Factors Promoting Impulse Buying In Mobile Commerce

Impulse buying is shown in the literature as a fast experience that occurs quickly,often with little thought on the part of the shopper.It tends to involve grabbing a product on the go rather than taking time to choose one.This form of behavior is more spontaneous and can be perceived as "bad"(Rook,1986).Consumer motivation refers to the process that may cause an individual to act,or behave the way they do.Motivations such as price discounts and emotional states of the individual are key factors that trigger impulse buying behavior.Prior research has primarily focused on investigating brick-and-mortar or mobile impulse buying behavior.However,what happens when consumers encounter opportunities to shop without planning via fast developing mobile shopping settings?There is a gap in understanding the similarities and differences of both settings and their ultimate impact on purchase behavior.Hence,this research is aimed to differentiate consumer behavior in the two settings.This research focuses on identifying the similarities and differences in consumer motivation for impulse purchase between in-store and mobile shopping settings.It is also aimed at investigating whether consumers who have higher impulse buying tendency respond differently to purchase.Psychological variables such as materialism,time and money available,and immediate positive feelings are potential moderators of the relationship between consumer impulse purchase behavior and the two settings.In this thesis,100 participants who had recently made a purchase were recruited in a public square and online,to complete 100 copies of questionnaire which were collected to identify possible relationships in these two shopping settings.Measurement of impulse purchases is the dichotomous variable of 'intent to buy'.If participants state that they had nointention of buying the product,then it is considered as an impulse purchase.Logistic regression and moderation analysis was performed to examine rates of self-reported impulse shopping for recent purchases via mobile versus in-store.Results indicate that consumer impulse purchase behaviors are more frequent in the mobile setting,as compared to in-store.The study further examined whether variables such as time availability,money availability,materialism,and positive mood impact this main effect.Hypothesis 2a aimed to look at whether time availability impacted impulse buying behavior in the mobile setting.Time availability refers to how much time the individual has available on a particular shopping trip.Results indicate that there is no significant relationship between the variables,and thus,the heightened impact of the mobile setting on impulse purchases was not moderated by time availability.Hypothesis 2b examined whether money availability impacted participants'impulse buying behavior in the mobile setting.Money availability is recognized as how much money the consumer may have available.This hypothesis gave mixed findings.Therefore,money availability may marginally impact consumer's intent to purchase in the mobile setting.Hypothesis 2c looked at whether materialistic consumers tend to impulse purchase more in mobile setting.It is shown in the literature that consumers who are more materialistic tend to impulse purchase more(Watson,2003).Results indicate that when shopping via mobile,low materialists are less likely to impulse purchase with purchase reason as the dependent variable.Hence,Hypothesis 2c is partially supported through a marginally significant result.Hypothesis 2d theorises that consumers who have more positive feelings in a purchase situation have a higher tendency to impulse purchase more via mobile.Past literature has speculated that consumers experiencing negative emotions such as feeling depressed or frustrated have a higher tendency to impulse purchase online due to the speed and ease of making a purchase(Kinney,Ridgway and Monroe,2009).This hypothesis was again not supported,as analyses showed it is not significant.In conclusion,these findings indicate that there is opportunity for future research to better understand the motivations for impulse buying behavior in two key shopping settings:In-store and via mobile device.Results show that consumers' impulse buying behavior is more frequent in the mobile setting.Although some of the hypotheses are not supported and contradict extant marketing literature,the research is still beneficial to practitioners and to researchers seeking to understand consumer motivations.Possible implications for future research can include sampling a different population,such as sampling demographics globally via online survey panels.Another possible limitation could be to conduct research right after an online purchase made via mobile,as the focus of the research is based upon prompt purchases.This will allow consumers to have a better recall and recognition of their prompt impulse purchase.