The phenomenon of impulsive buying – making purchases on spur of the moment – has interested consumer researchers as well as retailers for over 50 years. Today, impulsive purchasing is an integral part of consumer society, as more time is spent in shopping environments. At the same time, Internet as a shopping environment is becoming more important in the daily lives of consumers, as consumers make an increasing ratio of their purchases online.
The purpose of this research is to analyze and understand consumer experiences of impulsive buying in the online shopping environment. Consequently, two research questions are addressed: to analyze what are the elements of online impulsive buying experience, and to understand the phenomenon by examining what types of online impulsive buying experiences can be identified. The research strategy is based on interpretive consumer research, with influences from phenomenology. The main research data was generated by interviewing face-to-face 17 Finnish consumers about their experiences of purchases made 'on spur of the moment' on the Internet.
To answer the first research question, this research presents an analytical framework that identifies eleven themes divided into four elements of online impulsive buying experience, i.e. shopping environment, webstore, product, and consumer. All in all, these four elements represent the different levels of the consumer online buying experience. The element of shopping environment includes the themes of convenience, delayed gratification, and product variety. The second main element, webstore, contains the themes of product presentation, return policies, and trustworthiness. The element of product consists of themes of price and risk, and the main element of consumer takes in the themes of interests, loyalty, and mood.
A typology of online impulsive buying experiences identifies three types of online impulsive buying: order increase, webstore browsing, and out-of-context purchasing. Each of these types consists of subtypes that further describe variation within the main type. Order increase includes sub-types of multiple, complementary, and additional purchasing, whereas webstore browsing refers to sub-types of pastime and promotional purchasing. Finally, out-of-context purchasing consists of trial and social purchasing. These types together with their sub-types portray the multifaceted ways that consumers experience impulsive buying on the Internet.
This research contributes theoretically by increasing understanding of consumer impulsive behavior in general and especially of consumer buying experiences in the online shopping environment. As retailing environment evolves and new shopping environments are developed, it is important to examine impulsive buying behavior in other than brick-and-mortar contexts. In addition, this research enables consumers to tell about their online impulsive buying experiences in their own words and, as a result, it gives an interpretation of the phenomenon without imposing any predefined theoretical models on it. This research also gives many managerial implications for e-tailers to develop their webstores.
