Gamification and online impulse buying: The moderating effect of gender and age

Abstract

While gamification has emerged as one of the most promising futuristic trends in e-commerce, how it impacts consumers’ impulse buying behavior remains largely underexplored. This study develops a theoretical model to examine the impacts of two gamification mechanisms on impulse buying during the “Double Eleven” shopping festival. A survey was conducted and 558 valid questionnaires were collected from consumers using Taobao or Tmall platforms in China. Structural equation modeling method was used to examine our research model. Our empirical results suggest that rewards giving and badges upgrading gamification mechanisms are positively associated with perceived enjoyment and social interaction, which in turn strongly influence consumers’ impulse buying. Moreover, a multi-group analysis and an importance-performance matrix analysis demonstrate that the relative influences of the two gamification mechanisms are contingent upon gender and age. Our study provides new insights into the role of gamification in influencing consumer buying behavior in the online marketplace. It also highlights several antecedents of consumers’ impulse buying during arguably the largest e-commerce shopping festival in the world.