Implusive Purchase

Executive Summary

Impulsive purchase is a common phenomenon in our daily life. From our study, respondents' impulsive purchases usually did not involve any planning beforehand. However, it showed that impulsive purchase is not totally equivalent to unplanned shopping behavior. Factors triggered respondents to do impulsive purchases were different between individuals. Female respondents were easier to be triggered by personal taste and feelings of mood while male respondents focused on price and necessary level of the items.

Unpleasant post-purchase dissonance can be brought by impulsive purchase but there is no direct relationship between them. Suggested by previous studies, gender was a factor which would vary post-purchase dissonance. From our study, we also found that a higher percentage of female respondents suffered from the feelings of regret after impulsive purchase than male. For the interviewees who did not suffer from post-purchase dissonance, the reason for female respondents was personal preference due to their emotional nature while the reasons for male were more concrete, such as items' nature.

According to past research, female were more relationship-oriented, so they would do shopping for their families and friends. If the receivers did not like the items bought, it would be a factor leading to dissonance. In order to minimize the unpleasant feelings brought by impulsive purchase, do some more planning was a common way suggested by the respondents. Some female respondents also suggested passing the products to others as gifts and asking for more opinions.

According to our study, firstly, marketers can make good use of sense strategy since it can stimulate customers' hedonic motives and reduce the possibility of cognitive inconsistency. Secondly, extra temptation services can be provided. Thirdly, launching of membership can satisfy customers' ego needs. Fourthly, service