Impulse buying: the role of store environmental stimulation and situational factors (An empirical investigation)

Abstract

This study aims to examine the role of environmentally induced stimulation in influencing impulse buying. In addition, the authors seek to investigate the impact of two situational factors (availability of time and money) on impulse buying. The present research empirically tests a theoretical model of impulse buying by examining the associations between impulse buying and environment of store, visual merchandising, promotions, impulse buying tendency (IBT), examination goods and availability of time and money. A total of 329 customer surveys were collected and these were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS). Findings show that promotion environment of store and examination of goods have most related with impulse buying behavior. On other hand, results prove that there is not significant relationship between customers’ impulse buying behaviors and two situational factors (availability of time and money) and visual merchandising. This study provides insights to retailers about types of environment of store that can influence consumers’ impulse buying behaviors. Key words: Impulse buying, customers, environment of store, visual merchandising, impulse buying tendency (IBT), promotions.