Abstract
The present study examines the phenomenon of compensative and compulsive buying among online shoppers. Firstly, the obtained empirical data make it possible to estimate the prevalence of compensative and compulsive buying among the general population of Poles aged 15 years old and over, with the sample split into users and non-users of the e-commerce market offer. Secondly, the conducted analysis shows to what extent the prevalence of compulsive and compensative buying is differentiated by the frequency of online shopping, by the extent of the expenditures on online shopping compared with offline shopping, by attitudes towards online shopping, and by sociodemographic conditions (gender, age, monthly net income of household). The findings come from a survey conducted in 2019 based on a nationwide statistically representative sample of 1,000 Poles aged 15 years old and over. Drawing on this survey based on the German Compulsive Buying Indicator (GCBI), the prevalence of compulsive buying is observed at about 3% and compensative buying at about 12%. Dividing the general population into online and offline shoppers, one can see serious differences between both target groups; the share of compulsive and compensative buyers in the segment of online shoppers amounts to 3.6% and 16.9%, while among non-online shoppers- 3.3% and 10.1%. The strongest susceptibility to compulsive buying is characteristic of female online shoppers having very positive attitudes towards online shopping and doing online shopping very frequently.
Highlights
For recent years researchers of consumer behaviours have observed significant changes of buying habits resulting in a stronger tendency to online shopping in terms of its frequency and value
The tendency to compulsive buying was measured by the German Compulsive Buying Indicator [21], which is a modified version of the Canadian Compulsive Buying Measurement Scale proposed by Valence, d’Astous and Fortier as one of the first empirical tools devoted to compulsive buying
The mean value on the German Compulsive Buying Indicator (GCBI) scale achieved 31.3877 and the standard deviation 9.3482. Those respondents were qualified as compulsive buyers who achieved the result at least on the level of 50; 3.4% of such cases in the general population were found (3.6% among online shoppers and 3.3% among non-online shoppers)
Summary
For recent years researchers of consumer behaviours have observed significant changes of buying habits resulting in a stronger tendency to online shopping in terms of its frequency and value. E.g. in Bulgaria, the increase of the coefficient was noticed in a modest range from 2% to 4%, whereas in Belgium from 18% to 33%. In Poland, the growth of the coefficient from 8% to 18% was greater than the EU’s average [1]. The change of shopping habits lies behind the tendencies. In 2019 almost 2/3 of the EU consumers declared at least one purchase online in the last 12 months (63%), which means an increase by 23 percentage points compared with 2010.
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