IMPULSE BUYING AND PURCHASE DECISION

International Journal of Management (IJM) Volume 9, Issue 2, March April 2018, pp. 88 92, Article ID: IJM_09_02_010 Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/issues.asp?jtype=ijm&vtype=9&itype=2 Journal Impact Factor (2016): 8.1920 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com ISSN Print: 0976-6502 and ISSN Online: 0976-6510 IAEME Publication IMPULSE BUYING AND PURCHASE DECISION Dr. C. Swarnalatha Professor and Head-Management Studies, Regional Centre, Madurai, Tamilnadu, India S. Soundhariya Research Scholar, Mother Teresa Women s University, Kodaikanal, Tamilnadu, India ABSTRACT Increasing disposable income of the consumers has transformed the buying pattern to a greater extent. Before shopping by people was very rare phenomenon but nowadays shopping is part and parcel of most of the households in which shoppers spend substantial amount on impulse buying. Impulse buying refers to sudden urge for the customers to buy something. Impulse buying is unplanned buying which means purchasing on the spot which is triggered by stimulus. Impulse purchase refers to sudden and immediate purchase decision made inside the store by customers. Impulse buying occurs at a moment. Impulse buyers react to marketing stimuli from environment. Many marketers say that impulse buying is all about seeing the products. To make visibility of products tools like visual merchandising is used. Retailers nowadays feel that catching the eyes of the consumer in today s scenario is no easy task. In-Store display helps the consumers to do impulse purchase and reduce time consumption by consumers. Stores should be arranged in such a way that it promote impulse buying. Consumer purchase new products impulsively when their innate desires and need for excitement, fun are satisfied. External stimuli and internal stimuli play a major role in impulse purchase. External stimuli arouse internal stimuli in purchase decision. Key words: Impulse Buying, Visual Merchandising, External Stimuli, Internal Stimuli. Cite this Article: Dr. C. Swarnalatha and S. Soundhariya, Impulse Buying and Purchase Decision. International Journal of Management, 9 (2), 2018, pp. 88 92. http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/issues.asp?jtype=ijm&vtype=9&itype=2 1. INTRODUCTION Impulse purchase refers to sudden buying. When a customer experiences sudden urge to purchase something impulse purchase occurs. When a customer buys impulsively they do not worry about consequences. Low involvement products are highly sought in impulse buying because consequences of wrong decision do not affect customer more. Short life products are fast moving consumer products. Impulse buyers are generally sensitive to their feelings and http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/index.asp 88 editor@iaeme.com

Impulse Buying and Purchase Decision emotions. Impulse buyers always feel sudden urge to buy because they are responsive to affective states and they lack cognitive control. POPAI(2012) point of purchase advertising international says that 76% of decisions by the consumers in the store are unplanned. According to that report impulse purchasing was high in organized retailing comparing to unorganized retail. 2. FACTORS INFLUENCING IMPULSE BUYING Certain factors which trigger the impulse purchase of the customer are age, gender, time spent inside the store, internal perceptions, external factors like attractive display, store layout, store atmospherics and promotional offers. A person s internal perception like emotion, time pressure, lifestyle, money and personality affects impulse purchase. Store atmospherics such as general interior design such as color, lighting, aroma, music and equipment helps customers to stay more time inside the store leading to impulse purchase. Other factors are arrangement of merchandise, display of merchandise, point of sale promotional materials and in store stimuli such as shelf signs, end of aisle displays, conspicuous product displays. Point of purchase is one of the important tools in impulse purchase. Display at point of purchase in any store draws more attention and improve sales. Though shoppers have a list in their hand for purchasing they do impulse purchase when they are attracted by external stimulus. When a shopper navigates inside a store he can change from shopper to buyer due to displays present inside the store. Good displays inside the store remind the customers about the need and make him to do impulse purchase. Visual merchandising elements inside the store create need for the customers to purchase the product. In-Store promotional technique helps the customer to stay more time inside the store.if customer stays more time inside the store impulse purchase occurs. Price is also one of the factors which are reason for impulse purchase of the customers. Sudden price drops and discounts attract customers. In general there are five factors which influence impulse buying Internal Factors External Factors Situational Factors Demographic Factors Internal factors refer to feelings, mood, emotions, hedonic and shopping enjoyment of the customers. External factors refer to store related factors like visual merchandising and shopping environment. Situational factors refer to availability of time and money advice from close relatives and friends who are important part of decision making process. Demographic factors refers to age, gender, education level, culture of the customers 3. LOW INVOLVEMENT DECISION MAKING Item to be purchased or service to be utilized is not costly then the risk of wrong decision is short lived. Marketers through subliminal cues are influencing consumers without their conscious awareness. Low involvement products are mostly targeted by marketers for better visual merchandising like point of purchase display to do impulse purchase by customers. Eg: when drink coke and eat popcorn were flashed on a movie theatre screen, It was reported in 1950 by Jim Vicary that coca-cola sales increased by 18 percent and popcorn sale grew by 52 percent. http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/index.asp 89 editor@iaeme.com

Dr. C. Swarnalatha and S. Soundhariya 4. DECISION MAKING PROCESS AND IMPULSE BUYING DECISION MAKING Normal decision making process involves cognitive thinking. Consumers generally do an extensive research before arriving at a particular decision. Impulse buying decision making takes place at a spur of moment. Buyers temporarily goes out of control due to excitement and purchase decision is made. In case of white goods and costly goods normal decision making process is followed and decision making by customers is longer. In case of low cost products like fmcg, beverages, food, cosmetic categories decision making time is shorter and mostly impulse. Decision making time for consumers is very less during impulse buying due to affective response. Impulse buyers do not think about consequences while buying the product because their unplanned reaction is mostly response to the stimulus. In case of low cost products post purchase dissatisfaction by consumers is very less. 4.1. Impulse Buying Stimulus Impulse buying occurs due to both external and internal stimuli. The external stimuli trigger the internal stimuli to purchase the product. The internal stimuli for impulse purchase were of hedonic and emotional influences. Hedonic refers to creating desire for fun and excitement. External influence like visual merchandising and store environment leads to pure and unplanned purchase behavior. Pleasant and highly stimulating store environment leads to impulse buying. Window display is one of the store characteristic which has strong influence on impulse purchase. Consumer emotion is a mediating factor in impulse purchase. The store atmosphere like sounds, views and odor are important stimulus to produce impulse buying. Shopping environment or store environment is positively related to store trust and gives good image of merchandise in the store. Good arousals like sound and scent invoke pleasure which positively influences the consumer behavior. Store environment factors also include ambience http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/index.asp 90 editor@iaeme.com

Impulse Buying and Purchase Decision such as music and lighting. Proper lighting in the store helps shoppers to examine the merchandise, create positive effect and arrive at purchase decision. Improper lighting creates negative effect in the minds of customer. Customers who enjoy shopping are more likely to do impulse purchase. Visual merchandising helps the customer to find the product they are looking for and reduces the time wasted by customers for searching the product and visual merchandising displays helps the customers to do more impulse purchase. Sometimes even when the customers are not in the mood to purchase the product the attractive store environment with good display, offers, music and good aroma evokes positive emotions which lead to impulse purchase. Consumers who come to store are planning consumers, partially planned consumers and impulse buyers. Planning consumers generally plan in advance what are the products to be brought and which brand to be purchased. Partially planned consumers mostly decide products to be brought alone and not the brand. Impulse buyers take decision after seeing the product. Marketers through external factors attract partial buyers and impulse buyers to make purchase decision. 5. CONCLUSIONS Retailers should provide customers conductive environment to do impulse purchase. Consumers shop for both utilitarian and hedonic reasons. Consumers who enjoy shopping mostly do impulse purchase. Retailers should pay more attention to point of purchase display, promotional signage and window display which are the important store environment characteristics which brings more sales to the retailers through impulse purchase. Every segment of shoppers is different. Retailers should conceptualize point of purchase display, light, music, window display, store layout, store design according to target shoppers. Impulse buyers bring extra profit to the store compared to normal shoppers so retailers mostly try to attract impulse buyers through attractive store environment and layout. Retailers should create interest to the customers by providing proper information of the product, increasing visibility of the product through proper displays and should convert the interest into purchase decision. http://www.iaeme.com/ijm/index.asp 91 editor@iaeme.com

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