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An Applied, Combined View of Impulse Shopping

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Marketing at the Confluence between Entertainment and Analytics

Abstract

Impulse shopping has been studied and reported on for at least 75 years in the academic press. Yet, there is still no clear or agreed-upon theory for why it occurs or among whom. In this study, a large number of consumers (big data) responded to an “I live for today because tomorrow is so uncertain” statement (a surrogate for impulsive purchasing) through a national US online survey. Demographic differences were used in a grounded theory approach to parse out differences among those reporting. Questionnaire findings were then combined with neural concepts such as relative preference and prospect theory to provide a potential solution to the “who is an impulse” buyer question. Managerial implications for the findings are included in the report.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Don E. Schultz, Martin P. Block & Vijay Viswanathan

Authors
  1. Don E. Schultz
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  2. Martin P. Block
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  3. Vijay Viswanathan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Don E. Schultz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Marketing Department, IESEG School of Management (LEM-CNRS), Lille, France

    Patricia Rossi

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© 2017 Academy of Marketing Science

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Schultz, D.E., Block, M.P., Viswanathan, V. (2017). An Applied, Combined View of Impulse Shopping. In: Rossi, P. (eds) Marketing at the Confluence between Entertainment and Analytics. Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47331-4_288

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