CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction of the topic:

Impulsive buying is the act of a customer to purchase goods and services

without planning in advance. When a customer takes such buying decisions at
the spur of the moment, it is usually triggered by emotions and feelings.
Impulsive purchase can't be classified for one specific product category.
Impulsive buying can be seen in products such as chocolates, clothes, mobile
phones and in big-ticket items such as cars, jewellery etc. Impulsive buying
means making an unplanned purchase. It is based on an irrational thinking.
Marketers try to tap this behaviour of customers to boost sales. There is a great
likelihood that customers end up making a purchase of products after entering
the hypermarket without any actual intention of doing so. Many mobile phone-
company tend to exploit this trait in customers by introducing products which
can be an add-on gadget for their mobiles such as fitness bands, watch etc. In
every retail store, encouraging customers to buy on impulse is a tried-and-true
way to boost average purchase value. Impulse buying goes way back, and it’s
still overwhelmingly common — some 77% of shoppers say they’ve made a
spontaneous impulse purchase in the past three months.

With so much of shopping moving online, impulse buys are one of the proven
tactics brick-and-mortar retailers have firmly in their corner. In fact, 79% of
impulse buys still take place in physical retail stores. That’s why smart retailers
make finding a way to capitalize on impulse purchases a priority in their
stores. Someone may be experiencing certain emotions, such as happiness or
stress, and then be motivated by marketing materials in a store to buy a product
or service that caters to their current emotion. People do not often consider the
consequences of their near-future purchases before making an impulse buy, and
are typically prompted by an impulse to act. This unplanned decision to
purchase something is what is referred to as an impulse buy, and those who tend
to make these types of decisions are referred to as “impulse buyers. “
1.1.2 Departmental store:

A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer

goods in different product categories known as "departments". In modern major
cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the
19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of
service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London (with
Whitley’s), in Paris (Le Bon Marché in 1852) and in New York (with Stewart's).
Today, departments often include the following: clothing, furniture, home
appliances, toys, cosmetics, houseware, gardening, toiletries, and sporting
goods, do it yourself, paint, and hardware. Additionally, other lines of products
such as food, books, jewellery, electronics, stationery, photographic equipment,
baby products, and products for pets are sometimes included. Customers
generally check out near the front of the store, although some stores include
sales counters within each department. Some stores are one of many within a
larger retail chain, while others are independent retailers. In the 1970s, they
came under heavy pressure from discounters, and have come under even heavier
pressure from e-commerce sites since 2010. Big-box stores, hypermarkets, and
discount stores are comparable to historical department stores. Market of Retail
Store and Departmental store is emerging in economical manner. Gone are the
days were the consumer went in search of materials from shop to shop. Today,
things are made available in one shop, one place. These days, consumer buying
is not mere transfer of item from seller to buyer. Consumer wants buying to
become a happy affair. They would like to see, touch and feel the commodities
that they buy. Understanding this psychology for the consumer many
organizations have come to make purchase of happy affair. Retailing as an
occupation came into existence when farmers started producing more food than
they required. Trading was an important part of daily life in ancient world. The
new retail formats that are now seen in India have their genesis in Europe.
Departmental stores started gaining prominence after 1850. As a next phase, the
time between 1950- 1970 witnessed the emergence of major players and
formats. In the next decade (1970- 1980) the retail Industry witness the
emergence of category killers and wholesale club. The 1990’s can be termed as
times of the Internet. This period also witnessed major internationalization
efforts by large retailers. The current decade is witnessing a lot of turbulence in
the American retail Industry. The focus has shifted to the emerging economies
and retailers are searching for a different business model to succeed in these
markets ruled by small retailers.

Departmental stores are basically defined as large retail establishment with an

extensive assortment in variety and range of goods, organized into separate
departments. All departments are housed under the same roof to facilitate
buying, customer service, merchandising, and control.

1.2 Overview of the topic:

Impulse purchase is defined as a spontaneous purchase, an item that a customer

hadn’t planned to buy when they began their shopping task. Previous research
has classified impulse buying as a personal characteristic and consumers usually
do impulse buying after they get a sudden unresisting urge in-store shopping to
satisfy their impulsive desire to own the product. Consumers buy products for
all kinds of reasons that deem necessary, such as, to relieve a depressed mood,
to express an identity, or simply for fun. Such non-rational purchases are known
as impulse purchases. Impulse purchases represent a significant portion of sales
in the departmental stores environment. Marketing and consumer researchers
over the period of almost fifty years have tried to explain the concept of impulse
buying in their own prospective, for which some research findings are discussed
here.
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Articles

1) AMNA SIRHINDI (2010): In her article critically reviewed the factors

that influence impulse buying in traditional brick-and-mortar stores and the
factors that influence online impulse buying and then tried to compare those the
factors that may influence offline and online impulse purchases. It is an attempt
to understand the possible dimensions of online impulse buying. Researcher
finds that that both offline and online impulse buying are very important
especially when globalization is increasing and horizons of targeting new
customers are spreading. In this study we have tried to compare the factors that
influence online impulse buying to the factors that influence offline impulse
buying or impulse buying in brick-and-mortar stores. However according to the
literature there are few similarities between both of these but the factors that
may influence the impulse buying were never studied in the same direction and
in the same aspect for both shopping channels. One of the main reasons is that
online shopping environment has more dimensions and diversity as compared
to brick-and-mortar stores.

2) Ravi S Bhakat (2013): In his article examined detailed account of

the impulse buying behaviour by compiling the various research works
literature in the field of Retailing and Consumer Behaviour. It gives a broad
overview of the impulse buying construct and the various behaviour related
aspects. A wide range of journal databases and books were referred to review
the works of various researchers. The content analysis of the various research
works led to the classification of literature into different factors influencing
impulse buying and further development of research framework. The multiple
aspects of the subject are categorized for future research works in the area of
impulse buying with the suggestions. The paper will be useful for marketing
practitioners and researchers towards comprehensive understanding of
the consumer’s impulsiveness.
3) Md. Ibrahim (2014): In his article stated that Super stores are playing a
key role in the field of shopping in Bangladesh. The popularity of super stores
is increasing day by day in our country and consumers are becoming more
habituated to buying from here. Today’s consumers are also very much concern
about food items. They want fresh, hygienic and healthy foods. So, superstores
have become a great source for the consumers to get these items of foods. This
paper is an attempt to investigate the factors that affect consumer impulse
buying behaviour at superstores in Bangladesh. Survey methodology was used
to collect the data from 100 respondents by adopting simple random sampling
technique. The study found that many factors were responsible for this changing
buying behaviour such as: in store atmosphere, point of purchase display,
convenience, location, product characteristics, product quality, availability of
branded items, store size, store image, variety seeking, discounts, stock outs,
packaging, in store display etc. All of the characteristics are subject to
consideration while making a purchase. Specifically planned purchase,
generally planned purchase, substitute products all have an impact on
impulse buying. The paper will be useful for marketing practitioners
and researchers towards comprehensive understanding of the consumer’s
impulsiveness

4) Mahdi Mohammad Bagheri (2014): In his article stated that the

retailers have a tendency to involve in the procedure of buying and to produce
an atmosphere to convince the people for buying goods. The overall purpose of
the paper is to gain insights into impulse buying behaviour among Iranian
shoppers and to arrive at a better understanding on how situational, personal,
and product related factors influence impulse buying. The cross-sectional
survey design is the specific survey method employed in this research. The
instrument for collecting data was a questionnaire and the samples were selected
based on the cluster sampling method that includes 207 participants. Findings
show that situational variables (store environment) have a positive influence on
impulse buying through positive mood and the felt urge to buy has a mediator
role between impulse buying tendency and impulse buying. The study also
found that demographic variables (job status) has not moderation role between
the hedonic shopping and felt urge to buy impulsively. The findings of the
research contribute to the knowledge, retailers and salesperson training. This
study demonstrates empirically which important factors influence on impulse
buying behavior among Iranian consumers.

5) soukaina karmouche (2012): In his article aimed to explore the

process by which four store environment (music, light, employee, and layout)
and two individual characteristics (shopping enjoyment tendency (SET) and
impulse buying tendency (IBT)) influence impulse buying behavior through
positive and negative affect, and urge to buy impulsively. The data were
obtained using a structured questionnaire from733 respondents in a mall survey
conducted in Chennai, South India. In the structural model tested with AMOS,
the authors found that store environment drove impulse buying (IB) through
positive affect and urge. Results also showed that the personality variables (SET
and IBT) influenced IB through positive affect and urge. This paper did not find
support for the relationship between negative affect and urge.

6) Vicki Zhou (2014): In his article stated that The fashion retailing
industry has always been in the growing states in Hong Kong, however, in order
to survive in this intense competition, fashion retailers, especially international
fashion retailers must come up with a cutting-edge brand presentations and retail
space in order to develop a new alternative to traditional retail store concepts,
and thus attract more customers and to increase their market share. It is observed
that more and more low-end international retailers have opened their flagship
stores in Hong Kong, such as H&M, ZARA and Forever 21. And their store
environments are observed to be different from other international fashion
retailers. Therefore, the initiate idea of this research is to explore the store
environmental factors that influence customers buying decision. By employing
the Mehrabian-Rusell environmental psychology model, this research has aimed
to explore the relationship between store atmospherics and emotional states, and
how emotions can influence customer’s impulse buying behavior. The results
show that impulse buying behavior was positively associated with customer’s
emotions and store atmospherics. The research helped international retailers to
identify key store environmental factors for enhancing customers shopping
experience as well as the factor that triggering their impulse buying behavior.

7) Sreedhar Madhavaram (2000): In his article explored the concept of

impulse purchasing behaviour online. A comprehensive review and analysis of
the literature suggests that there are some unresolved issues regarding the state
of knowledge on impulse purchasing behavior. In addition, the current
conceptualizations of impulse purchase behavior do not adequately capture
impulse purchase behavior over the Internet. Therefore, we propose a broadened
conceptualization to resolve those issues and to accurately capture impulse
purchases that take place in retail stores as well as on the Internet. The results
of our exploratory study are consistent with our conceptualization, and present
a robust platform for future research.
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction:

Research methodology is the specific procedures or techniques used to identify,

select, process, and analyse information about a topic. In a research paper, the
methodology section allows the reader to critically evaluate a study’s overall
validity and reliability.

Research Type Exploratory and Descriptive type

Sampling Technique Convenient sampling technique

Sample Population Residents of Silvassa Regions

Sample Size 100

Primary Data Questionnaire

Secondary Data Article, Books, websites

Analytical Tool Percentage Method

Table number.01 Research Design

3.2 Objective of the study:

 To study the factors affecting impulse buying by the consumer.

 To identify the strategies adopted by stores to increase the impulse

buying practices of consumers.
 CHAPTER 4

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Objective 1: To study the factors affecting impulse buying by the consumer.