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Impulse versus opportunistic purchasing during a grocery shopping experience

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  • Francesco Massara
  • Robert Melara
  • Sandra Liu

Abstract

The current study introduces a conceptual distinction between two types of unplanned purchases—impulse purchases (i.e., spontaneous decisions triggered affectively) versus opportunistic purchases (i.e., rational decisions elicited by stimulus exposure)—grounded in separate dynamics of the cognitive processes unfolding during the course of a shopping trip. In a temporal analysis of shopping behavior within a simulated grocery-shopping experience, we found that participants increased their impulse buying but decreased their opportunistic buying, as a function of the number of basket items chosen previously. Similarly, impulse purchases increased in the final stages of the trip, particularly in shoppers without the aid of a shopping list, whereas opportunistic purchases decreased. Ours is thus the first study to report time–course evidence of two types of unplanned purchases within the grocery-shopping experience. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Francesco Massara & Robert Melara & Sandra Liu, 2014. "Impulse versus opportunistic purchasing during a grocery shopping experience," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 361-372, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:25:y:2014:i:4:p:361-372
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-013-9255-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Katakam, Bharath Shashanka & Bhukya, Ramulu & Bellamkonda, Raja Shekhar & Samala, Nagaraj, 2021. "Longitudinal analysis versus cross-sectional analysis in assessing the factors influencing shoppers’ impulse purchase behavior – Do the store ambience and salesperson interactions really matter?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    2. Chandan Parsad & Sanjeev Prashar & Vijay Sai Tata, 2017. "Understanding nature of store ambiance and individual impulse buying tendency on impulsive purchasing behaviour: an emerging market perspective," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 44(4), pages 297-311, December.
    3. Hoang, Dong & Breugelmans, Els, 2023. "“Sorry, the product you ordered is out of stock”: Effects of substitution policy in online grocery retailing," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 26-45.
    4. Els Breugelmans & Yuping Liu-Thompkins, 2017. "The effect of loyalty program expiration policy on consumer behavior," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 537-550, December.

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