Influence of hedonic and utilitarian motivation on impulse and rational buying behavior in online shopping

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of hedonic/utilitarian motivation on online shopping behavior in the city of Coimbatore with respect to individual facets. Various factors that comprise of online shopping namely social media, marketing efforts, technological factors, comfort of shopping etc. have been considered as the variables that influence the shopping motivation. These variable in turn have been used for determining shopping buying behavior of online shopping customers. The primary categories of shopping motivation are Hedonic and Utilitarian motivation which in turn have six categories for Hedonic and two for Utilitarian. These factors have helped in understanding the co-relation between motivation and buying behavior which is classified as Impulse and Rational. Online e-commerce websites have become the destination for companies to foray into markets with new innovative marketing strategies thereby reaching the homes of millions of people. In India, conventional shopping encouraged customers to reach out to the store which involved spending ample time making decisions and gave marketers the edge and relevant time to engage the customers make the sale. This has redefined the way customers indulge and engage with the product which allows minimum time frame for the customer’s choice of the product. The various factors that influence the customers and their relation to the shopping motives of the customers have been discussed in this paper. The shopping motives factors of Hedonic and Utilitarian have been utilized to conclude on the various effects of the online shopping behavior which has been broadly categorized as Impulse buying behavior and Rational buying behavior.