One definition said, customers may be questioned about what are items they have in their list or they intend to buy while entering a store and the same customers can be queried again when they come out from the store. The difference between the intention and actual purchase may be called as unplanned or impulse purchase. The second method is about asking shoppers upon exiting a store about each item they purchased, when they decided to purchase this item- was it before or after entering the store.
Both the measurement have some problems associated with them, which make the research on impulse purchase more complex. Famous psychologist Freud has explained impulses as the consequences of two competing forces- the pleasure principle and the reality principle. Pleasure principle motivates people for immediate gratification whereas reality principle encourages delayed gratification.
Impulse purchase often difficult to resist by a purchaser as it immediately bring the gratification and hedonic pleasure. It also involves enjoyment in a form of sensory stimulation and pampering oneself. Marketer should make store design and in store promotions more engaging, more attractive and more pleasing experience so that customers would indulge more impulse purchasing.
Positive situational variables like store attributes and store promotional offers increase amount of impulse purchases. A study done by Geetha and Bharadhwaj , found that in a collective country like India, shoppers might have suppressed their urge for impulse purchases. Retailers should make extra efforts to make store more attractive so that consumers spend extra time at store and they would buy products, which are not there at the shopping list. Consecutively the retailers would gain extra, as the amount of unplanned and impulse purchase would improve.
Strachey andFreud, eds. London: Hogarth. Marketing Management 11th ed. Kanuk, Consumer Behaviour 8th Ed.
Prentice Hall: New Jersey, You must be logged in before using WishList. In the specific context of this research, McCabe and Nowlis indicate that products for which touch is important, such as clothing, are more impulsively acquired at physical stores than online, given that the internet prevents consumers from touching and trying on the garments. The evolution of the internet to the 2. Specifically, it has been noted that social commerce is as branch of e-commerce which incorporates the use of social media in all kinds of commercial activities Xiang et al.
In this sense, 65 per cent of social media users affirm that social networks influence their shopping processes, and almost half of them say that social media inspire their online purchases IAB Spain, ; PWC, Previous research has shown that consumers are influenced by others at the time of buying a product, and this influence may be higher online than offline Riegner, 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. Shoppers who planned their purchases differ significantly from shoppers who made unplanned purchases on several emotional reactions see Table 3. Compared to shoppers who made unplanned purchases, planned purchasers agreed less that they felt a "sudden desire to purchase" Emo1A , and "guilty" Emo5A about their purchase.
These findings are not surprising. Since the purchasing decision had been made prior to entering the mall, planned purchasers can be expected to agree less than unplanned purchasers when asked whether they experienced the emotional reactions mentioned above.
Planned purchasers further differed from unplanned purchasers on Emo2A "I could not do anything but buy [the product]" , and Emo1B "imperative desire to purchase".
In general, it should be noted that planned purchasers may not know how to respond to such a question, possibly finding it non-sensical, since their purchasing decision has already been made. Finally, planned purchasers differed, tending to agree more, from unplanned purchasers in their "feeling pleased" Emo3A and "feeling good" Emo3B about having purchased the product. In summary, the results from this study indicate that some emotional reactions are experienced differently by planned and unplanned purchasers.
Most of the differences may be due to the fact that, as opposed to unplanned purchasers, planned purchasers's decisions to buy are made prior to being at the point-of-purchase.
It follows that the emotional reactions experienced during the decision making process by unplanned purchasers may have been experienced earlier by planned purchasers, but are not expected to recur. However, post-purchase emotional reactions such as feeling good or pleased may be experienced by either planned or unplanned purchasers.
Differences between Planned and Impulse Purchasing. Consumers who made planned purchases differed significantly from consumers who made impulse purchases on only on five of the nine emotional reactions investigated in this study see Table 3.
Rook , and Rook and Hoch propose that a "sudden and imperative desire to purchase" Emo1A and Emo1B , and a "feeling of helplessness" Emo2A and Emo2B characterize impulse purchasing. In other words, the results from this study point out that a "sudden and imperative desire to purchase," and a "feeling of helplessness" are emotional reactions that separate impulse from planned purchasers.
The difference between planned and impulse purchasers is further illustrated as impulse purchasers agreed more that they bought the product to "fight the blues" Emo3B, see Table 3. In other words, impulse purchasers tend to differ from planned purchasers as they apparently attempt to assign the responsibility for the purchase to sources which are not really a part of themselves i.
In summary, as suggested by Rook and Rook and Hoch , impulse purchasing is characterized by a "sudden and imperative desire to purchase," accompanied with a "feeling of helplessness. Differences between Unplanned and Impulse Purchasing. In fact, only three emotional reactions Emo1B, Emo2B, and Emo3A, see Table 3 are experienced differently by the two groups where impulse purchasers' agreement with experiencing the reactions was higher than for unplanned purchasers see Table 3.
A somewhat speculative explanation for the difference in "feeling good" Emo3A experienced by impulse and unplanned purchasers may be attributed to the unplanned purchasers's experiencing of an "imperative desire to purchase" Emo1B and an "overwhelming purchasing urge" Emo2A less strongly than impulse purchasers.
It may be that the additional time and amount of deliberations accompanying the decision to make an unplanned purchase may take away from what Rook refers to as the "extraordinary and exciting" p.
In only one instance Emo1B, "[a]s I was deciding to purchase the product, I felt like I had to have it from the first time I saw it" did planned, unplanned and impulse purchasing differ significantly.
These results bring some support to earlier contentions Rook ; Rook and Hoch that shoppers who make impulsive purchases can be differentiated from shoppers who make planned and unplanned purchases on the basis of their experiencing emotional reactions. Bellenger, Danny, D. Clover, Vernon T. Consumer Buying Habits Studies, E. DuPont de Nemours and Co.
Engel, James F. Kollat, and Roger D. Iyer Easwar S. Michael J. Houston, Provo, UT. Kollat, David T.
0コメント