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Impulsive Buying in Relation to In-store
Communication and Personality Traits
Thesis
by
Elizaveta Guzhavina
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Bachelor of Science
in
Business Administration
State University of New York
Empire State College
2016
Reader Tanweer Ali
Acknowledgment
I would like to express the deepest appreciation and gratitude to Professor Ali for his
time, helpful comments, valuable input and his patience while answering my questions.
I am also very grateful to my family and friends, who supported me in this endeavor.
Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………..………...….…4
Introduction………………………………………………………………....…...………5
1. Chapter 1. The Impulsive Buying Behavior………………………..…..…..……….8
1.1. The Concept of Impulsive Buying Behavior…………………....……..….…...8
1.2. The Definition of Impulsive Buying…………………………..…..…...….…...9
1.3. The Study of Impulsive Buying………………………………..…..…...……..15
1.4. Impulsive Buying Explained…………………………………..….…...………17
1.5. Theoretical Models of Impulsive Buying Behavior ………….……....….……19
1.6. The Classification of Buying Decisions……………….……….…….………..30
1.7. The Types of Impulsive Buying………………………………….……………32
2. Chapter 2. Factors that Trigger Impulsive Buying Behavior…………...………….34
2.1. The Classification of Triggering Factors……………………………………...34
2.2. The External Factors…………………………………………………………..36
2.2.1. The Product………………………………………………….………....36
2.2.2. Situational Factors Inside the Store…………………………………....41
2.2.3. Environmental Factors………………………………………………….41
2.2.4. Personal Factors………………………………………………………...44
2.3. The Internal Factors…………………………………………………………...46
3. Chapter 3. The Summary of Research……………………………………………...50
4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….56
5. Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..61
Abstract
Impulsive buying is a very important concept for many researchers and professionals in
several fields – retailing, marketing, psychology and even sociology. Impulsive buying
is an act of purchasing something without any prior intention or plan. The phenomenon
is wide spread in many developed and developing countries. For more than 70 years
many scholars and professionals around the world have been studying the concept and
its applicability in business from the different perspectives.
One of them is psychological. Scholars single out impulsive buying tendency (IBT) and
several personality traits associated with it, which have a substantial impact on
impulsive buying behavior, making shoppers very susceptible to the sudden urge to buy.
From the marketing point of view, impulsive buyers are an enormous opportunity to
increase sales and market share. Knowing how to get into people's minds and what can
be a stimulus for a purchase, retailers use various POS (point of sale) materials, creative
product design, tempting promotions and arrange merchandise in a very attractive way
to trigger the customers' desires to buy.
This work is aimed at investigating what impulsive buying behavior (IBB) is, how the
concept has been developing in the course of time, and what the theoretical models of it
are present these days. Besides, tt will introduce the triggering factors, which have a
significant impact on IBB, and with the help of the research summary will finally
constitute how big the influence is.
Introduction
The concept of impulsive buying is not a new one. Already in 1950s, marketing experts
started to assess the importance of impulse purchases and its effect on sales in retail
stores. At the beginning, there was no clear definition of this concept, since different
experts had different opinions on it. To say more, some experts actually doubted if
impulse purchases indeed had some significance for the managers of retail stores. They
believed that the concept was not reliable enough to have some certain weight in a
decision-making process.
Obviously, during those times shoppers were not influenced to such an extent by the
external factors, such as advertising, like they are now, so probably it was the reason
why the concept of impulsive buying was sometimes considered to be irrelevant. But at
this day and age, the situation is totally different. Only in the US the amount of
impulsive sales is almost 4 billion dollars, making up 80 percent of all purchases from
certain product categories (Abrahams, 1997). Moreover, Ruvio and Belk in their study
estimated “that about 62% market sales in super markets and around 80% sales in
luxury goods can be attributed to impulsive purchase” (2013). No doubt, the numbers
will only keep increasing, thus attracting even more attention to the concept. When we
go into the store, we as shoppers become a very easy pray for retailers and advertisers.
We smell freshly baked bread, notice colorful exotic fruits, fall victims to big price
promotions and are tempted to buy a second pack of juice, because it is cheaper
together.
All the above-mentioned things that we witness on a daily basis are the certain
techniques, used by retailers to make us buy impulsively, without considering
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alternatives or consequences. The in-store communication at present is a highly
influential factor, affecting our desires and urging us to purchase something we haven’t
planned, before we walked into the store. Marketing stimuli are controlled in such a
way as to quickly lure the shoppers to the cash desk. When it comes to impulse, caused
by in-store communication, every little detail matters. Smells, music, colors, layouts and
point of sale materials – all these incentives are aimed at grabbing customer’s attention
and arousing the stimulus in the brain. That’s why retailers and producers have become
so inventive nowadays. They must come up with new techniques and cues, in order to
engage shoppers into impulsive buying behavior.
Impulsive buying nowadays is a very important concept. Such a behavior pattern is
present not only in developed nations like US, UK, Germany, but also in the developing
ones. Recently there have been a lot of studies dedicated to the phenomenon, conducted
in India, Algeria, Malaysia, Taiwan and China to name a few.
The scope of the impulsive buying is huge – almost all categories of goods can be
bought impulsively, thus presenting retailers, producers and marketers with ample
opportunities to directly attract and win customers inside the store. The same applies to
the place – impulse purchase can happen anywhere – grocery store, apparel shop,
convenience store and of course, online. Though online impulsive buying is a
completely different story, it is necessary to point out that this concept gained a bulk of
attention in the era of e-commerce, because modern online people are easy targets for
businesses, though to trigger an impulse to buy is more complicated online, since a
shopper cannot be influenced to the same extent as inside the store.
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Speaking about demographics, all people can buy impulsively, although some certain
age groups or genders tend to be more susceptible to the urge of sudden purchase. For
example men are likely to engage into the impulsive buying of leisure and instrumental
items, while women fall victims of clothes and other goods, which help them to express
their nature and character (Dittmar et.al, 1996).
The thesis statement of this work is impulsive buying behavior is significantly
influenced by in-store communication techniques and personality traits.
In order to support it, the following research questions will be answered:
1. What is impulsive buying?
2. What are the factors, triggering impulsive buying behavior?
3. What impact do external and internal factors have on impulsive buying behavior?
Our work consists of three chapters. First chapter is dedicated to the impulse buying
concept – we will introduce various definitions, proposed by different researchers,
starting from 1950s up to the present day. Together with this, we will discuss the nature
of impulsive behavior, contrasting opinions and studies of this phenomenon, the types
of impulsive buying and its classification. Second chapter will scrutinize the factors and
techniques, influencing the impulsive buying behavior – in-store communication, which
includes external factors (situational and personal factors) and internal factors (IBT and
personality traits). All these factors will be discussed in detail, as well as their impact on
impulsive buying behavior. The third chapter consists of the summary of conducted
studies from different cultures and countries.
Finally, the conclusion will summarize all research findings based on the surveys, its
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correlation to the research questions and hypothesis, and subsequently make all the
necessary conclusions about the study, as well as proposing recommendations for
further research.
Chapter 1. The Impulsive Buying Behavior
1.1. The Concept of Impulsive Behavior
We would like to start with an introduction of the impulsive behavior concept, since it
explains the impulsive behavior of people in general, giving useful insights into the
problem of impulsive buying behavior. Pundits in general have studied impulsive
behavior for many years. A lot of research was conducted to investigate the correlation
between impulsive behavior and social status, age, education and even the presence of
father at home (Rook, 1987). Sociologists claimed that the lack of self-control and
inability to resist impulses is an attribute of lower classes (Hollingshead, 1949; Whyte,
1943). Freud also emphasized the necessity to control the impulses, since the failure to
do that could lead to severe psychological problems. He describes it as a competition
between the pleasure principle and the reality principle. In brief, these two forces
always compete with each other, and it is highly important for a person to fight the
sudden desire for gratification and be aware of the reality and the consequences of
his/her choice (Freud, 1920).
The problem of impulsive behavior in general is that the impulse is so strong and
promising of some immediate pleasure, that only a highly developed human can control
himself and assess the consequences of the behavior. Freud claims that it is an
indispensable part of the human development, and though the transition from the
pleasure principle to the reality principle can be painful, without it a human faces
serious internal problems and ambivalence (Freud and Brill, 1949).
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In general, impulsive behavior is seen as something really bad, detrimental, and
disruptive. Impulses are perceived as destructive agents, breaking the normal behavior
patter of a person, driving him/her to instant, irrational and spontaneous decisions,
which do not take into account consequences.
1.2. The Definition of Impulsive Buying
Although the concept of impulse buying is quite old, there are various definitions,
trying to explain what it is. Since 1950s the definition of impulsive buying has been
continuously developing. Many scholars have made an attempt to come up with the
right definition, which would perfectly explain the phenomenon. Applebaum saw
impulsive buying as “buying which presumably was not planned by the customer before
entering a store, but which resulted from a stimulus created by a sales promotional
device in the store.” (1951)
Engel and Blackwell, experienced and well known marketing professors from the USA,
explained impulse buying as “an action undertaken without previously having been
consciously recognized or a buying intention formed prior to entering the store” (Piron,
1991). They believed that before 1968 there was a big number of problems in consumer
research, and thus, they aimed at solving them in order to pave the way for future
success. Before 1987, when Rook introduced his research on this phenomenon, focus
was put primarily on the product and the fact of purchase, disregarding the consumer
and his/her personality, emotions or thoughts. Most of the definitions explained the
concept from the retailer’s point of view, making it very one-sided and not really
helpful. The impulsive buying was seen as a simple formula: “Impulse Purchasing =
Unplanned Purchasing + Exposure to a Stimulus” (Piron, 1991).
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Meanwhile, Dennis Rook in his study shifted focus on the consumer and what was the
antecedent for impulsive behavior from the person’s perspective. Speaking about Rook,
he specializes in consumer behavior and published a lot of articles and researches on the
topic of consumer behavior, and impulse buying in particular. He is a renowned author
and consultant in the field. He tackled people’s emotions, thoughts, and moods during
the process of impulsive purchase. He believed that it was not only the product itself,
which caused the impulse, but a person’s cognition too. His formula was the following:
“Impulse Purchasing = a "Hedonically Complex" Experience” (Piron, 1991).
Dennis Rook defined impulsive buying in the following way: it occurs when “a
consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something
immediately”. Rook mentioned the “the impulse to buy is hedonically complex and may
stimulate emotional conflict. Also, impulse buying is prone to occur with diminished
regard for its consequences” (1987). Before he came with this definition, Rook had
conducted a complex study of 202 adults together with Stephen Hoch in 1985. Professor
Hoch is internationally a well-known scholar, who dedicates his time to study consumer
behavior, merchandising and price strategies.
Together they developed a new way of looking at the impulsive buying behavior
definition and explained it with the help of a psychological perspective. He believed
that previous studies were extremely limiting and took into account only products and
their qualities, completely forgetting about the fact that the impulsive behavior comes
from a shopper, not from a product on the shelf, and thus, people’s personality traits
must be considered as well. In 1985 two scholars conducted a research, involving 202
adults and developing a “consumer impulsivity scale”, which was used to compare
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different shoppers’ behavior patterns (Rook and Hoch, 1985).
The scholars came up with their own definition on the basis of 5 major elements, which
made a clear distinction between non-impulsive and impulsive buying behavior (Rook
and Hoch, 1985):
1. A sudden and spontaneous desire to act – this element is characterized by
an instant change in the behavior. Such sudden psychological impulse
replicates the nature of neurological impulse. Conscious and unconscious
mental processes trigger it and the response is more complex (Rook and Hoch,
1985). The behavior of shopper changes indeed very rapidly and demonstrates
completely different result at the end. A usual consumer inside the store
simply feels an urge to buy something now, without giving it a second
thought.
2. Psychological disequilibrium - this feature highlights the psychological state
of a shopper when it comes to impulse purchase. Basically, a person doesn’t
control his/her emotions and impulses and is totally guided by unconscious
mind. Like it was mentioned above, Freud considered an ability to control
impulses and abstain from indulging into various pleasures to be of the utmost
importance in the process of socialization. Thus, buying something
impulsively, an inability to refuse quick gratification and simply having no
will power may pose a serious threat to a person. It may detrimentally affect
budget, reputation and, of course, psychological health afterwards, since
person will inevitably feel quilt and regret after impulse purchase. Such
misbalance may deepen a person’s troubles and trigger other types of
undesirable behavior.
3. Psychological conflict – this element goes in hand with the previous one.
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Freud mentioned the struggle between the pleasure and reality principles as a
key feature of impulsive behavior, hence a shopper at the moment of
impulsive buying behavior engages into this struggle and finds him/herself in
a complex psychological conflict. A person has to ponder over the benefits
and flaws of the purchase in the long-term, taking into account possible
outcomes and consequences. But the easier it is to satisfy the purchase
impulse, the harder it gets to say no. And since the nature of impulse is so
powerful and overwhelming, a person is caught in a trap, and torn between
hard choices of either satisfying the sudden desire or refusing tempting
gratification that is so close and real.
4. The reduction of consumers’ cognitive evaluations of the product
attributes - this element explains impulsive buying behavior as a low in
control behavior, when a shopper gets in an affected and trans rational state
(Weinberg and Gottwald, 1982). Shopper’s cognition is switched off and
he/she acts unconsciously. The impulse is so strong that a person is not able to
think rationally and determine a real benefit or utility of a product. All the
attention and determination are now aimed at satisfying the sudden urge and
getting the immediate gratification from the purchase, disregarding the real
attributes of a product.
5. Consumption with no regard to the consequences - speaking about
consequences, this aspect of impulsive buying implies that shoppers, when
buying impulsively, tend to close their eyes on the consequences in the long
run. David Kipnis, well-known American physician, in his book Character
Structure and Impulsiveness (Personality & Psycho-pathology Monographs)
mentioned that it may be a cheap chocolate bar or a nice expensive jacket, but
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if bought on an impulse, without considering the consequences, such behavior
may lead to serious “destructive character disorders” as well as health
problems (1971). Indeed, while making an impulse purchase, people think
only about immediate satisfaction, but later on, when they are back to reality,
it may backfire on them quite severely. Howard Wishnie, a famous American
psychiatrist, noted that people with impulsive personality "seem to be living in
a state of constant but stable chaos (with) little perspective about the future
consequences of their current behavior” (1977).
Beatty and Ferrell said that “impulse buying relates to immediate purchases, which
happen without any pre-shopping objective either to purchase the specific product
category or to fulfill a specific need” (1998). They elaborate on the fact that there is no
reflection process in impulsive buying, which actually makes it really impulsive.
Besides, they distinguished two different concepts - “impulsive buying” and an “urge to
buy impulsively”. They believed that an urge to buy precedes the buying behavior, thus
it is very closely attributed to the latter. The more urges shoppers face inside the store,
the bigger probability of impulsive buying is (1998).
Geoff Bayley and Clive Nancarrow, renowned UK scholars, saw impulse buying as a
“sudden, compelling, hedonically complex buying behavior in which the rapidity of an
impulse decision process precludes thoughtful and deliberate consideration of
alternative information and choices” (1998). As well as Rook, they pointed out the
hedonic part of the behavior – pleasure from the purchase, gratification and happiness.
This vision of impulsive behavior shows how it contrasts with rational behavior, when a
shopper carefully assesses the utility of a product and ponders over its benefits in the
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long run.
An American professor, from Washington University, Veena Parboteeah has been
interested in the phenomenon as well, and in his PhD research in 2005 presented his
comprehensive definition of impulsive buying as “Impulse buying is a purchase that is
unplanned, the result of an exposure to a stimulus, and decided on-the-spot. After the
purchase, the customer experiences emotional and/or cognitive reactions” (2005).
Again, he elaborates on the fact that impulse purchase is always unplanned, so the urge
to buy appears suddenly and unexpectedly, without any prior recognition of a problem.
At the same time he acknowledges the importance of stimuli in the process of impulse
purchase. So, after the exposure to the stimuli, a shopper reacts instantly, without
thinking of the consequences, which again depicts a truly impulsive nature of such
behavior. Besides, in his definition Parboteeah doesn’t forget the aftermath of an
impulsive purchase, pinpointing the presence of emotions or cognitive reactions, such
as guilt, frustration or happiness.
Badgaiyan and Verma defined impulsive buying as an “individual's desire for abrupt
ownership of the product” (2014). They also agreed on the importance of distinguishing
between “impulsive buying” and an “urge to buy impulsively” (2014).
Such diversity in definitions and their depth can be explained by the fact that over time
the whole environment has been changing - consumers, retailers, marketing
technologies and other spheres were constantly developing, thus providing the scholars
with new challenges and opportunities. Innovations and technologies have also had a
great impact on the phenomenon, since consumers are facing new stimuli now and
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becoming more exposed in general, therefore forcing marketers and retailers to be more
inventive and convincing.
1.3. The Study of Impulsive Buying
Impulsive behavior is a general concept and can occur in any situation, whereas we
focus on impulsive buying behavior that happens inside the store. Taking into account
the sudden nature of impulses and human’s irresistible desire for immediate
gratification, retailers and marketers have developed an extensive interest in the impulse
buying phenomenon.
A large-scale research on impulse buying started in 1950s, aiming at investigating how
shoppers’ decisions are made inside the store, after the in-store environment affects
them. The pioneers in this were The DuPont Consumer Buying Habits Studies. Exactly
the DuPont research defined impulsive buying as an “unplanned” purchase (Rook,
1987). By “unplanned” it is meant the difference between the intended purchase list
before entering the store, and the actual one at the checkout. After this, an extensive
research was held to see the correlation between different products categories and
various store environments and the frequency of impulse purchases and in different
retail settings (Applebaum, 1951; Clover, 1950; Katona and Mueller, 1955; West,
1951).
Further, the studies extended to investigate what particular in-store stimuli are
influential enough to make people buy impulsively. For instance the research sought to
see the link between certain store merchandise and the frequency of impulsive behavior.
Such factors as the number of shelf facings and location turned out to be important for
triggering the sudden buying impulse (Patterson, 1963).
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Certainly, the sociologists and psychologists also sought to find the correlation between
demographics, personality and buying impulse. Recognized lifestyle features, gender,
societal status and personality traits explained the susceptibility of some people to
impulsive buying (Kollat and Willett, 1967). Nevertheless, some experts cast
considerable doubts on the concept of impulsive buying. There were several reasons for
that.
First, the taxonomical research approach was aimed to divide products and services into
two categories – impulse and non-impulse, thus directing attention to the fact that not
everything can be bought impulsively (Kollat and Willett, 1969; Stern, 1962). Basically
they believed that impulsive buying is possible only when it comes to low-price and
low-involvement products – snacks, drinks, magazines – all these do not require a lump
sum of money to be spent or thorough thought, that is why people are eager to buy them
impulsively.
Second, there was a problem to come up with an adequate theoretical framework to
guide empirical work (Rook, 1987). For example Nesbitt (1959) proposed that a
consumer concludes his/her shopping list already in-store, and thus it is mistakenly seen
as an “unplanned” purchase. Also, the very term “unplanned” was seen too unclear and
indefinite. Pollay pointed out that it is actually difficult to measure how unplanned the
purchase really is (1968).
Probably one of the most prominent contributions to the study of the phenomenon was
made in 1962. It was Stern, who came up with the four types of impulse purchases:
planned, pure, reminder and suggestion. He was the first scholar, who managed to
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classify impulse purchases and thus greatly improving the understanding of the concept.
He wanted to divide two concepts – unplanned purchase and impulsive purchase,
putting to an end the ambiguity and confusion. For example, he indicated that impulsive
purchase involves instant decision combined with a sudden urge to buy, whereas
unplanned buying is simply the one, which is not considered prior to visiting the store.
In 90s the world saw drastic geopolitical changes, the borders started falling down and
globalization processes influenced a lot of people. With the free movement of people
and mixing of cultures, scholars took the next step in analyzing impulsive buying –
cross-cultural. That is why this phenomenon was studied in many countries – Taiwan,
India, and African and Middle East states. The scientists have collected enormous
amounts of data from numerous surveys. After analyzing it, they could make necessary
comparisons and make interesting conclusions. For instance, South African people were
less affected by impulsive buying than citizens of the US (Abratt and Goodey, 1990).
In 1998 Beatty and Ferrell put emphasis on situational factors – time and money in
particular. They dedicated their studies to find the correlation between person’s
emotional cues and time and money availability. In their works the scholars proved the
fact that these situational factors have an impact on individual’s personality, triggering
the impulse to buy (1998).
1.4. Impulsive Buying Explained
So how the mechanism of impulse buying works? How and where it begins? The
human behavior is driven by various stimuli or impulses. So those are external agents
that influence a human’s behavior pattern.
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It is important to define a psychological impulse first. It can be described as "a strong,
sometimes irresistible urge: a sudden inclination to act without deliberation"
(Goldenson 1984. p. 37). The interesting thing about impulse is that it is never planned
or consciously considered. On the contrary, it occurs spontaneously, and a person
cannot explain the reason for it. When a person is facing some stimulus, the impulse in
the brain reacts to it and leads to some action; in our case it is an impulse purchase.
The power of impulse is so strong that it maybe extremely difficult to fight the urge and
overcome the sudden desire to buy a product. People may react to visual stimuli in store
instantly. Spotting discounted juice or ice cream will quickly make you reconsider your
initial shopping list. Suddenly, you feel like buying it, so the item ends up in your cart.
Or when you are in an apparel store, the suit or dress looks so gorgeous and flattering
that the excitement you feel overwhelms the sense. The brain starts working in a wild
way – you already cannot imagine yourself without the item, which ends up in your
wardrobe consequently.
Some people take it to extremes – they animate impulse purchases, somehow shifting
the blame on it, as if it were not them who made a decision to buy. For example, one 26
years old male respondent in impulse buying study said: “I was standing in the grocery
store checkout line, and the candy bar was staring there at me” (Rook, 1987).
Dennis Rook in his consumer behavior studies carried out numerous experiments and
collected hundreds of responses from people of different age groups and gender in order
to see what triggered the impulsive buying behavior and what cognitive reactions a
shoppers experienced during the sudden desire to buy. He did not neglect the
importance of psychological aspect in his research, for this reason he was successful in
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his endeavor. Other scholars from psychology and marketing have been trying to
explain the phenomenon as well, using various frameworks and models, striving for a
comprehensive explanation. The six following models will be presented in the next
section.
1.5. Theoretical Models of Impulsive Buying Behavior
The Reference Point Model
In 1991 Stephen Hoch together with a behavioral science professor George
Loewenstein developed a theoretic model based on reference points in order to
investigate why consumers have a sudden impulse of buying something. They wanted
to explain why shoppers tend to behave irrationally, rejecting to see the consequences of
their impulse purchase. For this reason, the scholars had to study the connection
between rational and hedonic motives of a shopper and integrate those two different
sides into one model. Apart from this, the professors presented certain consumer tactics
used to fight that sudden urge and regain control over the emotions.
The concept of reference point can be explained by the fact that when a shopper is
exposed to a product, he/she is overwhelmed by the urge to buy it. As soon as a shopper
feels it, a shift in his reference point takes place. With this shift a shopper imagines
him/herself in a positive state of owning the product and enjoying all its benefits, thus
making it really hard to reject this immediate gratification. So, with the shift in a
reference point a consumer is torn between two totally different states – the pleasure of
owning a product and deprivation after the failure to acquire it (Hoch and Loewenstein,
1991).
What are the situations that lead to a shift in reference point, subsequently causing
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impulsive purchase? Hoch and Loewenstein describe the first situation as a consumer’s
proximity, which can be physical, temporal or social comparison (1991). The physical
proximity speaks for itself – the closer the product to a consumer the stronger the desire
to buy it. Indeed, if the product is well-placed on the shelf, perfectly visible and easily
accessible, there is a high probability of impulsive purchase occurrence (Dholakia,
2000). Nothing should distract a shopper from the possibility of impulse purchase, thus
convenient setting and attractive design of product placements will lead to a shift in a
consumer’s reference point. Temporal proximity implies that together with the
attractive setting or placement of a product, a shopper may be overwhelmed by a strong
anticipation of immediate reward, connected with owning a product. Such feeling
greatly increases the shift in a reference point, leading to impulsive purchase
(Parboteaah, 2005). Social comparison effect on a shopper is well-known, because the
desire of a person to be as cool as their friends, relatives or even enemies is really
strong, and consequently a person shifts his/her reference point and indulges in
impulsive buying to order to look no worse or better than people around (Dittmar et al.,
1995).
This model perfectly describes what shifts a consumer’s reference point and why
consumers buy products impulsively after all. It highlights the way consumers see
products, their perceptions and struggles while making such a purchase and the
possibility of regret and feeling of guilt after impulsive purchase. Nonetheless, the
model doesn’t show the reasons for one product being bought impulsively, while the
other is not. Dittmar and his colleagues revised this limitation in 1995, by proposing
their own model of impulsive buying.
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The Model of Impulsive Buying
In this model Dittmar and his colleagues attempted to investigate why some products
are bought impulsively, while other do not fall into the category of impulsive products.
They based their model on the theories of material possession and social constructionist.
The model is characterized by the idea that products have symbolic meanings, apart
from their functional utilities. A product that has certain attractive symbolic attributes
helps the owner to indicate a lot of things – wealth, social status, etc. Basically, people
tend to buy products to show or strengthen their social standing, thus opting for
products with more attractive meanings. The scholars created the model of meaning
dimensions which is shown below:
Figure 1. Meaning Dimensions in Impulse Purchases (Dittmar et al., 1995)
After conducting numerous personal interviews with adult students and men and
women in general, the scholars validated their assumptions of the model. On the whole,
the difference between products bought on impulse and those that were not, is that
products, purchased impulsively much better showcase a person’s identity, status, etc.
The studies also showed that women tend to buy impulsively such products that brightly
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express their appearance and emotional interests and concerns. At the same time men
buy impulsively products with more functional utility. This model explains the
impulsive buying nature from a very interesting perspective – from the perspective of a
product. It also gives a useful insight into the differences of meanings for women and
men – offering a lot of opportunities for producers and advertisers to attract shoppers
and make them buy products impulsively.
The Theoretical Model of Impulsive Buying
One year later Dittmar together with his colleagues went further and introduced a new
theoretical model, which became a more comprehensive version of their previous model
of impulsive buying. As a basis for the research, the scholars took the symbolic selfcompletion theory by Wicklund and Gollwitzer (1982), materialism tendency from
Richins and Dawson (1992) and self-discrepancies notion of Higgins (1987).
The notion of self-discrepancies implies that the way people see themselves differs from
the way they would like to be ideally. So, there is a conflict, discrepancy between the
actual self and ideal self (Higgins, 1987). Such discrepancies tend to be very stressful
and damaging for a consumer, and as a result he or she will try to compensate for it
through making a sudden purchase (Wicklund and Gollwitzer, 1982). The anticipation
of a very quick gratification and the illusion of enjoyment from owning the product
combined, makes a very strong mix, triggering the impulse purchase. In brief, the
bigger discrepancy a consumer has, the stronger is an impulse to buy something, which
is believed to mitigate the missing feature. Richins and Dawson explained the concept
of materialism as a self-completion strategy through product owning (1992). They
claimed that in the modern world people tend to place material things and attribute on
top of everything, and the acquisition of material possessions is seen to be the primary
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goal and a measure of success in life. As it was mentioned in the previous model,
consumers attach special attributes and symbols of products to their ideal selves, in
order to compensate for something missing and improve their social standing in the
eyes of others. Though there are many other ways to compensate for discrepancies,
people simply indulge into impulsive buying, as it seems to be the fastest and easiest
way of getting gratification, without making any effort.
Figure 2. The Theoretical Model of Impulsive Buying (Dittmar et al,. 1996)
As it is seen from the figure above, people may exit from self-discrepancies and
compensate in such a way as doing sports - a great strategy, or even overeating, which
is definitely not the most desirable way out. Basically, consumers buy impulsively
different products, depending on what social status they have, and then the process goes
down to the extent his/her actual self is different from an ideal one they wish to have.
And if a person is prone to materialism and sees products acquisition as the only
23
possible compensation strategy, he or she will be more inclined to impulsive buying
inside the store. This model provides professionals with highly useful awareness of
consumer behavior and its weaknesses in particular. With the help of this theoretical
model, it is possible to predict what kind of products can be bought impulsively and
what groups of consumers may be motivated to impulse purchase easier. Despite such a
comprehensive approach in those two studies, Parboteaah claims that doesn’t take into
consideration the certain situations that make people buy impulsively (2005).
The Two-Factor Cost-Benefit Accessibility Framework
It was not a long time since a new model was introduced to address the abovementioned drawback. In 1996 a two-factor cost-benefit accessibility framework was
developed by Puri. The new model was based on the studies of impulsiveness, time
inconsistent preferences and self-control, and was built on a hedonic framework
(Parboteaah, 2005). It means that when a shopper is exposed to a product inside the
store, he or she is overwhelmed by a tempting urge to buy it immediately. When it
comes to time inconsistent preferences, as it was mentioned before, it describes the
situation when the benefits of quick enjoyment prevail over the reason and possible
consequences.
The main assumption of this model is that a buying situation plays a crucial role in
consumer impulsivity. Depending on what kind of feelings and perceptions a particular
situation emphasizes, and of course an individual’s inclination to impulsive behavior, a
particular outcome inside the store can be expected – either an exposed person will buy
impulsively, being unable to fight the urge, or a person will resist the sudden desire and
the probability of impulsive purchase will significantly diminish. Basically, when a
24
person in a certain situation feels that benefits outweigh costs, an impulse purchase is
likely to happen and visa versa. In this model situation is the main determinant of the
probability of impulsive purchase, because it may either emphasize costs or benefits of
impulsive buying behavior.
Figure 3. The Two-Factor Cost-Benefit Accessibility Framework (Puri, 1996)
Puri also divides consumers into two groups, depending on what chronic values they
have – hedonics and prudents (1996). In his view hedonics by nature are prone to
considering only benefits of a purchase, thus it makes them more susceptible to
impulsive buying behavior. Prudents, on the contrary, do not engage into impulsive
behavior, because they are used to concentrate on costs. So, an individuals’ propensity
to impulsivity and a situation they happen to be, influence the probability of an impulse
purchase.
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The Model of Environment-Shopper Relationships
In 1999 McGoldrick and his colleagues presented their own model of impulsive buying,
based on the influence of two factors during sales seasons - customer’s sociodemographic characteristics and his or her cognitive characteristics (Economics and
management, 2012). Socio-demographic characteristics describe what kind of reaction a
shopper has towards the environment in the store. This factor also determines the
probability of an impulse purchase. What are these factors? It can be for example age,
gender, money availability and others. Obviously men and women have different
propensity to impulsive purchases, and thus their perceptions and reactions will be
different as well. Cognitive characteristics determine what perceptions and beliefs a
shopper has towards the environment. In this model, the environment was limited –
sales season, so people will not have the same beliefs about this period – some may like
it, the others not. They believed that exactly those two factors affect the occurrence of
impulsive behavior inside the store.
Figure 4. Conceptual Model of Environment-Shopper Relationships (McGoldrick et al.
1999)
Looking at the figure above, we can follow the logic of how environment influences the
26
response from a shopper inside the store, and then, combined with two factors, leads to
a certain behavior. The mentioned propensity to avoid dissonance behaviors serves as a
moderator between a shopper’s response and behavior. Taking sales shopping as an
example, it can be said that a shopper tries to avoid thinking about the after-math of an
impulse purchase. In such a way he or she concentrates only on the positive
implications of sales – reduced price.
Despite the fact that this model is very interesting and helpful when it comes to
explaining how and why impulsive purchases are made, this study is limited because of
its applicability to sales season only. It would be wrong to think that the same model of
consumer behavior applies to everyday shopping situation.
The Integrated Model of Consumption Impulse Formation and Enactment
Finally in 2000, Dholakia presented his model of impulsive buying behavior, which
seems to be one of the most comprehensive. Dholakia claims that there are certain
processes, which comprise impulsive buying behaviors: volitional, motivational and
cognitive (2000). With the help of the model, he explains the psychological mechanisms
behind the impulsive buying behavior.
27
Figure 5. The Integrated Model of Consumption Impulse Formation and Enactment
(Dholakia, 2000)
As shown above, there are three foregoing factors of impulsive buying: impulsivity
trait, marketing stimuli and situational factors. The presence of at least one factor is
already enough to feel a sudden urge to buy something. Impulsivity trait describes how
a shopper is inclined to an impulsive purchase. Marketing stimuli is a very significant
factor, because marketers, retailers and advertisers effectively manipulate shoppers, by
using exactly this one. Store atmospherics, visual merchandise and promotions trigger
consumer behavior into the direction of an impulsive purchase. Situational factors,
which are divided into environmental and personal, will be discussed in detail later, but
they also play a big role in the process of incentivizing impulsive buying. For example a
shopper’s money and time availability may greatly affect the likelihood of an impulse
purchase inside the store.
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When these factors merge together, a consumption impulse occurs. At that time
constraining factors emerge in order to respond to the sudden impulse. Dholakia
identified three of them: current impediments, consideration of long-term deleterious
consequences, and anticipatory emotions (2000).
Current impediments may be the lack of time and money, which in turn negatively
affect the flow of impulse buying process (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998). Being pressed for
time means that a consumer does not have enough time for making the right choice and
grabbing a product from the shelf. He or she simply will not notice promotional POS
materials or special deal. The lack of money will disrupt the flow even worse – it will
be just impossible to buy something impulsively.
Consideration of long-term consequences means that a shopper will think about the
possible negative effects of an impulse purchase that in turn may avert him or her from
that purchase. Finally, negative anticipatory emotions, which are closely connected with
consequences. A shopper may reconsider an impulsive purchase, if he or she anticipates
guilt or regret after purchase. Such constraints put a shopper into the state of serious
conflict between his sudden, irresistible urge and possible consequences or other
impediments. In contrast, if a shopper doesn’t feel anything negative, considers benefits
of an impulse purchase bigger than costs, and is not limited by situational factors, he or
she will purchase a product “on-the-spot” (Rook, 1987).
Basically, a shopper has two ways out of this situation – behavior, which is impulsive
buying, and non-behavior, which is resistance to an impulsive purchase. If a consumer
switches on his or her self-control mechanism and thoroughly considers the costs and
29
consequences of impulsivity, he or she resists the stimuli and deters the purchase inside
the store.
1.6. The Classification of Buying Decisions
Kollat and Willet in 1967 after recognizing the importance of lifestyle features and
customs came up with their conceptualization of buying decisions as well as the
definition of impulsive buying. They believed that demographics and personal traits
indeed had an impact on impulsive buying behavior. Thus, they decided to compare the
difference between prior intentions and purchase outcomes of shoppers. Knowing what
the intentions were before entering the store and comparing them with the outcomes,
gave the researches a great insight into the classification of impulsive behavior. They
started with the typology of shoppers’ intentions.
The following are the intentions, arising before going into the store and prior to the
exposure to in-store stimuli (Kollat and Willet, 1967, p.21):
1. Product and brand – consumers know brand and product they want to buy before
entering the store.
2. Product only – consumers know what type of product they want to purchase, but
have no brand preference. For example, there is a plan to buy low-fat milk, but not of a
certain producer.
3. Product class only – consumers know only what class of a product they want to buy,
but not exactly what product. For instance, a shopper needs milk, but has not decided
yet which concretely – low-fat, lactose free, etc.
4. Need recognized – consumers know that there is some certain need to buy something
(for breakfast for example), but they have not made a decision which product, product
class or brand they are looking for.
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5. Need not recognized – consumers have no need to buy something before entering
the store and facing the stimuli inside.
Kollat and Willet went further, developing the typology of the most frequent shopping
outcomes (p.22, 1967):
1. Product and brand purchased;
2. Product and brand not purchased, i.e., no purchase;
3. Product purchased, brand not purchased, i.e., brand substitution;
After pairing the above-mentioned typologies, the researches developed the following
intensions-outcomes matrix with 15 possible types of impulsive buying (1967, p.22):
Outcomes
Intentions
Product and brand
mentioned
Product
only
mentioned
Product
class
mentioned
Need recognized
Need
not
recognized
Product and brand No purchase
purchased
Product, not brand
purchased
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
As a result, category 9 became the definition of impulsive purchase in this study – the
product and brand are bought when the need is not recognized.
Another classification is provided by POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising
International), dating from 1965:
1. Specifically planned – these are the purchases that shopper specifically identified in
pre-shopping interview.
2. Generally planned – purchases that were generally mentioned in pre-shopping
interview.
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3. Unplanned – purchases that were not mentioned in the pre-shopping interview and
customer bought on an impulse.
4. Substitutes - Purchases that were specifically identified by name in the pre-shopping
interview, but the actual purchase was a different brand or product.
It is necessary to highlight that unplanned purchases hit the highest frequency in
POPAI’s 2014 shopper engagement study – 65 % of all purchases (2014).
Needless to say that seeing such high percentage of impulse purchase, retailers and
scholars realize the crucial importance of studying and mastering the phenomenon of
impulsive buying. To say more, due to the high pace development of ecommerce and
online shopping as a whole, the possibilities and reach of retailers seem to be unlimited,
and the scope of their influence is getting greater. In regard to online stores, shoppers
have become more exposed to various stimuli, but their opportunities to buy have
transformed as well, and nowadays, online shoppers may be even more impulsive in
comparison to in-store visitors.
1.7 The Types of Impulsive Buying
As was shown previously, different researchers have developed quite diverse definitions
of the concept. The same can be said about the classification of impulsive buying. Over
time the classification was changing, when each scholar introduced his own view on the
issue, based on his definition. The one and only viable classification belongs to
industrial economist Hawkins Stern.
Stern identified four kinds of impulsive buying as an “Impulse Mix”, based on the level
of will power experienced by a consumer (1962). He believed that different situations
32
and environment, combined with other factors like budget, personality, culture and
customs, might have different impact on the same customer and, therefore, lead to
different impulsive outcomes.
1. Pure Impulsive Buying – the name speaks for itself; this type involves a very
high level of impulsivity. Such buying pattern is very rare, since it is based on
high emotional and spontaneous decisions. It is characterized by some
novelty, which is very different from a person’s usual shopping pattern.
2. Reminder Impulsive Buying – such pattern occurs when shopper is faced
with a product and out of the blue it reminds him/her about the necessity of
purchasing it. It may be the low stock or the absence of some certain product
at home. So before entering the store, shopper didn’t intend of buying
anything like that. In this regard, successful and memorable commercial or
attractive promotion may trigger impulse to buy. Previous experience plays a
crucial role too – if customer was satisfied before, it will buy it again easily,
following the impulsive behavior. On the contrary, if the experience was
negative, person will hardly buy anything like that again, despite sales
promotions.
3. Suggestion Impulsive Buying – this pattern is characterized by the sudden
feeling of trying the product for the first time. It happens when shopper sees
something for the first time and suddenly is overcame with the desire to buy it,
as he/she imagines the feeling of having an item. It is important to note that no
previous experience is involved here, hence product itself or its promotion
must be very powerful to spark the impulse inside the store.
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4. Planned Impulsive Buying - though the word planned sounds strange, this
pattern happens to be the most frequent. It occurs when shopper doesn’t have
any particular preferences in brand, size, color, etc. of a product, and plans to
make a decision already in the store. For retailers and advertisers this is an
extremely important type of pattern. Atmospherics, packaging, and
promotions - all these must aim at luring the customer.
Stern’s typology is widely used by many researches and marketers nowadays and gets
applicable to many markets – from food, snacks and drinks up to fashion clothes and
shoes. His typology is universal and can be easily adjusted to meet the certain needs of
studies.
CHAPTER 2. Factors that Trigger Impulsive Buying
2.1 The Classification of Triggering Factors
Together with the development of the concept of impulsive buying and its more
comprehensive study approach, a major facet has been examined as well – triggering
factors. Factors, influencing impulsive buying can be divided into two big groups –
external as a way of in-store communication and internal (Wansink, 1994).
External factors are those, which are controlled externally – by producers, retailers,
marketers and so on. Marketers put a lot of effort into creating and implementing
various POS materials, promotion activities and sale events, and other marketing cues to
communicate effectively and lure shoppers into impulsive behavior inside the store
(Youn and Faber, 2000). A shopper himself does not have any control over such factors.
The presence of certain external stimuli greatly increases the likelihood of impulsive
purchase, since such behavior is triggered by an impulse (Iyer, 1989). It is necessary to
34
add that external stimuli help not only to lure new customers, but also promote up and
cross selling to the existing ones, by offering complimentary or better items (Dawson
and Minjeong, 2009).
Internal factors are those directly connected with an individual – his/her personal
characteristics and cues that make them buy impulsively. Kacen and Lee enumerate the
following internal cues: impulsive buying tendency (IBT), emotional states and moods,
demographic factors and the consumer’s normative evaluation of impulse buying
engagement (2002). Indeed, person’s emotional state, feelings and moods can be very
powerful when it comes to impulsive buying. The former factors constitute an
individual’s affective state (Youn and Faber, 2000). The outcome of internal cues
processing can be either affective – resulting in impulsive buying; or cognitive –
leading to non-impulsive behavior (Karbasivar and Yarahmadi, 2011).
Since the business environment is constantly changing as well as shoppers themselves
and their behavior, recent researches are quite different from the ones mentioned before.
Taking into account that sociologists and psychologists have started taking interest in
the impulsive buying phenomenon, more and more factors triggering such behavior
appear. It is not only because shoppers have become more sophisticated and educated
about their shopping choices and decisions, and probably more aware of the tricks
retailers and advertise use to lure them. Technology and progress also play crucial roles
in shaping the retail environment and people’s buying behavioral patterns. Due to
globalization nowadays we can witness how buying behavior is being changed across
many developing nations and what is more important, the valuable studies presented on
their example. In this context, the sociological factors are indeed very influential and
35
deserve to be studied further to keep getting new insights into the impulsive buying
behavior.
2.2. The External Factors
2.2.1. The Product
Firstly, a product itself is a very attractive object, and the way it is designed or packed,
priced and placed is very important when it comes to impulsive buying. That is why
producers and retailers pay particular attention to the details of a product, in order to
make it more appealing to a customer inside the store and make it stand out on the shelf.
There are several product features that may be used in order to lure a customer into
impulsive buying (Stern, 1962):

Low price – it sounds obvious and logical, because low priced or discounted
products are generally attractive for a customer, but when it comes to impulsive
buying, low price makes a product even more tempting and irresistible to buy.
Price reductions, cost savings, or sales promotions can trigger an unintended
purchase (Laroche, Pons, Zgolli, Cervellon, and Kim, 2003). In such a way low
prices trigger planned impulsive purchase. For example, a person has 2 bottles
of milk on the shopping list – planned purchase, but when coming into the store,
a consumer sees that buying 3 bottles will save him/her 0,5 dollar, and thus a
shopper gets the third bottle impulsively, basing his/her decision on the reduced
price.
Also, impulsive buying of something cheap serves as a certain excuse for a
consumer. After the impulse purchase, a customer may feel guilt or frustration,
but if a product was really cheap, the situation does not seem so bad. The
damage to the budget is not substantial, thus a person does not think about it in a
36
negative way. Such little impulsive purchases happen very often, and exactly
because of its little money loss, people do not consider it as something important
or negative. The feeling of acquiring something for a low price makes a person
feel like a winner. It is mistakenly taken as a great bargain, with no regards to
consequences. Subsequently, such purchases will continue in the future,
bringing a big amount of profit to the retailers and producers.
At the same time, low price can influence impulse purchase in a different way.
Thaler describes it as a “dollar store phenomenon”, when everything costs one
dollar, but at the end the total amount of money spent is bigger than in
comparison with any other equivalent store (1999). It shows that low prices
indeed encourage a consumer to buy products, and that a higher price may have
restricted an impulse purchase (Thaler, 1999).

Low marginal need for an item – this feature relates to the degree that a
shopper needs or requires an item. Different product categories have different
marginal need. Such things as bread and water have a high marginal need. But it
may vary from person to person. Some people do not eat meat very often, thus it
will have a low marginal need for them, while vegetables will be of a high one.
As a result, goods of a high marginal need are always in demand, they are
planned and every time a person goes shopping, these items are on the list of
planned purchases. Contrary to that, items of low marginal need are not
considered to be vitally important, and usually they are not planned in advance.
They are not intended or planned to be bought when a person goes shopping.
Consequently, exactly these kinds of items may be bought impulsively, since
prior to that they were not on the shopping list. Chewing gums, chocolate bars,
different sweets and other little things are bought only when being encountered
37
already in the store. Before seeing them, a consumer usually does not think of
purchasing one, thus the impulse arises only when a person is exposed to an
item inside the store – which makes it an impulse purchase. Thus, items with
low marginal need are usually bought on an impulse.

Mass advertising – advertising in general plays a very significant role in
promoting the product, as well as providing information about the company,
brand and its benefits. Kotler said that mass advertising leads to impulse
purchases because it creates consumer knowledge about an item or brand, which
increases the chances of the product being recognized and chosen on impulse by
the consumer (1991). For example, a shopper buys a new chocolate bar, while
strolling around the shop, because he/she remembers an advertisement that
recalls some positive emotions or unique taste of it. A shopper has never bought
it before, but when he/she recalls the commercial, seeing the product, he decides
to buy it. Such kind of purchase is truly impulsive, because a shopper did not
plan it, so the purchase is made only when a shopper is exposed to the product
and reminded of an advertisement on the spot. Mass advertising is closely
connected with the marginal need for item, hence it is essential for explaining to
consumers why it is worth buying as well as providing them with the necessary
knowledge about a product.

Prominent store displays - it is a very important feature, regarding impulsive
buying. For most people shopping, especially a grocery one, is nothing special
and is generally a part of some routine. Shoppers go inside the store, knowing
what they want to buy, and taking into account modern lifestyle, they simply
may not have enough time for strolling between the aisles. Obviously,
consumers are not interested in any unplanned purchases, and that is why
38
merchandisers must be very creative and inventive in order to catch attention of
shoppers and make them buy an item impulsively. Displays, obviously, must be
prominent and eye-catching so the consumer sees the product immediately.
Point-of-sale materials are getting more and more sophisticated nowadays, as
customers already have strong immunity towards all the amount of information
and tricks inside the store.
Nevertheless, there are two things, which help to grab a shopper’s attention and
trigger an impulse purchase: prominence and location of a display. Bright,
animated or interactive displays will definitely grab attention from shoppers and
will make them stop by and look closer at products. Marketers use a great deal
of fantasy and creativity when it comes to making POS materials. It must be
memorable and easily recognizable to make it stand out from the competitors.
For example, a point-of-sale display was created for the Guinness World
Records book that held 100 books, was covered in graphics from the book, and
lit up with chaser lights at the head of the unit. Such point-of-sale strategy
resulted in substantial sales increases for the annual Guinness World Records
book (Miller at al., 2010).
The interesting thing about this example in connection to impulse buying is that
Guinness book is not marketed anywhere or anyhow at all, thus, the strong
increase in sales resulted from the impulse purchases of shoppers who stopped
by the display and felt a sudden desire to acquire it. The great prominence and a
well-thought location of the display in chosen shops helped to spark the interest
and a buying impulse in consumers.

Short product life – it accounts for those items, which are consumed quickly
39
and, thus, need to be bought again soon. Such items have a short buying cycle
and consumers do not usually plan in advance the purchase of them. On the
contrary, they simply go into the store and hope to see them there and buy it on
an impulse, without any prior plan or thought (Stern, 1962). Such high
frequency of shopping for these items makes a person less sensitive to buying.
As a result, a shopper, making such purchases so often, does not feel any
responsibility for planning in advance, and obviously has no fit of conscience
after impulsively buying a certain item with a short life cycle. Basically, a
shopper does not even consider such purchases to be impulsive, simply because
of the high purchase frequency. Such purchase is seen to be completely normal
and even necessary for a shopper.

Small size and light weight – when it comes to incentivizing impulsive
purchases, size of an item and its weight really matters. A product must be
convenient in any sense, otherwise, a sudden impulse will disappear facing
possible difficulties with transportation, handling, etc. As it was mentioned
before, there should not be any additional effort from the side of a shopper, thus
producers must think thoroughly how easy it is for a perspective customer to
take an item and pay for it at the cash desk. Any inconvenience, associated with
purchase or transportation of a product, will be detrimental to an impulse,
because it will outweigh the desire to have it. Hence, relatively small and light
items are more prone to be bought impulsively, since they do not discourage a
sudden impulse.

Ease of storage – this feature is closely related to the one, mentioned above. If a
shopper realizes that the difficulty or inconvenience of storing an item far
overrides the anticipated benefit of having it, the impulse will curb. For instance,
40
a shopper spots something he/she has been looking for a long time on sale, but
understands that there is no room for it already at home. Obviously, due to the
storage limitations, he/she will not buy an item, exactly because storage problem
outweighs the desire of having an item.
2.2.2. Situational Factors Inside the Store
A prominent contribution was made with the pinpointing of situational factors in
relation to impulsive buying. Dholakia defined them as “environmental and individual
factors that have influence on impulsive buying (2000). Situational factors were studied
by many experts, giving more and more useful insights into the impulsive buying
phenomenon. The attractiveness of the situational factors lies in the fact that they are
closely bound with impulsive behavior. Most of the factors can be controlled or
changed by the retailers, thus being extremely valuable for the decision-making process
as well as sales magnitude (Badgaiyan and Verma, 2014). The situational factors were
divided into two groups – personal and environmental.
2.2.3. Environmental Factors
Environmental (in-store) factors are:

Sales promotion – it seems to be obvious that discounts are famous triggers for
impulsive purchase. The implementation of sales promotions is aimed at fast
incentivizing of shoppers wants and needs. Then it stimulates the immediate
purchase of a product or service (Etzel et al., 2001). Numerous studies have
proven the strong correlation between sales promotions (cash discounts, free
products) and impulse buying.

Store environment – this aspect has a strong influence as well. Shelf
arrangements, space, colors, lightning and smells – only a few factors that tend
41
to attract customers and trigger the impulse to buy a product. It seems a common
sense that in a clean, light, smartly arranged and pleasant store people will be
more tempted to spend time and subsequently to make a purchase. The use of
special lighting and colors may greatly encourage impulsive purchases, since
visually it will be more appealing and with have a bigger impact on the
consumer (Babin and Kim, 2001). Apart from visual attraction, store
environment affects emotional state as well. Only a few people would prefer to
do shopping in a dirty store. Exactly nice and pleasant atmosphere positively
affects shoppers’ emotions and perceptions of the store, thus greatly increasing
the chance of impulse purchase.

In-store displays - retailers must understand their customers and their habits
according to Terrazas (2006). Only after understanding the behavior of people,
in-store displays become successful and effective in luring customers into
impulsive behavior. There are numerous ways how to spark the impulse inside
the store. Terrazas describes one strategy as to identify the commonality of
purchased goods and then attractively display complementary products next to
these common products (2006). Displaying the most popular products in the
back of the store is another method of triggering the impulse - this forces the
client to walk past and be exposed to other items first. It is also widespread
practice to separate popular items. Bread and milk, for example, will most likely
be displayed at the two most opposite ends of the store which will force the
consumer past a long aisle of products triggering impulsive buying on the way
to the other essential product (Tendai and Crispen, 2009).

Behavior of employees in store – almost everybody will agree that friendly and
helpful staff in a store is one of the keys to successful sales. So many times
42
people face irritation or even rudeness from the salespeople that being friendly is
seen as something extraordinary. Indeed, helpful and nice attitude towards
customers may greatly increase the occurrence of impulsive purchase (Yu and
Bastin, 2010). This connection was shown in many researches, and needless to
say, nice employees tend to convince shoppers much faster. By providing useful
advice, explaining pros and cons of a particular product, asking right questions,
and being attentive to customer’s mood shop assistants make a big difference in
sales performance. Well-trained and professional employees may not only
trigger impulsive purchase at some particular moment, but also promote a
positive image of a brand or store in general, converting customers into loyal
ones and driving sales up.

Store music – this factor may not be so obvious, but nonetheless, plays a
significant role in people’s lives as a whole. People in general like listening to
music, because it helps to relax, to escape from stress and gives a lot of pleasant
emotions, changing the mood for the better. When it comes to music as a retail
tool, nice melody will not irritate or annoy customers, making them leave a shop
as soon as possible. On the contrary, the use of good music aims at providing
shoppers with soothing and de-stressing effect that in turn may lead to a greater
probability of impulsive purchase. Catchy tune can positively influence
customer’s mood and make him or her more susceptible to impulse purchase.
For example, Morrison in his 2011 research highlighted the positive connection
between impulse buying behavior and pleasure levels, increased by music and
aroma inside stores. Earlier in 1993, it was revealed that carefully chosen “music
along with lighting is an important trigger that creates an urge to purchase
impulsively” (Eroglu and Machleit, 2001).
43
2.2.4. Personal Factors
Among the personal (individual) factors were pointed out the following (Badgaiyan
and Verma, 2014):

Money availability – the amount of funds a person is willing to spend. This
factor is important in fact not only for impulsive purchases, because without
budget a person will not buy even something planned. Hence, some extra money
will definitely “increase the likelihood of impulsive purchase” (Luo, 2004). The
availability of extra funds also means that the purchasing power of a buyer is
higher, therefore facilitating the impulsive buying behavior in the store.

Economic well-being – it is considered to be a financial health of a person
(Badgaiyan and Verna, 2014). While money availability is short-term, overall
financial health tends to be long-term. Why is it an important factor when it
comes to impulsive buying? The answer is obvious – those shoppers, who have
sound financial health in the long run, are considered to be more susceptible to
impulsive purchases, since they do not usually regret spending money
impulsively.

Family influence – as it was mentioned before, friends and relatives may have a
big impact on people, even when it comes to shopping. This factor was
recognized in many studies: for example Underhill already in 1999 pinpointed a
positive and strong correlation between couples or groups of shoppers and better
sales at the end. In more recent research Lin and Chen draw attention to the fact
that increased susceptibility to family influence leads to greater tendency to buy
on impulse (Parboteeah, 2005). But not only parents or older relatives have
significant impact on impulsive buying. Surprisingly enough, children can
44
trigger the impulse to buy in their parents as well: the presence of children and
recognition of their wants and needs can be a powerful stimulus.

Time availability – it is also a very significant factor in terms of impulse
purchase. And the explanation of it seems very logical, since shoppers who are
pressed for time are likely to take exactly what they planned before entering the
store. They obviously do not have so much time to wander around the shelves
and look for something. On the contrary, people who are not in a hurry are more
susceptible to all the things they see inside the store – sales alerts, shelf
placements, special promotions sign and etc. They simply have time to spot it
and stop by, that may result in a sudden purchase.

Credit card use – it is not surprising that the feeling of having “extra” money
on the credit card gives a wrong, illusional and dangerous feeling of freedom.
Feinberg in 1986 carried out four experiments and reported that the availability
of credit card “increased the probability, speed, and magnitude of spending”
(Parboteeah, 2005).
People tend to forget that spending money over the limit and going into debt is a
slippery slope. It is a very effective tool of making people spend more than they can
afford and even buy something they do not want. As a result, people with credit
cards tend to go way above their means and commit impulse purchases more often,
than those who have a “real” amount of money on the debit card. Convenience and
easy of credit card usage urges consumer to overspending and likely triggers the
likelihood of impulse buying. To say more, various consumer studies claim that
frequent credit card users have been found to be less price sensitive, and that credit
card possession is “related to buying higher priced items” (Parboteeah, 2005).
45
2.3. Internal Factors
Theorists and researchers have been paying closer attention to internal cues for a long
time: some studies have tried to examine if people, who are constantly engaging into
impulsive buying have certain common personality traits; the others have embarked on
developing and verifying scales to measure impulsive buying tendency (IBT). When
speaking about the internal cues and characteristics that influence impulsive buying,
different scholars have different opinions and areas of interests. We are going to look
closer at IBT – impulsive buying tendency and personality traits, which are connected
with it. IBT is described as the “degree to which an individual is likely to make
unintended, immediate, and unreflective purchases” (Jones et al., 2003, p. 506). Some
researches believe that certain personality traits have a strong correlation to IBT and
thus, have a direct impact on impulsive behavior.
Youn and Faber in their study aimed at investigating the relationships between IBT and
3 personality traits, which are potentially correlated with impulsive buying: lack of
control, stress reaction and absorption (2000). Firstly, it is important to explain where
these traits come from and why they are considered to be related to impulsive buying
behavior. Auke Tellegen, a psychology professor from Minnesota University,
developed a personality test - Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ),
intended to measure normal personality. Based on 276 true-false items, the test gives
scores on 11 primary personality dimensions: wellbeing, social potency, achievement,
social closeness, stress reaction, alienation, aggression, control, harm avoidance,
traditionalism, and absorption (Tellegen, 1982). Youn and Faber singled out 3 traits
(lack of control, stress reaction and absorption) to conduct their research, since they
were linked to the concept of impulsive buying.
46

Lack of Control – control in this regard is related to the cognitive ability of a
person to monitor a purchase impulse. People are split into two bipolar
categories – controllers and impulse-ridden. Simply put, controllers are those,
who prefer to plan they are activities and are characterized to be cautious,
rational and sensible; they are able to overcome the impulse and delay the
gratification (Tellegen, 1982).
On the contrary, impulse-ridden people are
careless and spontaneous, and do not think twice about purchase - they simply
buy something, without any consideration of consequences. Such personality
trait greatly contributes to impulsive buying, because people with this trait fail to
control their desires and strive for immediate gratification. They are easily led
and prone to external stimuli, which makes them a great target for retailers.

Stress Reaction – this trait reflects systematic individual differences and shows
how frequent and intense the person’s response is to situational cues with
negative emotional states (i.e., anxiety, anger, distress, and guilt) (Youn and
Faber, 2000). Such negative emotional states arise from everyday life of an
individual – problems at work or home or disappointment with living conditions.
Basically, people with such trait tend to be very vulnerable and highly prone to
stress, they may overreact and exaggerate the scale of a problem; they are easily
hurt and upset, as well as troubled by a certain sense of guilt. As a result, such
people look for some relief, and impulsive buying seems to them an easy way of
getting gratification and some amount of happiness. Even in 1988 researches
found out that such people felt much better after they had impulsively purchased
something (Rook and Fisher, 1995). Impulsive purchase offers them a quick
way to gratification and also helps to escape from everyday stress. An
immediate gratification after an impulse purchase substitutes the negative state
47
to some extent. The interesting thing about this trait is when such people try to
control an impulse and refuse to buy something, it may make things even worse,
because their disappointment with life and overall negative state is deepened by
the delay and refuse of the gratification. So, impulsive buying becomes a very
primitive solution for stress-reactive people.

Absorption – the final trait constitutes a person’s tendency to become engaged
in self-involving experiences triggered by appealing external and imaginative
stimuli (Tellegen and Waller, 2008). Such trait makes a person very sensitive to
environmental cues not only inside the store, but also in life in general. They get
“absorbed” by the surrounding sounds, lights and smells. Obviously, this trait
makes people be an easy target for marketers and advertisers, because any
entrancing or engaging stimuli such as promotions, gifts or eye-catching POS
materials will grab the attention of such shopper and may trigger the buying
impulse inside the store. It was proposed that people with high-absorption levels
are easier to be lured into impulsive buying.
To support their hypothesis, the scholars conducted a survey of 135 students, aged
between 18 and 25, mostly females. They were given an MPQ and had to indicate
each statement either true or false. The tendency to engage in impulse buying was
assessed by the "buying impulsiveness scale" developed by Rook and Fisher (1995).
As a result, the correlation analysis showed that a lack of control had the highest
correlation with IBT, followed by stress reaction and absorption (Youn and Faber,
2000). All together, three traits accounted for 20 % of the variance in IBT.
After examining the triggering cues, Youn and Faber showed that both external
48
(environmental and personal) and internal factors have a significant impact on
impulsive buying behavior: money availability, which accounts for external factor
scored the highest rating – 60 %. Among other cues associated with shopping
situation were: receiving money (45.9%), money (40.0%), and credit cards (36.3%).
Interesting to note that credit card availability did not appear to be very influential,
even among young female students, while the general concept of “having money”
had the strongest impact in that study. Speaking about feeling states (internal
factors), the scholars found out that cues connected with them also scored quite
high: the state of feeling happy, for example, was the highest score among the
internal factors - 51.1 %, next come wanting something (45.9%) and feeling selfindulgent (40.0%), feeling good about yourself (37.0%), and feeling hungry (35.6%)
(Youn and Faber, 2000).
They also managed to compare what cues are different in their impact on high and
low impulse shoppers. They took the lowest and the highest scores on buying
impulsiveness scale, and made a t-test for each cue. They chose the following
factors (both external and internal): "positive feelings," "advertisements," "visual
elements," "feeling fat," "clothing and looks," "food," "depressed feelings," "price,"
"promotional gifts," "holidays," "music," "painful feelings," "new products,"
"alcohol," and "gambling." (Youn and Faber, 2000).
High impulse shoppers turned out to be more sensitive to "advertisements, "visual
elements", "promotional gifts", "clothing and looks", than low impulse buyers on
this scale (Youn and Faber, 2000). In general, high impulse buyers were proven to
be more sensitive to external and internal cues.
49
Finally, Youn and Faber investigated the correlation between the above-mentioned
personality traits and the cues, which triggered impulsive buying. The results were
very interesting and unexpected to some extent. For instance, “lack of control” trait
turned out to be linked only to one cue – price. The negative association was
explained in a way that people with higher levels of control tend to be the ones, who
are likely to respond to reduced prices – sales, bargains, promotions (Youn and
Faber, 2000). “Absorption” trait did not surprise researchers and logically had
positive association with such external cues as store atmospherics: music and visual
elements. People with more absorptive nature fall victims of impulsive buying more
due to the effect of store atmospherics. Eventually, a “stress reaction” trait proved to
be more positively associated with such internal cues as negative feeling states:
"depressed feelings", "feeling fat", and "painful feelings". Nevertheless, stress
reaction was also associated with positive feelings, which was explained in a way
that stress-reactive shoppers are more sensitive and vulnerable to their feeling states
(both positive and negative), thus tend to be more inclined to impulsive buying
(Youn and Faber, 2000).
Chapter 3. The Summary of Research
In their 2011 research Karbasivar and Yarahmadi decided to check the positive
correlation between credit card use (internal factor), sales promotion, window display
(external factors) and impulsive buying of apparel. After taking a sample of 280 people
from Iran and distributing 19 questions surveys to them, the scholars started analyzing
the data. In this study, impulse buying behavior served as dependent variable and four
factors (Credit Card, Window Display, Promotional Approaches (Cash Discount),
Promotional Approaches (Free Products)) served as independent variables. After certain
50
statistical tests, the researches have presented the results, where such external factor as a
window display scored the maximum points, thus having the biggest influence on
impulsive behavior of a chosen sample. The next come cash discount and free products
promotion. Surprisingly enough, credit card use proved to be the least effective when it
comes to impulsive buying in Iran (Karbasivar and Yarahmadi, 2011, p. 180).
Seeing such results, it was recommended to retailers to provide customers with ATM
inside the store, in order to make it easier for consumer to spend money. Since free
items also have an impact on impulsive purchase, marketers can trigger impulse by
offering and promoting free things as complimentary products (Karbasivar and
Yarahmadi, 2011, 180).
Earlier in 2009, Tendai and Crispen aimed at investigating the connection between such
external factors as store environment, in-store displays, behavior of staff, as well as
price and atmospherics and impulsive buying. 320 shoppers in South Africa were taken
as a representative sample. 55 % of respondents were young (21-30 years) and 60 %
turned out to be from low-income background.
51
Figure 6. Consumer responses to the influence of various in-store factors on impulsive
buying in supermarket shops (Tendai and Crispen, 2009).
As seen from the results, 8 out of 9 factors proved to have an impact on impulsive
buying from the taken sample. The most prominent factor is price, since most of the
sample has low income. Politeness of staff plays a very significant role as well as
advertisements, store displays and coupons. The mentioned factors can be associated
with promotional and economic effect.
Meanwhile, store atmospherics like scent, music and ventilation did not show major
influence on impulsive buying – such factors were claimed to have an atmospheric,
entertaining, experiential and hedonic effect. This study showed very well the
comparison of different factors in regard to impulsive buying and what is more
important – the separate influence of each.
52
Taken into account the demographics, it can be concluded that the majority of
population of young age and with low income tends to buy impulsively for economic
reasons – since the price factor is the strongest. They do not pay so much attention to
hedonic factors – music, smell, etc. As the scholars explained, such price induced
impulsive buying can be interpreted by the mental accounting activity concept, which
says that an increase or decrease in the amount of money spent for an essential item on
a given shopping trip (e.g., an unexpected increase in the price of milk) would increase
or decrease the amount that is perceived to be available to spend on other goods,
producing a congruent spillover effect (Tendai and Crispen, 2009). Nonetheless, we
cannot exclude the importance of in-store shopping environment with its hedonic,
entertaining effects, because it affects impulsive buying, but young and poor shoppers
tend to buy for economic reasons more. Atmospherics proved to have an impact when it
comes to enhancing the stay of shoppers and making it longer, but not directly
triggering the impulsive purchase. Undoubtedly, the time a customer spends inside the
store will increase the probability of an impulse purchase.
One more study comes from Pakistan. In 2013 the researchers Vishnu and Raheem
aimed at investigating the influence of separate factors on impulsive buying behavior of
Pakistani people in nice shopping malls. They distributed 384 questionnaires among
men (the majority of respondents – 73 %) and women to see what factors influence
them when it comes to impulsive purchase. The majority of the sample (282) was aged
between 18 – 25, had bachelor’s degree and the income level was above average with
the most respondents. The research showed that income level and visual merchandise
inside the store had the biggest impact on impulsive buying, windows displays and store
environments influence less, whereas credit cards did not show any positive association
53
inside the sample at all.
People in Taiwan were also studied in terms of their buying behavior in retail stores.
Lan-Ying Huang and Ying-Jiun Hsieh in 2012 conducted a comprehensive study of instore stimuli and impulsive buying, basing it on environmental psychology. They use
Mehrabian and Russell’s framework of emotional responses to environmental stimuli,
in which emotional states fall into three dimensions: pleasure (happy or sad), arousal (to
feel stimulated or uninspired to take action), and dominance (ability to control a
situation or be submissive) (1974). The mentioned responses will make people either
engage into impulse buying or withdraw from it. When taking into account triggering
factors, the scholars included in-store ones (merchandise, price, service, environment)
and personal (time, money and emotions). Surprisingly, in Taiwan retail environment
such factors as price and environment do not affect negative or positive emotions,
which is contrary to the similar studies in the Western retail environment.
The results showed that there was a positive correlation between negative emotions and
impulsive buying, whereas money availability had no effect on the arousal of positive
emotions (Lan-Ying Huang and Ying-Jiun Hsieh, 2012). This interesting point can be
explained in a way that Taiwanese people are more conservative in their spending and
may not feel the gratification from a purchase the way other cultures do. Also,
merchandise and service are seen as an essential part of shopping and in case of absence
it may lead to some dissatisfaction from a shopper’s side, but at the same time its
presence does not guarantee some increase in positive emotions – so its influence on
impulsive buying is not that big. Contrary to that, price and environment inside a store
are the factors that arouse positive emotions, and increase the probability of an impulse
54
purchase. The study showed the positive relation between negative affective state and
impulse buying, meaning that Taiwanese engage into impulsive purchases in order to
alleviate stress or some other negative emotions.
Social effects such as family or friends’ influence were studied in 2014 by
Chomvilailuk and Butcher. They conducted interview with two different groups of
respondents – university staff and students, most of them were women. It is important to
bear in mind that in Thailand culture women take over all responsibility for house,
cooking and of course shopping for groceries, that’s is why the majority of females was
chosen for the study. The results showed that a certain list of shopping items was
prepared before going into a store, but nevertheless, unplanned purchases happened as
well. University staff had such a list written, while students had it only in mind. The
most important factors for impulsive purchase were economic ones – lower price and
sales promotion. Nonetheless, social influence of friends or family has also effect on a
shopper. After hearing a positive feedback from a close person, a shopper is likely to
buy it on the spot. The same accounts for a negative review of the product, which may
avert a shopper from it inside a store (Chomvilailuk and Butcher, 2014).
55
Conclusion
This work aimed to look at the impulsive buying and its triggering factors inside the
store in order to see what impact external and internal factors have on a consumer. The
significance of customer’s impulsive buying behavior is documented by many scholars
as well as professionals all over the world; and remained a crucial part of marketing and
psychological investigations over many years and since being comprehensively studied
in many countries. It is impossible to deny the fact that impulsive buying behavior has
been in the spotlight for many years in different countries around the globe. The first
problem that deserved immediate attention was the definition of the concept itself. At
the very beginning, the researchers put emphasis on the product itself and looked at the
phenomenon from the retailer’s point of view. As a result, buying behavior impulsivity
stemmed from the product’s qualities – pundits divided items into impulse and nonimpulse. Since those times, the whole marketing industry was working hard in order to
promote the items’ attractiveness thorough the massive usage of in-store
communication: POS materials, sales, promotions, etc. More than that, researchers
believed that only certain product categories could be eligible for impulsive purchase –
snacks, for example or anything else that was cheap.
Only in 1980’s the researchers started to shift the emphasis on other dimensions of the
impulsive buying behavior. That was the time when psychological aspects began to be
taken into account, and people’s behavior patterns got a lot of attention. Not only
psychologists started investigating it, but also marketers saw a great potential in a new
behavioral dimension of the concept of impulsive buying behavior. In 1987 Dennis
Rook introduced the concept of impulsive buying as a “hedonic experience” and
together with Hoch made a prominent breakthrough in the study of the concept of
56
impulsive buying behavior. They included various behavioral elements into the
definition, making it more comprehensive. They showed that impulsive buying behavior
is a complex process, which is influenced not only by products’ features, but also by a
shopper’s emotions, traits and moods.
Also, a very important aspect of impulsive buying was brought to light - a diminished
regard for consequences. Such an implication is very important for understanding the
concept and its mechanism. It shows a truly impulsive nature of such buying behavior,
as well as what kind of consequences impulsive buyers face after conducting a sudden
purchase on an impulse. The power of immediate gratification in the concept of
impulsive buying is indeed huge, and according to some researchers, may lead to
certain clinical disorders. While making a sudden impulse purchase, a shopper is torn
between “good” and “evil” and such a strong psychological disequilibrium leads to
serious inner conflicts. That is why psychological dimension is indispensable when it
comes to studying impulsive buying behavior. As a result for our work we chose the
following definition of the impulsive buying behavior: “a hedonically complex
experience that stimulates emotional conflict and occurs with a diminished regard for its
consequences” (Rook, 1987, p. 191).
After defining what impulsive buying was and what types of it existed, we proceeded to
deeper theoretical foundations of the impulsive buying mechanism in order to see why
and how the stimuli and impulses made impulsive purchase happen. Overall six
theoretical frameworks were reviewed, highlighting their advantages as well as
limitations. Dholakia in his “Integrated Model of Consumption Impulse Formation and
Enactment” perfectly explains the mechanism of impulsive buying behavior, by
57
comprising such triggering factors as situational ones, personality traits and marketing
stimuli. By providing such a comprehensive approach to the mechanism of impulsive
buying, it was possible to understand what kind of processes are happening inside a
shopper’s head when he/she is in a store. At least one from the above-mentioned factors
is responsible for the consumption impulse, which signals about a sudden desire to buy
something. When constraining factors occur together with other stimuli, a person has
only two ways out of the situation – behavior when the consumption impulse is enacted,
which is basically engaging into an impulse purchase; and non-behavior, when the
consumption impulse is dissipated and a person resists to a purchase, considering all the
costs and consequences. Such integrated model clearly shows the importance of various
factors in the process of impulsive buying, and does not limit it only to one group.
Speaking about triggering cues in the process of impulsive buying, their amount also
was evolving together with the concept itself. The more comprehensive approach to
impulsive buying became, the more influencing factors were discovered and studied in
relation to it.
Speaking about factors that influence impulsive buying behavior, in this work we chose
two different groups – external that appear to be inside the store (product itself and
situational factors) and internal, which are connected with a shopper’s personality (IBT
and personality traits). According to the summary of studies, consumers are affected by
both of the factor groups; the only difference is that different cultures, nationalities,
income and age groups tend to buy impulsively for different reasons – either economic
or hedonic.
Such in-store communication cues as price in different researches has proven to be a
58
very important factor, especially when it comes to impulsive buying among poor and
young people. Discounts and free gifts promotions appear to be crucial as well, and
their presence in the store increases the likelihood of an impulse purchase. For people
with the above-average level of income such external factors as store atmospherics can
be very powerful, because such customers buy impulsively for hedonic reasons.
External marketing cues are very powerful as the researches have shown and a
shopper’s exposure to them inside a store triggers the urge to buy on an impulse.
Product itself is also a very convincing tool for making customers buy impulsively.
Such characteristics as size, weight or price tend to dramatically influence the outcome
of the shopping trip. A smartly designed, advertised and placed product can easily avoid
all the constraining factors inside a shopper’s mind and lead him/her to an impulse
enactment and impulse purchase as a result.
Finally, IBT in connection with three personality traits have constituted a strong
correlation with impulsive buying behavior. It was shown that shopper’s emotions and
feelings as well as perceptions of the situation indeed have a direct impact on impulsive
buying inside the store as an IBT. People tend to buy impulsively because of stress,
happiness, sadness or other affective states. Shoppers, who lack self-control in general
are more susceptible to impulsivity, thus, fall victims of such purchases more often.
High impulse customers are more sensitive to external factors, and consequently their
IBT is strong enough to cause an impulse purchase.
59
Recommendations for further research
Our recommendations for further research are to look deeper into the consumers’ IBT
and personality traits associated with it to help retailers encourage more impulsive
buying inside the store and reach out to more shoppers of different occupation, age,
education and income level. We believe that a deeper study of the psychological
dimension of impulsive buying will help retailers and marketers to advance in sales.
Further consumer research of the Czech market can be done by conducting interviews
with various focus groups and analyzing numerous surveys and questionnaires from
more respondents.
60
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