The Influence of Website Characteristics on a Consumer's Urge to Buy Impulsively

Abstract

With the proliferation of e-commerce, there is growing evidence that online impulse buying is occurring, yet relatively few researchers have studied this phenomenon. This paper reports on two studies that examine how variations in a website influence online impulse buying. The results reveal some relevant insights about this phenomenon. Specifically, although many participants had the urge to buy impulsively, regardless of website quality, this behavior's likelihood and magnitude was directly influenced by varying the quality of task-relevant and mood-relevant cues. Task-relevant cues include characteristics, such as navigability, that help in the attainment of the online consumer's shopping goal. Conversely, mood-relevant cues refer to the characteristics, such as visual appeal, that affect the degree to which a user enjoys browsing a website but that do not directly support a particular shopping goal. The implications of the results for both future research and the design of human-computer interfaces are discussed.

Shiny happy people buying: the role of emotions on personalized e-shopping

“…Although we found that negative emotions are less significant than positive emotions, our study verifies the importance of emotions as a whole. Indeed, formulation of emotions may lead to impulse purchases (Parboteeah et al 2009), a behavior which has recently been described as "emotionalized buying" (Xiao and Nicholson 2012). There is not sufficient research in that area, and this study is a first step towards the understanding of emotions in personalized online shopping, leading researchers to focus on both positive and negative emotions.…”

“…Penz and Hogg (2011) have confirmed that the online shopping experience generates mixed emotions in customers that, in turn, might influence their purchase behavior. In effect, positive emotions may lead to impulse purchases (Parboteeah et al 2009;Verhagen and van Dolen 2011), while negative emotions are likely to distance customers from the service provider, cause regret and trigger the intention to switch provider ).…”

The Happiness Premium: The Impact of Emotion on Individuals’ Willingness to Pay in Online Auctions

“…Previous research in marketing has found that positive emotion can increase individual's resistance to temptation compared with neutral emotion (Fedorikhin & Patrick, 2010). Yet, research in the context of electronic commerce has found perceived enjoyment to increase consumers' impulse buying (Parboteeah, Valacich, & Wells, 2009). Individuals are more likely to be influenced by emotion during the formation of the first evaluations (Qiu & Yeung, 2008), which is often the case in online auctions.…”

“…First, research has also shown positive emotion to have a strong impact to cause action (Frijda, 1994;Qiu & Yeung, 2008). Individuals with positive emotion will evaluate a product more quickly and impulsively than those with other emotions (Parboteeah et al, 2009;Qiu & Yeung, 2008). The more extreme the positive emotion, the greater this effect.…”

Research on Influence of Shopping APP’s Characteristic on Consumer’s Impulse Buying

“…Impulse buying is a common and unique way of consumption in the daily life [1], which involves many cross disciplines, such as psychology and consumer behavior. Because of its complexity, there is no standardized definition of impulse buying.…”