From scarcity to purchase: psychological mechanisms influencing Gen z impulsive buying

Flash sale (FS) is a marketing strategy that is widely used and developed in sales through e-commerce. The implementation of the FS strategy is to provide discounts or special propositions on products offered within a certain time limit. Time restrictions aim to encourage consumers’ emotions to make impulse buying (IB). This study examines the effect of consumer emotions as a mediating variable on IB among Shoppee consumers in Indonesia caused by FS activities that are not carried out on certain important days. The required data were collected through the distribution of online questionnaires to respondents who, in the last three months, had made transactions through Shoppee e-commerce platform. A total of 150 questionnaires are analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results of the analysis show that the flash sale strategy carried out by the Shoppee e-commerce platform in Indonesia has a direct effect on increasing consumer emotions. This means that the higher the intensity of the FS promotion, the stronger the influence on consumer emotions. Emotions increase IB. FS has no significant effect on increasing IB. Subsequent findings show that FS indirectly has a positive and significant effect on IB through emotions. In other words, this study proves that the emotions are a mediating variable in online IB. This study is helpful for companies in developing appropriate strategies for their promotions in utilizing consumers’ impulse buying behavior by using strategies that trigger consumers’ emotions.

This paper intends to analyze the impact of store layout, ambient factors, and employees on impulsive decision-making among female customers visiting the apparel outlets. The responses were collected through a single-stage mall intercept survey method using a structured questionnaire from 385 respondents in leading apparel stores in selected Tier I and Tier II cities in the state of Karnataka, India. The responses were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Constructs such as store layout, ambience and employees were found to be significantly positively correlated with impulse buying behavior. The variables largely explain the variation in impulse buying under store ambiance. Except ‘attention to the window display’ and ‘friendly staff’ all other twelve variables considered in the study were found to have significant impact on the impulse buying behavior. Though store ambiance, well-structured layout, and pleasant shopping experience are essential determinants of customer satisfaction, the study results imply that the number of store staff and sales skills are critical aspects of impulse buying in the apparel business and true assets to the retail organization. Additionally, poor customer interaction, staff shortage, and high employee attrition could discourage the store’s revenue generation.

TikTok Shop boosts TikTok’s huge potential as an e-commerce platform that encourages sellers and buyers to increase the number of transactions. The emergence of this feature encourages the online impulse buying phenomenon on the TikTok platform. This study aims to examine the factors that influence online impulse buying on TikTok in Indonesia through the constructs of brand review, sales promotion, customer satisfaction, religiosity, and brand expectation. This quantitative research uses a questionnaire that is distributed randomly online and collected from 312 respondents in Indonesia. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), data analysis was conducted and hypotheses were examined. The results show that customer satisfaction (β: 0.501) and brand review (β: 0.358) play an important role in increasing brand expectation. At the same time, sales promotion (ρ-value > 0.05) has no impact on brand expectation. This study highlights that religiosity (β: –0.239) and brand expectation (β: –0.510) can reduce online impulse buying behavior. Brand expectation (β: –0.510) is the most dominant variable in reducing online impulse buying behavior on TikTok.