A structural equation model of impulse buying behaviour in grocery retailing

PurposeEnvironmental changes, specifically the economic crisis and the growing penetration of digital technologies, have produced significant changes in shopping habits designed to create new paradigms for impulse buying behaviour. A new scenario seems to be opening up where customers enter the store much more prepared than in the past searching for products they had planned to buy. The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of impulse buying in a context of more planning and preparation for shopping.Design /methodology/approachThe data were obtained using a structured questionnaire from 316 respondents interviewed instore thanks to the cooperation of a leading Italian retail chain. We conducted a two-stage approach mall-intercept survey method to collect data. Firstly, we interviewed customers before entering the store, enquiring them about the pre-shopping preparation and shopping enjoyment tendency. Secondly, we interviewed the same customers at the end of their shopping trips, asking them to indicate which purchases were unplanned. Then, shoppers answered to questions regarding their general tendency to engage in impulse buying, the urges experienced to make impulse purchases, the level of positive and negative affect experienced during the shopping trip.FindingsIn the structural model tested with LISREL 8, we found that pre-shopping tendency influences directly impulse buying: confirming our hypotheses, a higher pre-shopping preparation lead to lower levels of impulse buying. Results also showed that the personality variables (shopping enjoyment tendency and impulse buying tendency) influenced impulse buying through positive affect and urge to purchase. Our research did not find support for the relationship between negative affect and urge. Finally, higher levels of urge to buy impulsively lead to higher levels of impulse buyingOriginality/valueFrom the review of past and recent literature, we have not found a model that considers the influence of pre-shopping tendency on impulse buying behaviour. This paper addresses this major gap in extant literature by including pre-shopping tendency among the individual characteristics (impulse buying tendency and shopping enjoyment tendency) taken into consideration by past contributions.     

Impulse buying: A systematic literature review and future research directions

This paper performs a comprehensive analysis of academic research on impulse buying following a systematic literature review approach. Drawing on the TCCM framework suggested by Paul and Rosado-Serrano, we synthesize the impulse buying literature and develop a future research agenda. Accordingly, this review synthesizes impulse buying research in terms of theory development, context, characteristics, and methodologies to examine the development of the literature over time. This systematic review shows that impulse buying research is fragmented and still developing due to its transition from a traditional retail environment into different online channels. Furthermore, this paper proposes a conceptual framework based on the literature synthesis, presenting antecedents and mediators of impulse buying behaviour. Finally, this review identifies overlooked areas in impulse buying literature and provides insightful directions to advance research in the domain. Overall, this research effort makes a significant contribution to consumer behaviour literature, specifically to impulse buying literature.     

The Psychology of Impulse Buying: An Integrative Self-Regulation Approach

Impulsive buying grossly violates the assumptions of homo economicus. A variety of perspectives on impulse buying are presented, which have been put forward in consumer, economic, social, and clinical psychology. These include heuristic information processing, time-inconsistent preferences, personality traits and values, self-identity, emotions, conscious self-control, and compulsive buying. These perspectives may sometimes lead to contradictory or paradoxical findings. For instance, impulse buying is often associated with joy and pleasure but has also been found related to negative emotions and low self-esteem. Our argument is that impulsive buying can be understood in terms of psychological functioning, in particular as a form of self-regulation. Regulatory focus theory is then used to bring the various perspectives together by classifying each as a promotion focus strategy (e.g., seeking pleasure) or a prevention focus strategy (e.g., avoiding feelings of low self-esteem). Finally, the question is discussed whether consumers can and should be protected against impulsivity. Our assertion is that regulation against misleading practices that play on the vulnerabilities of impulsive buyers could be sharpened and that information provision to consumers and retailers aimed at strengthening consumers’ self-regulatory capacities may mitigate adverse consequences of impulse buying.     

Pre- and post-purchase stage in impulse buying: The role of mood and satisfaction

The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of impulse buying tendency and pre-purchase mood on impulse buying. The study further considers the effect of impulse buying on post-purchase mood. In this context, this research examines how pre-purchase mood affects post-purchase mood, with customer satisfaction as a mediating variable. The results reveal that consumer impulse buying tendency and pre-purchase mood encourage impulse buying positively. In addition, it is found that impulse buying has no influence on post-purchase mood. Moreover, satisfaction has a partial mediator role between pre-purchase mood and post-purchase mood.     

Impulse buying and variety seeking: A trait-correlates perspective

Impulse buying and variety seeking are low-effort feelings-based behaviors, yet the similarities and differences in their socio-psychological origin are under-explored. This article addresses this gap with a conceptual framework incorporating several individual and situational factors with a focus on three relevant consumer traits — consumer impulsiveness (CI), optimum stimulation level (OSL), and self-monitoring (SM). Findings from a survey with retail shoppers about their actual purchase decisions show that both CI and OSL have a positive association with the level of impulse buying and variety seeking. However, CI is more strongly associated with impulse buying and OSL with variety seeking. Moreover, SM relates negatively with impulse buying and positively with variety seeking; it also moderates the influence of CI and OSL on both the behaviors in opposite directions. Finally, the article discusses the contribution of this research, its limitations and some directions for future research.     

Spontaneous selection: The influence of product and retailing factors on consumer impulse purchases

Our research examines the effect of product characteristics and retailing factors on the likelihood a consumer makes an impulse purchase. We present a framework for understanding the impulse buying process and use it to explain our findings. Our nested logit model uses data from an adult panel of grocery shoppers over three major household grocery shopping trips. The results indicate that product characteristics have a fifty percent greater influence on impulse buying than do retailing factors. Of the three product characteristics investigated, the hedonic nature of the product has the greatest influence on impulse buying. Of the three retail factors, a store environment with a high–low pricing strategy influences impulse buying the most. Our findings suggest that retailers who want to encourage impulse buying behavior utilize promotional activities and merchandising tactics that attract consumers' attention to emotionally appealing products.     

Understanding the impact of online customers’ shopping experience on online impulsive buying: A study on two leading E-commerce platforms

Research offers some indication that the online customers' shopping experience (OCSE) can be a strong predictor of online impulsive buying behavior, but there is not much empirical support available to form a holistic understanding; whether, and indeed how, the effects of the OCSE on online impulsive buying behavior are affected by customers' attitudinal loyalty and self-control are not well understood areas of research. In this study, we examine how functional and psychological dimensions of the OCSE influence online impulsive buying within e-commerce platforms. We will investigate customers' attitudinal loyalty as a mediator between the OCSE and online impulsive buying behavior, and the customers' self-control as a moderator between customers' attitudinal loyalty and online impulsive buying. To analyze these relationships we will conduct an online survey (n = 1489) with customers of two leading Chinese e-commerce platforms: Jindong and Taobao. The findings from structural equation modeling indicate a positive relationship between the tested dimensions of the OCSE and customers' online impulsive buying. We also find a mediating role of customers' attitudinal loyalty and negative moderation of customers’ self-control. Theoretically, the findings contribute to the literature regarding online impulsive buying and the online customer experience. For managers, the findings stress the importance of ethical management with regard to the online shopping experiences.     

The effects of sales promotion strategy,product appeal and consumer traits on reminder impulse buying behaviour

This article investigates factors of marketing communications and consumer characteristics that induce reminder impulse buying behaviour. Study 1 applies the antecedent, process and consequence approach to investigate the essential differences between reminder impulse buying and pure impulse buying. The results of Study 1 reveal that reminder impulse buying significantly differs from pure impulse buying on motivation, buying goal and decision evaluation. Study 2 further examines how sales promotion strategy might affect reminder impulse buying, with product appeal and consumer traits as moderating factors. Both sales promotion strategy and its interaction effects with product appeal are found to have significant influences on reminder impulse buying. Specifically, an instant‐reward promotion promotes stronger reminder impulse buying than a delayed‐reward promotion. Furthermore, both a utilitarian product appeal with a price discount promotion and a hedonic product appeal with a premium promotion can encourage greater reminder impulse buying.     

Friends with benefits: Behavioral and fMRI studies on the effect of friendship reminders on self-control for compulsive and non-compulsive buyers

Does the real or imagined presence of friends invariantly drive consumers to engage in disinhibited behavior, and give in to the “urge to splurge” in the face of consumption temptations? Or might there be situations in which being with friends or even merely thinking of friends or the friendships we have with them can actually improve self-control?In five studies, using a unique combination of controlled experiments examining overt consumer behavior and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we propose and show that the extent to which consumers identify a goal conflict between giving in to buying temptations on the one hand and the perceived consequences for maintaining satisfactory relationships with close friends on the other is a critical mediator of whether friendship reminders decrease or increase self-control. We further show that such a goal conflict is most likely for consumers with a chronic, compulsive tendency for uncontrolled, disinhibited acquisition and consumption—for consumers classified as compulsive buyers. For their non-compulsive counterparts, in contrast, acts of acquisition and consumption, even incidental disinhibited ones, are perceived to be less problematic in light of their friendships and hence do not induce a goal conflict to the same extent. Our findings provide insights into social influences on self-control and identify the concept of friendship reminders as a way to reduce a common type of dysfunctional consumer behavior. In addition to enhancing consumer well-being, reducing compulsive buying will substantially reduce handling costs for organizations. Hence, the findings are of academic, societal and managerial relevance.     

Personal values and impulse buying: The mediating role of hedonic shopping motivations

This research is the first to examine how personal values (resultant conservation and resultant self-enhancement) relate to impulse buying, and how hedonic shopping motivations mediate this relationship. We draw on information from a preliminary sample of 510 Portuguese respondents and a MTURK sample of 249 Americans, and use structural equations modeling to test the research model. The results from both samples denote some consistency, showing that both resultant self-enhancement and resultant conservation are indirectly related to impulse buying, highlighting a mediating role for hedonic shopping motivations.     

A meta-analysis of consumer impulse buying

This study provides a meta-analysis of the impulse buying literature and examines common antecedents for impulse buying behavior. An exploration of the impulse buying literature results in the establishment of three overarching constructs used as independent variables: dispositional, situational, and sociodemographic variables. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to assess which variables are shown to have the strongest effect on impulse buying and suggest that the dispositional/situational interaction variables have the strongest relationship with impulse buying followed by dispositional, situational, and sociodemographic main effects, respectively. Specific dispositional, situational, and sociodemographic constructs are explored further along with moderating effects. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Segmentation of impulse buyers in an emerging market – An exploratory study

Impulse buying promises to be a dominant buying behaviour in the highly conducive environment of emerging markets like India. However, existing research in these markets is largely within the context of product or market driven factors with inadequate focus on psychological exploration. The present study emphasizes on the role of an individual with underlying personality trait of impulse buying tendency being the focal point of the planned investigation. It uses the knowledge of impulse buying tendency and its contextual indicators as an effective taxonomical tool to profile the retail consumers’ psychologically and capture their demographic diversity. The analysis identifies and profiles three distinct impulse buying consumer segments: proactive impulsive, hesitant-hedonist and pragmatic-rationalist; thus providing manufacturers and retailers an effective marketing tool to address different consumer groups.     

Impulse buying tendency in live-stream commerce: The role of viewing frequency and anticipated emotions influencing scarcity-induced purchase decision

Despite the prevalence of scarcity-induced sales promotion in live commerce, scholarly inquiry began to address impulsive buying recently. This research traces live-stream shopping experiences to scarcity-induced purchase decisions. Grounded in the stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm, this research examines the mediating role of viewing frequency in the relationship between past purchases and impulse buying tendency. The aim is to unravel the relationship between impulse buying tendency and scarcity-induced purchase decisions by examining the mediation of anticipated emotions. A self-administered online survey with 376 respondents using criterion-based judgment sampling techniques. The data was validated through a two-step SEM approach using SmartPLS3 package. The result supports that viewing frequency and anticipated emotions fully mediated the relationship between past purchases and future purchase decisions. This study contributes to appreciating the importance of viewing frequency in live-stream commerce strengthening the performance of impulse buying tendency and triggering anticipated emotions (regret and rejoices) in a scarcity-induced purchase decision.     

同城与异地对冲动性购买行为的影响研究

异地冲动性购买在商场和超市占有相当大的比例,现有的文献对同城冲动性购买进行了大量的研究,然而对异地冲动性购买研究较少.在这些理论基础上,通过访谈与问卷调查形式,分析了影响同城与异地冲动性购买行为的因素,并比较消费者在同城与异地发生冲动性购买行为的因素的异同以及产生这些异同的原因,提出了企业需要采取的营销措施.     

Immediate or delayed! Whether various types of consumer sales promotions drive impulse buying?: An empirical investigation

In the present study we investigate whether various types of sales promotions together with hedonic shopping motivation (value shopping) and positive affect drive impulse buying. The study further explores the moderation impact of trait constructs viz deal proneness and impulsive buying tendency in impulse buying. In our research, sales promotion tools are classified into four categories namely, (a) monetary-immediate (MI), (b) non-monetary-immediate (NMI), (c) monetary-delayed (MD) and (d) non-monetary delayed (NMD) types of sales promotions. Data were analysed using SEM. Results revealed that out of the four categories of promotional tools only MI and NMI drive impulse buying. Each of MI, NMI, MD and NMD is found to be related to positive affect whereas MI, NMI and NMD impact value shopping but MD does not. The role of IBT and DP as moderators has been evident. The study has significant theoretical as well as managerial implications. Test of mediation confirmed the role of urge to buy as mediator.     

The role of cognitive and affective responses in the relationship between internal and external stimuli on online impulse buying behavior

Based on the impulse purchase decision-making process, the stimulus-organism-response framework, and technology acceptance model, this study investigated the role of cognitive and affective responses in the relationship between internal and external stimuli and social-media-based impulse buying behavior. We conducted an online survey and applied partial least squares structural equation modeling for data analysis and found that navigability, price attribute, trust propensity, and self-confidence are direct predictors of online impulse buying. Variety of selection and quality of information had indirect effects on the same through utilitarian browsing, while quality of information, navigability, and price attribute affected it through hedonic browsing. Trust propensity and self-confidence moderated the relation between utilitarian browsing and online impulse buying, while self-confidence moderated the hedonic browsing effect. Furthermore, utilitarian browsing affected hedonic browsing and online impulse buying. Thus, online merchants should control both external and internal stimuli to boost impulse buying through social media platforms.     

Customers focus and impulse buying at night markets

This study conducted a survey on impulse buying at several international night markets in Taiwan and obtained 1053 responses. The data were analysed by partial least squares structural equation modelling. The model was composed of several constructs: attitude towards impulse buying, impulse buying tendency, and variables of customer focus, including insight ability (vendors’ insight into customer needs), customer information, response and feedback, and vendor enthusiasm. The analytical results revealed that insight ability, customer information, response and feedback, and enthusiasm have direct and significant positive effects on attitude towards impulse buying. Additionally, multi-group comparisons in partial least squares analysis revealed partial but statistically significant differences in the path relationships between male customers (568) and female customers; (485); foreign (465) and domestic (588) customers, among night market visitors. This study contributes to the literature by providing a more precise overview of the influence of customer focus on impulse buying tendency within a limited time frame and a crowded space.     

Using the Life Course Paradigm to Explain Mechanisms That Link Family Disruptions to Compulsive Buying

This research examines compulsive buying as an impulse‐control disorder, a form of maladaptive behavior believed to have its roots in early‐in‐life experiences of family adversities. Unlike previous research that has typically studied only the effects of family divorce on compulsive buying, this study examines the effects of disruptive family events within the broader multitheoretical life course framework. A sample of 327 young adults is used to test the hypothesized relationships derived from the main life course perspectives. The results show alternate paths leading to compulsive buying, beyond those uncovered in previous studies. By offering a broader overarching framework, the article shows how previous efforts to study compulsive buying can be improved, pointing to the value of the multitheoretical life course approach in understanding consumption phenomena .     

Impulse buying and variety seeking: Similarities and differences

Impulse buying and variety seeking seem to emerge from similar personality traits, yet the similarities and differences in the manifestation of these behaviors have not been fully explored. Despite the common origin, research on the two constructs has diverged as definitions of the phenomena have become more elaborate. Previous research on the two constructs shows that they are classifiable as low-effort, feeling-based behaviors with hedonic undertones. A middle-range theory that provides a more comprehensive depiction of how variety seeking and impulse buying are theoretically related is necessary. One way toward such a theory is the addition of a fourth “hidden” socio-normative dimension to the three-dimensional typology of purchase behaviors that Baumgartner (2002) proposes.     

The Impact of Situational,Demographic, and Socioeconomic Factors on Impulse Buying in the Republic of Macedonia

This study explores the role of situational, demographic, and socioeconomic variables in stimulating impulse purchase behavior in the Republic of Macedonia. Factor analysis reveals five categories of situational impulse buying factors: social and personal, in-store atmosphere, sales related, sales promotion, and time and money. Cluster analysis produced two segments: noticeably rational and noticeably impulsive. The results show significant differences between the two segments on all five factors of impulse buying. Furthermore, the results show that segments differ in terms of age, working status, household income, and frequency of buying.