page_title: Consumer behaviour
section_title: Impulse buying
hierarchical_section_title: Consumer behaviour / Other topics in consumer behaviour / Impulse buying
caption_attribution_description: English: Cake displayed in shop in Istanbul city
context_page_description: Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services, and how the consumer's emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940s and 50s as a distinct sub-discipline of marketing, but has become an inter-disciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography, marketing and economics.
  The study of consumer behaviour formally investigates individual qualities such as demographics, personality lifestyles, and behavioural variables, in an attempt to understand people's wants and consumption. Also investigated are the influences on the consumer, from groups such as family, friends, sports, and reference groups, to society in general, including brand-influencers and opinion leaders.
  Research has shown that consumer behaviour is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field; however, new research methods, such as ethnography and consumer neuroscience, are shedding new light on how consumers make decisions.
context_section_description: Impulse purchases are unplanned purchases. Impulse buying can be defined as “a sudden and powerful urge to buy immediately” and occurs when a consumer purchases an item which they had no intention of purchasing prior to entering the store. Impulse buying can be influenced by external stimuli such as store characteristics and sale promotions, internal stimuli such as enjoyment and self-identity, situational and product related factors such as time and money available, and demographic and socio-cultural factors such as gender, age, and education. Stern introduced the four broad classifications of impulse buying including pure impulse buying, reminded impulse buying, suggestion impulse buying, and planned impulse buying:
  Pure impulse buying
  Occurs outside of the normal purchase behaviour where a consumer experiences a strong emotion of desire towards a product that he/she did not initially plan to buy. Online shopping largely contributes towards enabling spontaneous buying. Consistent email alerts from subscribed websites about special offers, limited time discounts and flash sales, on some level, stealthily create a sense of urgency for the consumer to purchase the product.
  Reminded impulse buying
  Occurs when a consumer remembers the need for a product by seeing it in a store. This is triggered through various techniques such as in-store advertising or sensory marketing. For example, a consumer may be reminded to buy ingredients for a barbecue when he/she drives past a butcher store.
  Suggestion impulse buying
  Occurs when a consumer sees a product that they have no prior knowledge about, envisions a use for it, and decides that they need it. An example of suggestion impulse buying is when a consumer is encouraged to purchase an electric hand-mixer after having picked up a brochure from the baking department of a home-ware store. The brochure convinces the consumer of the hand-mixer's superiority over the wooden spoon she has been using. Marketing techniques that can also trigger suggestion impulse buying include long-term warranties or a free trial period.
  Planned impulse buying
  Involves a partially planned intention of buying, however specific product or categories are not yet determined. In this case, the consumer's purchasing decision can be encouraged by retailing staff, or even their peers who can persuade the consumer to purchase a substitute or provide reassurance about an alternative brand choice.
  Recent research carried out by Nielsen International suggests that about 72 percent of FMCG purchases are planned, but that 28 percent of supermarket purchases are unplanned or impulse purchases. The top unplanned purchases in the food category are candy (lollies), chocolate, cookies (biscuits), frozen desserts and snacks and the top unplanned purchases in the non-food category are cosmetics, air-fresheners, toothbrushes, hand-soaps and hand/body lotions. This explains why supermarkets place these types of products at the front of the store or near the checkout where the consumer spends more time and is more likely to notice them and therefore more likely to pop them into the shopping basket. Retailers use insights from this type of research to design stores in ways that maximise opportunities for impulse-buying.
caption: Large family-sized cakes are more likely to be a planned purchase, while the individual portions are much more likely to be an unplanned purchase.
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