Impulse buying is when a customer buys something they didn't plan to buy. It is a common type of consumer behavior characterized by an extremely fast decision to purchase based on an emotion or heuristic. Stern (1962) studied the basic framework of impulse buying by categorizing a buying behavior as planned, unplanned, or impulse. According to Engel and Blackwell (1982), impulse buying is an action undertaken without previously having been consciously recognized or a buying intention formed prior to entering the store. Based upon the different description, we conclude that impulse buying involves hedonic purchase decisions which are made inside a store and excludes the reminder from purchasing activities.  The descriptions of impulse buying before the study of Rook (1987) were focused on the product, while determining an impulse purchase.

The earlier studies did not include the consumer and his personal traits as the factor influencing impulse purchases. Rook and Gardner (1993) defined impulse buying as an unplanned behavior involving quick decision-making and tendency for immediate acquisition of the product. Bayley and Nancarrow (1998) defined 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.” Hedonic behavior is marked with pleasure; in contrast to the utilitarian behavior where the shoppers seek for functional benefits and economic value in the shopping process.

Beatty and Ferrell (1998) described that Impulse buying refers to an immediate purchase, which are without any pre-shopping objective either to purchase the specific product category or to fulfill a specific need. They explained that the impulse buying behavior occurs after experiencing a buying desire by the shopper and without much reflection. The buying of an item which is out-of-stock and reminded during encountering the product are excluded from the purview of impulse buying. Block and Morwitz (1999) enunciated the definition of impulse purchase as consumer buying an item with little or no deliberation after the result of a sudden, powerful urge. Kacen and Lee (2002) stated that impulsive behavior is more arousing and irresistible but less deliberative when compared to planned purchasing behavior.

Types of Impulse buying:

[1] Pure impulse: A novelty or escape purchase which breaks a normal buying pattern. [2] Reminder impulse: A shopper sees an item and is reminded that the stock at home needs replenishing or recalls an advertisement or other information about the item and a previous decision to purchase. [3] Suggestion impulse: A shopper having no previous knowledge of a product sees the item for the first time and visualizes a need for it. [4] Planned impulse: A shopper enters the store with the expectation and intention of making some purchases on the basis of price specials, coupons, and the like.

Impulse buying process:

Further, studying the impulse buying behavior, it involves four stages of process i.e.

1. Exploring information - Need identification is first stage of the decision process, followed by information search for identifying solutions to satisfy need identified. Time spent on exploration of information depends on level of involvement, complexity of situation, risk involved, and capital involved. For example, a customer making a buying decision about noodles needs little information and involved little than buying a car.
2. Need stimulation - Need simulation or problem identification is the first step in the consumer buying decision process. Unless consumer recognizes need, he doesn’t think of buying good/services which will satisfy his needs. Not all needs lead to the buying process, consumer’s priorities his long list of needs and try to satisfy those needs first which stand first in the list. The consumers in this recognize the gap between its ideal state and present state.
3. Impulse buying intention - after the need stimulation consumer makes an impulse buying intention, in which now he feels the urge to buy and tries to get rid of this urge. In the process of trying to get rid of this urge consumers find every possible way to make a purchase decision that is impulse purchase decision.
4. Impulse purchase decision - The impulse buying decision can be categories as fast track process where consumer buys impulsively when needed.

A Review of impulse buying contribution in a chronological order:

Clover (1950) - Impulse buying mix and pointed out that some product categories are more sold on impulse. Stern (1962) - Defined impulse buying behavior by classifying as planned, unplanned, or impulse, also suggested that some product-related factors might predict impulse buying. Kollat and Willett (1967) - Argued that consumer’s characteristics and demographics influence the impulse purchases. Weinberg and Gottwald (1982) - Emphasized that Impulse buyers show greater emotions such as amusement, enthusiasm, joy and delight when compared to planned buyers. Rook & Hoch (1985) - Argued that impulsive shoppers tend to enjoy shopping more and the impulse is a result of consumer’s sensation and perception driven by the environmental stimulus. Rook (1987) - Introduced the concept of consumer impulsion as a lifestyle trait, which can be linked to materialism, sensation seeking, and recreational aspects of shopping. Iyer (1989) - Described impulse buying as a special case of unplanned buying. Abratt and Goodey (1990) - Suggested that in-store stimuli such as POP posters can increase impulse buying behavior.

Han & et al. (1991) - Introduced the concept of fashion-oriented impulse for buying new fashion products. Piron (1991) - Defined impulse purchase based on four criteria-Impulse purchases are unplanned, decided “on the spot”, stem from reaction to a stimulus and involve either a cognitive reaction, or an emotional reaction, or both. Hoch and Loewenstein (1991) - Observed that it is people and not the product that experiences the urge to consume on impulse, suggested that buying may beget more buying by loss of self-control. Rook and Gardner (1993) - Defined impulse buying as an unplanned purchase that is characterized by relatively rapid decision-making, and a subjective bias in favor of immediate possession; customers' mood states may result in impulse purchase behavior. Rook and Fisher (1995) - Introduced impulsiveness as a personality trait and defined as consumer’s tendency to buy spontaneously, non-reflectively, immediately, and kinetically. Dittmar et.al (1995) - Found that gender influences the impulse buying and purchase of a product impulsively could be motivated by the self-concept. Beatty and Ferrell (1998) - Formulated the definition of Impulse buying as a sudden and immediate purchase with no pre-shopping intentions either to buy the specific product category or to fulfill a specific buying task. Wood (1998) - Stated that a socioeconomic factor of individuals such as low levels of household income indulges into impulse buying. Barley & Nancarrow (1998) - Suggested that impulse buying behavior is a complex buying process and the rapid decision process during shopping prevents deliberate consideration of alternative information and choices. Hausman (2000) - Proposed that shopping experience may encourage emotions such as feeling uplifted or energized. Consumers shop not only to buy but to satisfy their different needs. Youn and Faber (2000) - Suggested that both positive and negative feeling states of consumer are potential motivators for impulse buying.

Kacen and Lee (2002) - Described those cultural forces could impact impulse purchasing of Individuals. People having independent self-concept engage more in impulse buying. Zhou and Wong (2003) - Found that retail store environment such as POP could affect the impulse buying. Jones (2003) - Empirically tested that product-specific impulse buying is affected significantly by product involvement, and it is an important factor supporting impulse buying tendencies. Luo (2005) - Found that the presence of peers increases the urge to purchase, and that the presence of family members decreases it. Verplanken (2005) - Proposed that negative rather than positive affect is a driving force behind chronic impulse buying. The impulse buying could further result in curing a negative state of mind. Park (2006) - Studied the fashion and hedonic aspects of impulse buying. Hedonic consumption has an indirect effect on fashion-oriented impulse buying. Fashion-oriented people are pleasure and enjoyment seeking. Peck and Childers (2006) - Found that touch increases impulse purchasing as the distance between product and consumer decreases (proximity), Suggested that point-of-purchase signs, displays, and packaging encouraging product touch may increase impulse purchasing. Kaur and Singh (2007) - Studied the impulse buying aspects of Indian youths and found that shopping enjoyment and the sensory stimulants influences impulse buying. Mattila and Wirtz (2008) - Found that store environmental stimuli such as social factors (perceived employee friendliness) positively affect impulse buying behavior. Silvera (2008) - Studied the impact of emotions and inferred that impulse buying is influenced by the ‘affect’ or emotions of the consumer.

Dawson and Kim (2009) - Studied the affective-cognitive aspects and found significant relationships between a person’s affective and cognitive state and their online impulse-buying behavior. Harmancioglu (2009) - First to study Impulse buying of new products and suggested in case of new product: product knowledge, consumer excitement and consumer esteem – drive impulse buying behavior. Yu and Bastin (2010) - Hedonic shopping value of an individual lead to impulse purchases and are inextricably related to each other. Sharma (2010) - Studied the variety seeking behavior of impulse buying. They found the variety seeking individuals are more prone to impulse purchases. Chang (2011) - Observed that the positive emotional responses of consumer to the retail environment result in impulsive purchases.

Arne Floh and Maria Madlberger (2004) – the purpose of the authors is to review & analyze existing research, broaden & adopt the concept on impulse buying on WWW and to study different antecedents of unplanned purchases on the internet. The authors studied three factors i.e. situational factors, personal factors & technical factors. This paper shows a significant lack of studies explaining online impulse shopping and tries to fill the gap by measuring the antecedents of impulsive buying.

Ashok Kumar and Devendra Kumar (2013) – have studied factors affecting online shopping behavior of Bhilai drug and issues of e-commerce and marketing field. They have studied on consumer of online shopper of Bhilai drug. The finding of research shows that there is a strong positive correlation between age and attitude to online shopping, a very strong positive correlation between education and attitude to online shopping. The results show that they have concluded that the most influencing factors that force consumers to shop online is website design/features. Convenience is the second most influencing factor, time saving and security is also very important while shopping online, respondent agreed that price of goods is cheaper than offline, respondent have some fear relating to delivery of goods, guarantee & warrantee, returning the product, security and trustworthiness of vendor, quality of product and information are also considered to be important factors.

Eun Joo Park (2006) – the researcher has studied the structural model of fashion-oriented impulse buying behaviour, the study shows the causal relationships among fashions involvement, positive emotional, hedonic consumption tendency and fashion-oriented impulse buying in the context of shopping. The researcher has studied 217 college students during a scheduled class and found that fashion involvement and positive emotion had positive effects on consumers’ fashion-oriented impulse buying behaviour and hedonic consumption tendency was an important mediator in determining fashion-oriented impulse buying.

Gregory Bressolles, Francois Durrier and Magali Giraud (2007) –the research study the impulse buying behaviour and their satisfaction level after purchase and measures the effect of service quality dimensions on impulse buying and satisfaction level. The result shows that there is direct influence of principal service dimensions on impulse buying and consumer satisfaction. The impact of website quality dimensions on buying impulses is also mediated by consumer satisfaction. The author also studies the various concepts in detail i.e. the quality and quantity of information, the ease of use of website, the design or graphic of website, reliability and respect for commitments, security and privacy & interactivity and personalization.

Hualin Wang (2015) – The authors only studied a theoretical model i.e. S-O-R i.e. Stimulus,

Organism & Response model featuring online impulse buying behaviour and also studied factors affecting online impulse buying behaviour i.e. the online environmental factors, individual internal factors like demographics, personality, buying motives & emotions, situational factors like availability of time & money and persuasion of other people.

Ian Phau and Chang-Chin Lo (2004) –this paper shows the demographic profiles of fashion innovators and researchers identifies the differences in self-concepts between innovators and non-innovators and conclude that the innovators have unique self-image, excitable, indulgent, contemporary, liberal & colorful. The researchers also found that there is relationship between innovativeness & marital status, there is no significant relationship between fashion innovator and non-innovator in internet purchase and innovators are attracted towards advertisements on internet.

John D. Wells and et al. (2011) – the authors have studied the online buying behaviour and understand the interplay between consumer impulsiveness and website quality. The authors have collected the data from 223 undergraduate from universities in the United States and have examined the influence of individual characteristics and environment characteristics on urge to buy impulsive. The researchers have found the quality of an e-commerce website is important determinant factor for impulsive buying behaviour of consumer.

Julian Lin and Chan Hock Chuan (2014) – the researcher examines that how individual difference, shopping environment and emotional response affect impulsive purchase & subsequently actual purchase. The researchers conducted a survey of 115 undergraduate students and the results shows that website’s information quality and customer’s usage of interactive features can affect their impulsive purchase behaviour. The study shows that information quality and interactive features are the most important factors affecting perceived trust among the youth. Websites designs put attention on providing good content and interaction in the websites to attract young shoppers. The research paper provides more comprehensive summary of determinants of youth online impulsive purchase and also shows that providing relevant information or up-to-date information may increase the perceived trust.

Li-an Liu (2000) – the researchers refers the latest surveys of internet consumer behaviors regarding impulse purchase, and find out the strategies to improve online retail business. Researcher have studies two cases of amazon.com & bestbuy.com & conclude that over 40% of internet purchase are unplanned and indicate that “special sale price” is not the only way to trigger impulse purchase, 70% of purchasing decision are actually made in the store – the researcher suggest to build an alluring shopping environment on the cyberspace. This paper gives some new idea to for e-tailers and for consumers to understand some tricky tactics of e-tailers. Further researcher has studied the CIFE model (Consumption Impulse Formation and Enactment) as a framework to deconstruct customers’ mental process of making impulse purchase.

Adam Mahmood, Kallol Bagchi and Timothy C. Ford (2004) – the researchers have collected the data from 26 nations & analyze construct with the help of structural equation model and also studied the economic theory on shopping behaviour. The finding shows that the higher the level of online shoppers’ trust the more consumer will buy online, the higher the educational level of online shoppers the more consumer will buy online, the better the economic condition of online shopper the more consumer will buy online, the more technological savvy online shoppers have more they will buy, the better economic condition of online shoppers more they will trust the e-business they are dealing with, the greater technological savvy of online shopper the more they will trust the e-business they are dealing with, the better the economic condition of online shoppers the higher will be their technological savvy and the higher the educational level of online shoppers the higher will be their technological savvy.

Malin Sundstrom & Jenny Balkow (2013) – have studied impulsive online buying behavior of young Swedish consumers for clothing, factors affecting impulse buying of clothing online & what feelings emerge when consumers’ buy online. The research is conducted through personal interview and studies the pattern of the consumers’ recurrent feelings through the impulsive buying process. The research findings shows that consumer often carried out impulse buying when they were bored, consumer personality seems to be an important factor for impulse shopping, consumer feel that the product is good value for money, consumers are easily attracted by promotion offers, inspire by friends, pictures in social media etc., free shipping and free returns affects impulse buying behavior positively and the most important factor throughout the process of impulse purchases seems to be the impact of feelings.

Mehdi Shirmohammadi & et al. (2014) – the authors has investigated and prioritized the effective factors on online impulse buying in e-commerce specially focus on discount sites in Iran country, by doing survey of 410 customers who are doing shopping from discount group websites. The authors studied how functional convenience like online store merchandise attractiveness and ease of use & representational delight factors like website communication style and enjoyment are related to online impulse buying. The results shows there is significant effect of merchandise attractiveness, enjoyment & online communication style, ease of use are mediated by consumer’s emotions. The authors has found the most important factors affecting online impulse buying are merchandise attractiveness and enjoyment and gave the suggestion to the designer of discount group sites should attention to these two factors that cause impulse buying behaviour.

Merima Cinjarevic (2010) – the researcher has concluded the significant difference in impulse buying tendencies among younger & older consumers, there is significant difference in impulse buying between single & married consumers, there is very weak positive relationship between impulse buying & change seeking. The result of factor analysis indicates that impulse buying include three major components i.e. cognitive deliberation, irresistible urge to buy and buying emotions. Further, the researcher concluded that female is more affected by impulse buying than men.

Moez Ltifi (2013) – the article aims to provide a more complete understanding of the characteristics of the commercial websites and the role played in the development of the pleasure of service & commitment to impulse buying. The researcher has conducted his survey by visual laboratory experimentation. The sample size taken is 302 in which 56.2% were female, the average age is between 20 & 26 years, 93.8% were single, 60.9% have a computer at their home & 73% had revenue less than 200 dinars. The analysis shows that Tunisia is a positive & significant relationship between the characteristics of the site & the pleasure of the service, the commitment has a positive effect on impulse buying by the website, further the website characteristics affects the enjoyment of the electronic service.

Nahla Khalil (2014) – has studied factors affecting consumers’ attitude towards online shopping, the data were collected from 210 students and staff members of different universities of Saudi Arabia.  The author found that factors such as price, trust in quality and brand & the availability of products may all serve to different degree as considering being major factors in customer decision making when purchasing products online. Further it was found that security & privacy are factors which are top concern for the consumer while purchasing online.

Rajesh Iyer and Jacqueline K. Eastman (2006) – the researchers have studied elder people and their attitude towards the Internet and also studies its impact on internet use, purchase and comparison shopping. The results found that the elderly with a more positive attitude towards the internet report greater use of internet as compared to those elderly have a less positive attitude, the elderly with a more positive attitude towards the internet report more online purchases as compared to those elderly have a less positive attitude, the elderly with a more positive attitude towards the internet report more comparison shopping as compared to those elderly have a less positive attitude, the elderly who have more experience of internet will use internet for comparison shopping,  the elderly who are comfortable, confident & satisfied of using internet will use internet for comparison shopping.

Robert Larose and Matthew S. Eastin (2002) – the researcher have studied consumer impulsive behaviour, compulsive behaviour and addictive behaviour while doing online shopping. The factors that authors have studied are rational merits of e-commerce, such as convenience and low price, economic and personal characteristics of consumers, internet self-efficacy and internet use. The result shows that deficient self-regulation of online buying will be positively related to online shopping activity, depression have positive effect on deficient self-regulation of online buying and online shopping activity.

Sendy Farag, Tim Schwanen, Martin Dijst and Jan Faber (2007) – they examines how frequencies of online searching, online buying and non-daily shopping rips relate to each other. They collect data from 826 respondents who reside in four municipalities – one urban & three suburban. Structural Equation Model is used to examine the variables and their relations. The result shows that urban residents do online shopping more often than suburban residents as they have faster internet connection, home shop experience positively affects online buying and indirect effect on it from time pressure.

Shipra Gupta (2013) – has used both qualitative as well as statistical methods and studied the psychological effects of perceived scarcity on consumers’ buying behavior. The author has found that individual traits like competitiveness, hedonic shopping motivations, and need for uniqueness have influence on consumers’ behavioral responses, and also found that males who have high hedonic shopping motivations are more likely to exhibit behaviors like in–store hoarding and in–store hiding.

Sreedhar Rao Madhavaram and Debra A. Laverie (2004) – have done research on “Exploring Impulse Purchasing on the Internet”. The researchers have studies two major influences of impulse purchases online i.e. External stimuli and Mood. They have studied 263 respondents and out of this 57 have made impulse purchases on the internet. The major characteristics they have studied in consumer behaviour are unplanned, response the stimuli, change in intension and spontaneous reaction. They further found that all the respondent who made impulse purchases on the internet have browsed the internet for both information and recreational activities, they also found that impulse purchases also made through expose to stimuli other than product and change the purchaser’s intention.

Tao Sun and Guohua Wu (2011) – the researchers have studied the traits of consumer who shows online impulsive buying behaviour and they found that impulse buying is positively affected by internet addiction; need for arousal and need for material resources after studied 381 college students of northern England University.

Tibert Verhagen & Willemijn Van Dolen (2011) – the researcher has studied the relationship between online store beliefs and consumer online impulse buying behaviour. The researcher have developed a model based on cognitive emotional theory, showing how beliefs about functional convenience i.e. online store merchandise attractiveness & ease of use and about representational delight i.e. enjoyment and website communication style related to online impulse buying. The research study shows merchandise attractiveness loaded significantly and strongly on positive and negative effect, ease of use have no significant effects on emotions, the urge to buy have strong affected by positive effect and have strong influence on impulse buying.

Tsai Chen (2008) – the researcher has studied the “Online Impulse Buying & Product Involvement” especially on two products categories, one is clothing and another is computer peripherals. The researcher have investigated that the students are heavy users of the internet and active online shoppers, the respondent surfed the web on average 3.7 days a week for 2.95 hours a day and it is found that online impulse buying is seen more for buying computer peripherals. Ugar & Bunyamin (2010) – the research paper examines the concept of online impulse purchasing behavior with reference of technology products. The findings of the research shows that 70.9% of the participants stated that the place of purchasing the branded products is not important, 58.3 % participants shops online because the prices are economic, 37.1% shops from the internet stores because of attraction of shopping environment, 37.1% participants visit online store once in 15 days & 90.9% shops because of attractive promotional campaign.

Veena Parboteeah, Joseph S. Valacich and John D. Wells (2009) –the authors have studied the influence of website characteristics on a consumer’s urge to buy impulsively. They has taken a sample of 264 undergraduate students from large universities in the United States, and conclude that perceived usefulness have positive effect on perceived enjoyment, mood relevant cues are stronger predictor of perceived enjoyment, task relevant have a significant effect on perceived enjoyment  and perceived enjoyment have a positive effect on the urge to but impulsive. Wen Hai Chih, Cedric His Jui Wu, Hung Jen Li (2012) – this paper shows individual internal factors influencing online consumer impulsive buying behaviour. The result shows hedonic consumption have a positive impact on buying impulsiveness, impulsive buying tendency has a positive impact on buying impulsiveness, hedonic consumption have a positive impact on positive effect, positive affect has a positive impact on buying impulsiveness, impulsive buying tendency has a positive impact on normative evaluation, normative evaluation have a positive impact on positive effect, normative evaluation have a positive impact on buying impulsiveness. Xiaoni Zhang & et al. (2007) – the researchers have studied the modeling influence on impulse purchasing behaviors during online marketing transactions and found that the there is significant relationships may exist between gender, subjective norms, consumer impulsivity, purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour in online marketing environment.

Ya-Ling Wu and Ying-Siou Ye (2013) –the researchers have collected from 322 customers of the iTunes (App Store) and investigate the influence of the impulsive personality of consumers on buying behaviour during M-commerce service transactions.  The results of the study indicate that higher level of impulsivity reduces the effect of enjoyment on urge to buy; consumer feels enjoyment while doing shopping on mobile application, the researcher also finds that consumer impulsivity moderates the effect of enjoyment on impulse buying intention, consumer flow experience has a positive influence on impulse buying intention.

Yong Liu, Hongxiu Li and Feng Hu (2013) – the researchers emphasized on the importance and popularity of online impulse purchase, and studied  how website cues affect personality to urge the online impulse purchase, they studied the website attributes i.e. products availability, website ease of use & visual appeal and found that these are important and key determinants of urge to buy impulsively and studied the personality traits i.e. instant gratification, normative evaluation

& impulsiveness and they found to be important precursors. Normative evaluation and instant gratification are found to be a significant influence on urge to buy impulsively and personality trait like impulsiveness is found significant determinant for online impulse purchase.

Yu-Feng Huang & Feng-Yang Kuo (2012) – investigates consumers’ mood influence the impulsivity in online shopping decisions & how involvement can regulate it. They adopt a process of impulsivity & recorded the detailed information of consumers’ pattern using eye tracker methodology. They conclude that incidental moods tend to increase the process of impulsivity. The researchers have demonstrate the decision making process into two stage i.e. – orientation & evaluation and finding shows that the differences in impulsivity are most evident in the evaluation stage and results suggest the importance of mood elicited online impulsive purchase.

Zhang Xiaoni and Chang Koh (2006) – the authors have used Technology Acceptance Model to investigate consumer online purchasing behaviour and develop a survey instrument to study online consumer belief, intentions and psychological traits with the help of structural equation model. The result shows that there is positive relationship between consumer impulsiveness and online purchasing behaviour of consumer & found that design of website makes consumer to buy impulse.

1. To study the consumers’ impulsive buying behaviour in selected product categories.
2. To study the factors affecting consumers’ online impulsive buying behaviour.
3. To study the significance variance between Factors influencing impulsive buying behaviour towards online shopping with demographic profiles of consumers.

Methodology:

Descriptive Research Design has been used for this research. In that single cross-sectional design has been used. Data are collected from online shoppers in selected cities of south Gujarat region. With a minimum sample size of 200 in mind, 200 questionnaires were targeted; with 13 nonclear or incomplete responses, 187 questionnaires were finally considered for the analysis. Non Probability Convenience Method was used to collect data, so as to avoid the possibility of nonserious respondents adversely affecting the real outcome of the research, and only genuinely interested candidates were approached and requested to furnish information and opinions. Students, businessman, professionals, service people, students etc. are sampling units. To avoid non response bias, respondents were assured about the confidentiality of the research and were briefed about its importance as well. The 5-point Likert-type scale, which is also known as the summated rating scale, is used to study factors affecting consumers’ online impulse buying. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about a given construct such as factors responsible for impulse buying. They were then asked to select choices ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. In order to achieve the objective of the study, the statistical tool has been used to analyze the data with the help of SPSS software.

As seen from the table: 1, the sample consisted of 114 males and 73 females. While finalizing the sample size, since the analysis focused on factor analysis with a minimum sample size of 200 were targeted. The detailed sampling profile is given in table: 1.

Table 1: Profile of respondents

Results and Discussions:

The findings indicate that online shopping is a regular activity for many respondents, with 39.0% shopping online once a month and 20.9% once every three months, while a notable 15.0% shop 2–3 times a week and 12.3% once a week. Impulse buying during online shopping is also prominent, with 34.2% engaging in unplanned purchases, and 25.7% and 23.0% doing so once every three months and once a year, respectively. When examining the overlap, 7% of respondents reported both shopping online and making impulse purchases weekly, 23% monthly, 17% every three months, and 10% yearly, highlighting varying levels of habitual online consumption and spontaneous buying behavior. Regarding website preferences, Amazon (94%) and Flipkart (92%) emerged as the top two most preferred online shopping platforms, followed by Snapdeal (53.5%), Paytm (49.2%), and Myntra (47%), reflecting strong consumer trust and market dominance of these e-commerce platforms among the respondents.

The data reveals that clothing is the most commonly purchased category online, with 85% of respondents having bought clothes through online stores, followed by footwear (70.6%) and mobile accessories (53.5%). Other popular items include watches (46%) and sunglasses (35.3%), indicating a strong preference for fashion-related products. Additionally, 20% of respondents reported purchasing fashion jewellery, while 14% have bought health and personal care products. A smaller segment, about 12%, have purchased other items such as mobile phones, books, and electronic gadgets. These findings suggest that fashion and lifestyle products dominate online shopping choices among the respondents.

The data indicates that promotional offers and schemes significantly influence impulse buying behavior, particularly in fashion categories. Clothes lead the list, with 60.4% of respondents making unplanned purchases after encountering promotions, followed by footwear (46.5%), and to a lesser extent, mobile accessories (23.5%) and watches (21.4%). Sunglasses (17.6%), fashion jewellery (9%), and health and personal care products (5%) also saw impulse purchases, though to a lesser degree. Only 3.2% of respondents made unplanned purchases of other items such as mobile phones and books. These results highlight that fashion-related products are the most susceptible to impulse buying, particularly when driven by discounts and promotional campaigns.

The data shows that impulse buying occurs even without promotional offers, particularly in the fashion segment. Clothing once again leads, with 57.8% of respondents making unplanned purchases without being influenced by offers, followed by footwear (around 45%). In the categories of mobile accessories and sunglasses, 20.9% of respondents reported impulse buying without any promotional triggers. Similarly, 15.5% made unplanned purchases of watches, and 8% did so for fashion jewellery. A smaller portion of respondents engaged in impulse buying of health and personal care products (5.9%) and other items such as mobile phones and books (5.3%). These findings suggest that while promotional schemes do drive a significant portion of impulse buying, a considerable number of consumers are influenced by personal preferences, trends, or product appeal, regardless of discounts or offers.

Results from factor analysis:

The principal components analysis on 14 items measuring online impulsive buying behavior confirmed the suitability of factor analysis, with a KMO value of 0.784 (good sampling adequacy) and a significant Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (χ² = 1.054E3), indicating sufficient correlations among variables. The analysis extracted four factors, which together explained 64.898% of the total variance, exceeding the 60% threshold and suggesting a strong factor structure for interpreting online impulsive buying behavior.

From the above table, four factors have being extracted from 14 components showing online impulsive buying behaviour of e-shoppers i.e. website design, promotional activities, hedonic values & e-shopping facilities.

Hypothesis results:

Ho: There is no significance variance between Factors influencing impulsive buying behaviour towards online shopping with demographic profiles of consumers.

Ha: There is significance variance between Factors influencing impulsive buying behaviour towards online shopping with demographic profiles of consumers.

If the significance (p-value) is less than 0.05, then Ho is rejected.

If the significance (p-value) is greater than 0.05, then Ho is accepted.

From the above table, it is shown the testing of hypothesis. One-way ANOVAs has been used to test the hypothesis. ANOVA is used as a test of means for two or more populations. One-way analysis of variance involves only one categorical variable, or a single factor. The independent variables are demographic profiles of consumer such as - gender, marital status, education qualification, annual income & occupation, while dependent variables are the factors influencing consumers’ online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. website design, promotional activities, hedonic values and e-shopping facilities. The results show that there is no significance variance between gender and the factors influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (website design, promotional activities, hedonic values and e-shopping facilities). The results also show that there is no significance variance between marital status and the factors influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (website design, hedonic values and e-shopping facilities) as the significance value (p>0.05), while there is significance variance between marital status and the factor influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (promotional activities) as the significance value (p<0.05). Further, the result also revealed that there is no significance variance between education qualification and the factors influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (website design, promotional activities & hedonic values) as the significance value (p>0.05), while there is significance variance between education qualification and the factor influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (e-Shopping facilities) as the significance value (p<0.05). Further, hypothesis testing shows that there is no significance variance between annual income and the factors influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (website design, promotional activities, hedonic values and e-shopping facilities). Lastly, the results found from testing the hypothesis is that there is no significance variance between occupation and the factors influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (website design & e-shopping facilities) as the significance value (p>0.05), while there is significance variance between occupation and the factor influencing online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. (promotional activities & hedonic values) as the significance value (p<0.05).

Product categories such as clothes, foot-wares and mobile accessories are the most common items that consumer purchase more through online stores as compared to others.  Product categories such as clothes and foot-wares have being made unplanned purchase more as compared to other products by consumers after getting promotional offers/schemes. Product categories such as clothes and foot-wares have being made unplanned purchase more as compared to other products by consumers even without getting promotional offers/schemes. With the help of factor analysis, four factors have being extracted showing online impulsive buying behaviour of e-shoppers i.e. website design, promotional activities, hedonic values & eshopping facilities. The testing of hypothesis showing that gender & annual income of consumers have no significant variance with factors influencing online impulsive buying behaviour, while marital status have significance variance with promotional activities but have on significance variance with other factors. Education qualifications of consumer have significance variance with e-shopping facilities factor as compared to other factors influencing online impulsive behaviour. Occupation has significance variance with hedonic values of consumers’ as compared to factors influencing online impulsive behaviour.

Managerial Implication of the study:

It is found from the study that clothes, foot wares and mobile accessories are product categories which are frequently purchase online and even they are purchasing impulsive also. Companies doing online shopping activities must be advised to keep more stock on clothes, foot-wares and mobile accessories. The main four factors a company must give attention are found to be affecting consumers’ online impulsive buying behaviour i.e. website design, promotional activities, hedonic values & e-shopping facilities. If online companies are planning to segment their markets on the bases of marital status of consumer must more focused on promotional activities which leads to impulsive buying behaviour. Companies should focused on e-shopping facilities like free home delivery, free shipping, free returns, cash back etc… if their segmenting variable is consumers’ education qualification. Hedonic values of consumers should be given more importance if companies are segmenting their market on their bases of occupation.

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