the following defining characteristics of the internet: greater product assortment and variety, sophisticated marketing techniques, credit cards, anonymity, lack of human contact and easy access and convenience.

First, greater assortment and product variety is one of the most influential factors for online consumers in carrying out impulse purchases Brohan, ; Chen-Yu and Seock, Online stores have the capacity to offer greater assortment and variety than physical stores, which are more limited by physical constraints. Regarding the second factor, the use of advanced marketing techniques, such as personalized emails based on purchasing history or with information about new products and a direct link to the electronic store, can be highly effective in encouraging online impulse buying Koufaris, ; LaRose, Sales promotions devices, though they are also available at physical stores, seem to be more effective in online shopping.

Furthermore, online promotions can be more customized than offline promotions, so consumers will be more likely to be offered products of specific, personal interest Koski, Third, credit cards can encourage impulse buying Karbasivar and Yarahmadi, ; Koski, This payment method is commonly used in offline purchases, but it is more widespread in the online channel. Consequently, use of the online channel could encourage more impulse buying than the offline channel.

When using virtual payment methods, money appears less real and consumers have the feeling that they are not really spending it Dittmar and Drury, ; Tuttle, Thus, the monetary consequences of making impulse purchases are not perceived immediately LaRose, The anonymity and lack of human contact that the internet provides can also encourage online impulse buying.

According to Rook and Fisher , impulse buying is more likely to occur when the situation assures anonymity, so this characteristic may be an important advantage of the internet over the physical store. Consumers may feel more comfortable buying online those products which would make them feel embarrassed if purchased offline Koufaris, Similarly, we may state that, by and large, online consumers carry out their purchases alone and in private; if the purchase is made offline, it is common to have physical contact and interaction with other people salespeople, companions.

Taking into account that human contact leads to a better control of the impulse to buy Greenfield, , its absence may encourage impulse buying on the internet.

Finally, buying at physical stores is limited to a geographic location and to opening hours; on the internet, these limitations disappear Koufaris, Furthermore, access to an online store does not entail any cost or effort on the part of the consumer transportation, parking, etc. Also, consumers browsing online are constantly exposed to products that they might like, even though they are not intentionally searching for them, or plan to purchase them; and buying these items is only one click away.

This ease of completing transactions can lead to more impulse buying than in the physical channel Dawson and Kim, ; Koski, ; Koufaris, Regarding the discouraging factors for online impulse buying, the specialized literature identifies the following: delayed satisfaction or gratification, the impossibility of using the five senses, easy comparisons, shipping and refund costs and easy access and convenience Table I.

One of the defining elements of impulse buying is the urgent need to possess the product; immediate possession provides satisfaction and encourages impulse buying Rook, ; LaRose, Consumers have to wait for product delivery when buying online in the context of physical goods , and this time lapse can deter them from carrying out impulse buying Kacen, ; Koski, However, the internet does not have the same capacity to stimulate the five senses as does the physical store, and therefore, the online channel can be less encouraging of impulsive buying than the offline channel Kacen, ; Koski, Online stores can only stimulate sound and sight, but they cannot do anything at the moment to appeal to the other senses.

This can be especially important in the context of clothing, where touch is a fundamental sense that can trigger impulse buying Peck and Childers, The internet allows consumers to easily compare products and prices before making the purchase decision Brohan, ; LaRose, ; Koski, In addition, one of the most important deterrent factors for online shopping is the cost of shipping and refunding merchandise Kukar-Kinney and Close, Consumers try to avoid these costs as much as possible.

Therefore, high shipping and refund costs can restrain their buying impulse. Finally, easy access and convenience, while previously described as an encouraging factor, may also be considered a discouraging factor.

When the consumer carries out his or her shopping in a physical store, he or she may more readily follow the impulse to make the purchase to avoid the costs involved in returning to the store to make the purchase later. In the online environment, coming back to the store does not entail much effort, and consumers may better control their impulses and thus delay their purchase decision Moe and Fader, RQ3 explores the influence of social networks on impulse buying behaviour in the fashion industry clothing, shoes and accessories.

Social media users share a wide spectrum of experiences, ranging from what they are in the mood to do that day, to vigorously evaluating the products and services they consume Anderson et al. This behaviour is leading consumers to influence others, through sharing pictures of their purchases and offering recommendations.

These actions can stimulate unplanned and impulse buying Xiang et al. Furthermore, recommendations and opinions not only affect buying behaviours but also help to build favourable brand images, which also stimulate impulse buying Kim and Johnson, Thus, we may expect that consumers will use information from social media to gain ideas that can subsequently turn into purchase actions; after seeing a garment on social media, the consumer may also search for it and buy it either online or at a physical store.

Moreover, previous research reveals that because of recommendations and photographs showing purchases in social media, information coming from other consumers is the most influential factor on consumer behaviour Anderson et al.

Therefore, this research explores whether users use social media as a tool to inspire their purchases. At this point, it is important to note that the photograph or recommendation shared by a consumer must represent an external stimulus that motivates the impulse buying. That is, the recommendation is not a piece of information that the consumer has been considering as part of his or her product research within a planned purchase decision process , but it is a stimulus that triggers the desire to acquire the product without further deliberation.

Also, we aim at identifying which social networks affect impulse buying to a greater extent. This knowledge would help fashion brand companies in their commercial strategies.

We conducted an online self-administered survey to address the research questions. The sampling procedure consisted of a non-probabilistic, convenience sampling method Malhotra and Birks, , obtaining a total of questionnaires. The survey was structured in five sections. The second section gathered information about their impulse buying behaviour, both in the offline channel and in the online channel participants only answered the online-channel questions if they had ever made any online purchase in the product category.

The participants who were users of social networks regardless of the previous section were asked about their influence on their shopping behaviour. The majority of the variables were measured using scales validated in prior studies, with minor modifications to ensure contextual consistency. The Appendix shows the full list of items used in the survey, together with the references used to measure impulse buying both online and offline as well as the encouraging and discouraging factors for online impulse buying.

However, the items related to the influence of social networks were developed for this present research, as we found no appropriate scale in the literature. All the items used seven-point Likert scales. In addition, the section about the use of social networks asked participants whether or not they were users of the four networks Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Once the sample was refined by screening out questionnaires with mistakes and inconsistencies, the final valid sample consisted of participants.

The characteristics of the sample appear in Table II. The majority of participants in the survey were female Table II. Although this consumer segment has been widely used in research about the fashion industry Luna and Bech-Larsen, ; Lee and Kim, , this imbalance represents a limitation of the current study. Table II presents information for the three groups of participants and is used to analyse all three research questions. Specifically, out of the participants, We used this subsample to compare the indices of impulsiveness for the online and the offline channels RQ1 , as well as to examine the impact of the encouraging and discouraging factors for online impulse buying RQ2.

In addition, Prior to the analysis of which channel is perceived as encouraging more impulse buying, we checked the validity of the scales in two steps. First, we carried out an analysis of reliability and dimensionality Churchill, ; Anderson and Gerbing, The dimensionality of the scales was examined through an exploratory factorial analysis based on principal components Hair et al.

The initial factor structure revealed that all the item loadings scored above the recommended benchmark of 0. This item was removed from the scale. The composite reliabilities were above 0. These results supported the internal consistency of the scales. In addition, the average variance extracted AVE was higher than 0. Finally, discriminant validity was supported, as the square root of the AVE was higher than the shared variance among the constructs correlations Fornell and Larcker, , and the heterotrait-monotrait ratio HTMT was 0.

Once the scales were validated, the items were summed to create indices of impulse buying, following the procedure developed by Rook and Fisher Those participants who scored above 60 per cent of the index It is observed that the average value of perceived impulsiveness demonstrated in the offline channel was around the middle point of the scale, and the percentage of impulsive participants was nearly 30 per cent.

In the online channel, the average value of impulsiveness was significantly lower than the middle point of the scale, and less than 25 per cent of participants perceived this channel as leading to impulse buying. Next, we calculated the mean values of the indices to make them comparable. In line with the previous results, the participants say they are more likely to plan their purchases less impulsive in the online channel than in the offline channel. The results of a non-parametric Wilcoxon test Leech et al.

Finally, we directly asked participants which channel they considered to be associated with more impulsiveness: Therefore, in response to RQ1 we may conclude that, although the participants perceived that neither channel led them to carry out impulse buying, the online channel was perceived as less impulsive than the offline channel.

Multiple regression analyses were carried out to analyse RQ2 Hair et al. The dependent variable was the mean value of the impulsiveness perceived in the online channel. All the variables were standardized prior to the analysis. The results of the regressions showed that the encouraging factors had more explanatory power of online impulse buying than the discouraging factors adjusted R 2 0, vs.

The use of credit cards MOT1 , the greater product assortment and variety MOT4 and the possibility of receiving personalized recommendations MOT8 , had a significant positive impact on online impulse buying. The easy access and convenience MOT2 and the lack of human contact MOT6 also had a positive influence, although these effects were only marginally significant Table IV. However, the anonymity that the internet offers MOT5 had a marginally significant negative effect. This result is somewhat unexpected, given that the specialized literature states that impulsive buying is likely to occur in contexts that provide anonymity Rook and Fisher, Regarding the discouraging factors, they did not have the proposed influence, with the exception of the ease by which the internet allows the making of comparisons DMOT5 Table IV.

However, we found several unexpected results. This result is in line with previous studies Huang and Oppewal, and could be explained by the fact that some online stores offer free shipping in exchange for a minimum purchase volume; this circumstance may lead to higher spending on spontaneous purchases.

The literature review showed that immediate possession provides satisfaction and thus encourages impulse buying LaRose, , and the lack of it on the online environment could prevent consumers from impulsively buying online Kacen, ; Koski, However, our results are in line with those of Dittmar and Drury who argue that consumers derive satisfaction from the buying process itself, and not just from having the product.

Thus, feeling the thrill while waiting for a product after buying it online may encourage impulse buying. Table V shows the descriptive usage data for each social network considered. It should be noted that, although Pinterest is the least used social network, In addition, users of each social network indicated whether they had ever seen a garment on these platforms and had felt the need to buy that item, as well as their purchase intention through the social network.

Instagram stood out as the social network than most affects impulse buying, followed by Facebook and Pinterest; Twitter received the lowest scores Table V.

Finally, we asked the participants about the influence of social media on impulse buying. Three comparisons were carried out: buyers and non-buyers of clothing and accessories;.