Factors influencing impulse buying in online shopping
Author:
Shubheecha Gorakh Nakhawa
0225033
1. Factors influencing online impulse buying of grocery products.
The factors influencing impulse buying when shopping online in India are the focus of this study. Impulse buying can be defined as an impulsive, immediate purchase that is typically emotion based (Beatty & Ferrell, 1998; Fisher, 1995; Rook, 1987). The expansion of ECommerce has increased impulsive behaviour in online shopping through features such as 24 hour a day/ 7 day a week accessibility, convenient shopping and ease of purchasing (Eroglu et al., 2001; Donthu & Garcia, 1999). The most important external cues influencing impulse buying behaviour identified in the research are: website design, visuals, discounts, advertising, social confirmation. Supporting these triggers are webmospherics which are digital cues (such as images, colors, video) that stimulate impulsive purchases (Childers et al., 2001) Additionally, internal (psychological) factors such as emotion, mood and hedonic motivation are also influential in the likelihood of making impulse purchases (Dholakia, 2000) In addition, demographic characteristics, particularly age and frequency of online shopping, also impact consumers propensity to purchase impulsively. Younger consumers are more likely to exhibit impulsive buying behaviours. Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the combination of internal psychological factors and external online (spatial) cues will influence impulse purchasing behaviours within the growing online retail sector in India.
2. Factors Influencing Online Impulse Buying Behavior: Evidence from Shopee Live.
This research investigates the various elements that influence an individual’s tendency to make impulse purchases while shopping on the Shopee Live site. A total of 227 individuals provided data that was analyzed utilizing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Economic benefit, visual elements, and auditory elements significantly enhance pleasure and then are very powerful predictors of impulse purchases (Chen & Lee, 2015; Ma, 2021). Each of these 3 categories includes factors such as discounts, attractive images of the goods, and music that makes the shopping experience more enjoyable and thus lead to unplanned purchases (Aragoncillo & Orús, 2018). Alternatively, the study did not find evidence that time pressure, quantity pressure or social influence affect either consumer pleasure or impulsive buying behavior significantly. Nevertheless, the findings indicate that consumers are motivated primarily through tangible rewards and stimulating audiovisual presentations when shopping through live streaming; therefore, marketers can enhance impulse purchasing behavior on Shopee Live by implementing optimally designed audiovisuals, sound, and special promotional offers.
3. Influencing Factors of Impulsive Buying through Positive Emotion and Hedonic Consumption in E-Commerce.
This article by Bilgies (2025) identifies the impact of four significant influences – sales promotions, PayLater, shopping lifestyles, and pricing – on Shopee users in East Java in relation to their impulsive buying behaviour via positive emotions and hedonic consumption. Through a quantitative survey, this research used 140 respondents and developed a path analysis that discovered all four of these influences significantly affected positive emotion and hedonic motivation, displaying a strong correlation to impulsive purchases. The results of the study indicate that the two most dominant influences of impulsive purchases were shopping lifestyle and price. The findings provide insight into the aggregate nature of convenience associated with buying online, included the financial flexibility offered through the use of the PayLater facility, the promotional strategies employed by Shopee, and the enjoyment of shopping online, that these influences create spontaneous online purchases. As a result of this research, insight is gained into the behaviour of consumers involved in e-commerce and will assist businesses in the design of digital marketing strategies to achieve improved outcomes for consumers (Bilgies et al., 2025).
4. Consumer’s Online to Impulse Buying: Consumer Traits and Situational Factors.
The purpose of this article is to examine how impulsive buying can be influenced by factors within the consumer or externally from the consumer. This study uses quantitative methods that incorporate data gathered from the consumers who purchased Ori Fried Chicken (OFC) via ShopeeFood. The data collected contains responses from 100 respondents and was analyzed using PLS 3.0. The results show that impulsive buying tendencies, enjoyment from shopping, and consumer mood directly increase a consumer’s likelihood to make an impulsive purchase for the internal factors, while a person‘s situation does not. For the external factors, e-store atmosphere does not directly increase the likelihood of making impulsive purchases, however, Promotions by the retailer and product characteristics increase impulsive buying behavior. This study concludes that the emotional enjoyment of an individual and mood, attractive promotions and the desirability of the product are much more likely to lead to impulse buying behavior than e-store atmosphere or the consumer’s situational condition, particularly in the post–COVID-19 online shopping environment (Muzdalifah, 2023).
5. Factors Affecting Consumers’ Impulse Buying Behaviour In Online Shopping.
The paper is a systematic review of the literature that analyzes the variables that influence the behavior of consumers who make impulse purchases in an online shopping context. The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework is used to provide a rationale for how stimuli on a website can affect consumers’ emotional and cognitive responses, leading to spur-of-the-moment purchases.
The authors reviewed research across major academic databases and identified many of the key variables that drive impulse purchases, including website quality, hedonic versus utilitarian browsing, personality characteristics, online reviews, and live-shopping features. The evidence shows that when consumers encounter high quality website information, an attractive service and system design, and an engaging online atmosphere (e.g., the same types of environments that are created by most major e-commerce sites such as Amazon, and fashion retail websites such as ASOS), they are likely to become more excited about what they find, expend less effort in deciding to purchase, and have a greater desire to make an impulsive purchase.
In addition, the data indicate that emotional factors (e.g., positive affect) and the experience of hedonic browsing consistently strengthen the consumer’s likelihood to purchase impulsively. On the other hand, utilitarian browsing may be a way to evaluate products, as well as an impulse trigger for consumers when they have access to a wealth of readily available information. Thus, the results of the review support the conclusion that online retail environments contain a variety of sensory stimuli, emotional responses, and interactive features that enhance impulsive purchasing behavior by the consumer. The review offers useful information for marketers and website designers who are trying to develop enhanced digital shopping environments and experiences (Sivathanu, 2019).
6. Impulse Buying in the Digital Age -The Influence of Personalized Ads, Recommendations, and Instant Purchasing Options.
This study by Pal(2025) investigates how modern online shoppers exhibit impulsive purchase behavior due to the influence of digital technology, particularly through personalized advertisements, AI-driven recommendation systems, and instant purchase features. E-commerce retailers such as Amazon, Alibaba, and large retail stores like Walmart leverage big data analytics, machine learning algorithms, and behavioral tracking to create hyper-targeted advertisements and personalized product recommendations that elicit emotional responses from potential buyers, minimize the effort required to make a purchasing decision, and encourage unplanned purchases. Furthermore, e-commerce websites utilize features (such as single-click orders, digital wallets, countdown timers, and low-stock notifications) to reduce the psychological barriers to making an immediate purchase and create a sense of urgency to complete a transaction. In addition, social proof from influencers’ recommendations and positive user-generated content works to amplify the potential for impulsive buying behavior. Additionally, there are many ethical issues related to the use of digital technologies for impulsive consumption, including privacy violation, manipulation of design elements, and unregulated data gathering. Therefore, the author of this article asserts that stricter regulations, improved digital education for consumers, and ethical marketing practices are essential to mitigating the negative financial and emotional consequences of impulsive digital consumption (Pal, 2025).
7. A study on investigating the impact of website features on online impulse buying behaviour.
This article aims to understand the influence of eleven features of the website on impulsive purchase intentions of users of Iranian eCommerce company Digikala. In order to do this, the survey collected data from 384 students in Arak, who had made a purchase on the Digikala website without planning it. The study examined how eight factors related to the website would influence the purchasing process: Usability, Information Quality, Entertainment, Security, Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Responsiveness, and Visual Appeal. Using structural equation modelling, it was determined that Visual Appeal and Service Quality had the greatest effects on impulsive online purchases. Whereas the other factors did not have a significant impact on impulsive purchasing behaviour. The findings show that a visually appealing design of the website and an efficient service process such as timely delivery of products and responsive customer service are the main triggers of unplanned purchasing behaviour by users. However, Usability, Security and Entertainment do not provide enough motivation for users to engage in impulsive purchasing. Thus, for eCommerce companies to effectively stimulate impulse-driven sales, they must invest in improving the aesthetic design and reliability of their services (Narimanfar & Ghafari Ashtiani, 2021).
8. An Integrative Review on Online Impulse Buying: Antecedents and Consequences.
According to Tandon, Vikas, Yadav and Agrawal (2024), the integrative review synthesizes recent research to identify potential antecedents and consequences of online impulse buying in the e-commerce context. An outline of a systematic literature review, using Denyer and Tranfield’s framework, led to the categorizing of findings into the following major themes: attributes of websites, attractiveness of an online store, hedonic motivation, social commerce, compulsive buying, and S-O-R Model. The results of the review show that impulse purchases made through an online medium are influenced primarily by individual characteristics such as materialism, personality and enjoyment in shopping as well as external factors or stimuli including visual merchandising, promotions, quality of website, flow experience, and transaction value. The results also indicate that online impulse buying behaviour may have a number of consequences that may include cognitive dissonance from post-purchase consideration, the propensity for compulsive buying, and emotional or financial distress. Consolidating a vast amount of, at times, vastly different research from various disciplines, this study presents a comprehensive framework to describe the interplay between technological, psychological, and environmental factors that induce online impulse purchases and indicates gaps within the literature for potential future research in this area (Tandon et al., 2024).
9.Understanding Online Impulsive Buying Behaviour of Students.
In Kumar and Kaur’s (2018) study, the researchers investigate which factors influence students’ impulse buying behaviour online through the lens of increasing levels of internet usage and the opportunity to purchase at any hour of the day, every day (24×7). A survey of 152 college students was used to collect information, along with exploratory factor analysis to determine the impact, and five major factors were identified: personal behaviour; situational factors; promotional cues; ethical concerns; and suggestive factors (such as peer pressure). According to the authors, the findings indicate that unplanned purchases are largely impacted by emotions; time constraints; financial status; credit card ownership; and attracting promotions (including free samples and sales). Additionally, when there are ethical issues in play (such as concerns around fraud or the lack of a clear return policy), the potential for impulse purchases decreases while enjoyable shopping experiences, influence from others or group participation encourage impulse purchases. In conclusion, both internal psychological tendencies and external digital cues influence student impulse purchases on the internet, providing insights to e-retailers on how they can produce more effective promotional and website strategies (Kumar & Kaur, 2018).
10. Modeling the significance of advertising values on online impulse buying behavior.
Feng et al. (2023) investigated the different dimensions of advertising value (i.e., informativeness, credibility, creativity, entertainment, and integration) and how they influence urge and online impulse shopping behavior among Chinese consumers. The researchers used structural equation modelling based on data collected from 1,422 online shoppers to demonstrate that all dimensions of advertising value (with the exception of interactivity) significantly increase a consumer’s urge to make an impulse purchase and the urge is a strong predictor of online impulse shopping behavior (Feng et al., 2023). The mediation analysis indicated that the impulse buying urge acts as an important mediating mechanism between the advertising values of informativeness, credibility, creativity, and entertainment, thus demonstrating that compelling, credible, insightful, and entertaining advertisements create spontaneous purchasing behavior. However, customer anxiety was found not to moderate the relationship between impulse urge and impulse shopping behavior, indicating that anxiety is not a barrier to making an impulse purchase once the urge has been created. Overall, this research contributes new insights on how the components of digital advertising can influence consumer impulsivity and purchase behavior in the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape in China.
CONCLUSION
The findings from the ten studies on impulse buying via e–commerce demonstrate the use of a combination of several different internal psychological factors and external digital stimuli that may influence impulse purchasing behavior in e-commerce environments. Emotions and other internal psychological factors associated with impulse purchases are consistently related (e.g., mood, enjoyment, impulsive tendencies, and hedonic motivation) and increase the likelihood of purchasing impulsively, while the various aspects of website design are powerful external stimuli that can stimulate impulsive behavior (e.g., visual design, usability, promotions, entertainment, live streaming, and advertising value). Discounts, as well as audiovisual stimuli, quality of service, and customized recommendations, also contribute significantly to stimulating impulse purchasing; however, situational pressures (e.g., purchase limits based on time or quantity) do not consistently exert a strong effect. Overall, the studies conclude that a combination of engaging digital environments, effective persuasion techniques, and positive emotional states positively influence consumers‘ impulsive purchasing behavior. Therefore, the findings point to the importance of marketers developing emotionally engaging, visually appealing, and user-friendly online shopping experiences, while considering ethical considerations and consumer wellbeing in an ever–increasingly persuasive environment created by digital commerce.
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