Types of Impulse buying.

Every week I go shopping for groceries at a supermarket, sometimes more than once if I forget something I needed. I always think of what I need from the store before I go so that I get the most value of the trip and don’t have to return there the next day. However, almost every time I end up purchasing goods I had not planned to buy.

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Stern (1962) describes this activity as impulse buying. This involves any unplanned purchases a consumer makes. The cause of this is because the consumer is presented with a variety of options, some of which they may not have realised they needed or wanted.

There are different types of impulse buying which form an “impulse mix” as suggested by Stern (1962). These types are known as;

• Pure Impulse buying
• Reminder Impulse buying
• Suggestion Impulse buying
• Planned Impulse buying

The various impulse buying behaviours that occur happen for different reasons.  For example pure impulse buying is the most unplanned version of impulse buying. It is when a consumer purchases a product which they had no plans to buy and had not even considered buying the product beforehand. (Stern, 1962.)

Adelaar et al. (2003) describes reminder impulse buying as only occurring when the consumer is reminded of having low stock of a product they need such as kitchen paper or ketchup. Upon seeing the product in stores they have an impulse to purchase based on their low quantity of the product. This type of impulse also occurs when a consumer recalls an advertisement about a product.

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Suggestion impulse buying is when a consumer visualises a need for a product after seeing it for the first time, for example I saw a lamp in a store last week and considered whether I could benefit from purchasing it. (Adelaar et al. 2003)

Planned impulse buying is when a consumer plans to purchase a product but a discount sale influences their decision to buy a different brand. (Adelaar et al. 2003)

As the consumer only goes to the supermarket to purchase a few products each time, most of the products available to purchase are bought on impulse. According to smallbusiness.co.uk  consumers in Britain spend 21.7 billion on impulse purchases each year. So supermarkets offering more choice and high variety increases the amount of impulse sales accumulated in the store.

Furthermore there are businesses such as telemarketing channels with solely rely on their audience making impulse purchases for their business to survive. As each product they present to their consumer is meant to offer them something new or innovative that they don’t already have.

References

Stern, H. 1962. The significance of impulse buying today. The Journal of Marketing. pp. 59-62.

Adelaar, T., Chang, S., Lancendorfer, K.M., Lee, B. and Morimoto, M.(2003). Effects of media formats on emotions and impulse buying intent. Journal of Information Technology, 18(4), pp.250

Owen Gough, 2017. “British consumers spend £21.7 billion on impulse purchases each year”. Available at:  http://smallbusiness.co.uk/cambridge-best-start-business-2535226/ [online]

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