Role of consumer traits and situational factors on impulse buying: does gender matter?

Abstract

Purpose With the growing acceptance of organised retail in Central India, it is important to understand the impulse buying phenomenon and how it is influenced by consumer traits and situational factors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the combined effect of three consumer traits and four situational factors on impulsive buying. Design/methodology/approach Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SmartPLS 2.0 software), responses from 417 hypermarket and supermarket consumers of Central India in the proposed research framework were analysed and validated. Findings The resulted values for the construct impulse buying tendency, shopping enjoyment tendency, materialism, person’s situation, motivational activities by retailers and product attributes show positive significant influences, whereas the construct store environment having relationship with impulse buying shows negative influence. Importantly, the findings also demonstrate that the gender moderates the relationship between various factors of consumer traits and situational factors with impulse buying. Research limitations/implications The study develops a research framework with three specific variables of consumer traits and four variables of situational factors, triggers impulse buying. Therefore, there is a need to incorporate some other variables, such as interpersonal influence, consumer involvement and consumption patterns, so that more affluent insights can be obtained. The study presents useful insights to retailers, academicians and researchers, regarding impulse buying behaviour of Indian consumers in a still developing organised retail sector in Central India. Originality/value The study focussed on the combined effect of consumer traits and situational factors on impulse buying for the first time in Central India, as earlier studies focussed on impulse buying behaviour at the USA and metro cities of India.