Abstract

The impulsive buying behaviour is a common trend in today’s market environment. Impulsive buying behaviour is an urge or temptation to purchase a product or service with no consideration of the consequence of the purchase. Controlling impulsive buying behaviour is essential to improving an individual’s psychological well-being. On the other hand, stimulating impulse buying is one of the key strategies employed by retailers to ensure that they increase their sales revenue. The five key stimulators of impulsive buying behaviour includes impulse-buying tendency, vicarious ownership, window displays, income levels, credit card usage. The impulsive buying behaviour is common in many markets today, and the Nigeria retail industry is not an exception. This research aimed at investigating how window displays, income level and credit card offers influence the level of impulse buying in the Nigeria retail industry. The researcher extensively reviewed the existing literature and was able to formulate three hypotheses that were evaluated and examined to draw conclusions. The first hypothesis stated that window displays have a significant influence in increasing the level of impulse buying in the Nigeria retail industry. The seconded hypothesis stated that Income level increases the level of impulse buying in the Nigeria retail industry. According to the third Hypothesis, high level of income increases the level of impulse buying in the Nigeria retail industry. The research adopted the use of positivism philosophy, quantitative research approach, survey research strategy, descriptive research design and the primary method of data collection. The respondents’ responses were descriptively analysed to draw conclusions from the 490’s successfully returned questionnaires. According to the research findings, window displays, income level and credit card usage increases the level of impulsive buying behaviour in the Nigeria retail industry. The researcher provides key recommendation on how retailers can maximise on window displays, income level and credit card usage to increase their sales revenue. Futures studies are also guided to maximise on the weaknesses of this research. For instance, the futures studies can use larger samples and investigate the impact of other variables such as customer loyalty and product quality on the level of impulse buying.

Chapter 1

Introduction

1. Research Background

According to Ahmad &Vays (2011), impulsive buying behaviour is a common trend in today’s market environment. Hadjali, Salimi&Ardestani (2012) define impulsive buying behaviour as an urge or temptation to purchase a product or service with no consideration of the consequence of the purchase. Further, as noted by Chang, Eckman& Yan (2011), controlling impulsive buying behaviour is essential to improving an individual’s psychological well-being. Hostler et al. (2011) further note that impulsive buying behaviour has a close connection to unhappiness and anxiety because in some situations it can lead to remorseful reactions. As argued by Kalla& Arora (2011), understanding impulsive buying behaviour from the psychological perspective will play a critical role in helping a consumer to make smarter and more rational buying decisions.

Karbasivar&Yarahmadi (2011) highlight five key motivators of impulsive buying behaviour, which are closely connected to an individual’s psychology in the Nigeria retail industry. The first motivator of impulsive buying is the impulse-buying tendency, which is a personality trait possessed by some individuals. The impulse buying tendency motivates an individual to form a habit of buying anything attractive to him. As expounded by Karbasivar&Yarahmadi (2011, the impulse-buying tendency is connected to detrimental behaviours. For instance, individuals with the impulse-buying tendency are status-conscious, image-concerned and socially active. This category of persons participates in impulse buying to look better in the eyes of other buyers. Similarly, Liang (2012) argues that impulse buying tendency creates anxiety that makes it difficult to control impulse buying. People who have the habit of purchasing to improve their social status experience difficulties in managing their emotional urges to spend. Ling, Chai &Piew (2010) also note that individuals with personality traits of impulsive buying tendency experience unhappiness, so they buy impulsively to improve their moods. Individuals who are involved in impulsive purchasing in most cases fail to consider the consequences. The second motivator of impulsive buying behaviour is fun and vicarious ownership. According the research conducted by Maymand& Ahmadinejad (2011), some individuals want to experience pleasure and own the products that please them. Further, Mihić&Kursan (2010) postulate that vicarious ownership and fun are strongly related to brand and service reliability. When individuals have a strong connection with certain products or services, Mihić&Kursan (2010) argue that the perceived quality influences their buying behaviour. The three connections between the product and the impulse buyer are the physical connection, temporal connection and the social connection. Mohan, Sivakumaran & Sharma (2013) explain that a physical relationship with the product is formed when an individual is closer to it and can touch it. A physical relationship leads to a temporal relationship with the product when it is purchased. A social relationship with the products is formed when an individual can compare himself with other people using similar products. The social connection with a product tends to make some individuals think that they are better off and happy when seen making expensive purchases (Muruganantham&Bhakat, 2013). Therefore, the feelings of happiness and respect will drive an impulsive buyer to buy unbudgeted products without considering its consequences on spending.

According Nazir et al. (2012), the impulsive buying behaviour is common in many markets today, and the Nigeria retail industry is not an exception. This research project aimed at investigating the factors that influence the level impulsive buying behaviour in the Nigeria retail industry. Despite the fact that many studies have been conducted in this area, more focus has been diverted from the factors triggering impulsive behaviour in various markets. The specific attributes that will be considered to achieve the core objectives of this study include the window displays, income levels and the availability of credit card offers. The current literature has not put more focus on the mentioned attributes. Similarly, those studies that have tried to highlight the impact of window displays, income level and credit card offers provide inconclusive or inadequate findings. To address this existing gap, the researcher chose Nigeria retail industry that is one of the biggest global markets affected by impulsive purchasing behaviour.

1.1  Research Rationale

1.1.1 Theoretical Rationale

Considering the previous and the current literature, much focus has been diverted on investigating the factors triggering the impulsive buying behaviour Sharma, P., Sivakumaran & Marshall, 2010). Additionally, as noted by Tinne (2011), the existing literature tends to explain more on the impact of impulsive buying behaviour. However, thefactors that influence the level impulsive buying behaviour in retail markets have been ignored. Based on the past literature regarding impulsive buying behaviour, there are no conclusive findings on how window displays, income level and credit card offers influence the level of impulsive buying in the retail industry. To bridge the current gap, the researcher selected the Nigeria retail industry to investigate how window displays, income levels and credit card offers influence the level of impulsive buying behaviour. According to Verhagen& van Dolen (2011), it is vital to investigate the factors influencing the impulsive buying behaviour to help consumers control their purchasing decisions. Regardless the fact that impulsive buying behaviour is beneficial to retailers, it has remorse consequences on consumer spending Yang, Huang & Feng, 2011). Further&Bastin (2010) note that it is critical to helping consumers develop mechanisms that can help them resist the urge or motivation of purchasing unbudgeted products.  As mentioned earlier, some consumers may probably make impulse buying to please others but they do not understand the remorse effects of such buying behaviour. Paradoxically as expounded by Zhang, Winterich& Mittal (2010), the impulsive buying behaviour leads remorse and unhappiness in the long-run. This implies that the feelings of fun, pleasure and social image are short-term as opposed to guilt and sadness, which result from impulsive buying behaviour. A closer review of the previous and the existing literature, most authors have concentrated on highlighting the impacts of impulse buying and its motivators. However, these studies have not investigated how window displays, income level and credit card offers influence the level of impulsive buying behaviour in the retail industry (Lai, 2010). In the bid to address the identified gap, the researcher assessed the contribution of window displays, income level and credit card offers in the impulsive buying behaviour in the Nigeria retail industry. The Nigeria retail market was significant in this dissertation because it is one of the biggest global markets with higher preferences of impulsive buying. The three variables namely window displays, income level and credit card offers were distinctively selected because the previous researchers have widely ignored them. Based on Kalla& Arora (2011)’s definitions, window displays are creative and inspirational platforms created by retailers to attract the attentions of the passing customers. The income level refers to the amount of money an individual can earn monthly in the form of wages. The credit card offers have benefits such as redeemable points, which may influence the consumer to engage in impulsive purchasing.

1.1.2 Practical rationale

Practically, impulsive buying behaviour is detrimental to the consumer because in the long-run it brings remorse feelings, unhappiness and financial implications. However, in the short-run, impulsive buying behaviour may create false feelings of pleasure, fun and improved social status. Based on the long-term negative consequences of impulsive buying, this dissertation seeks to investigate how window displays, income level and credit card offers influences the degree of impulsive buying in the Nigeria retail industry. The research findings will help in enlightening the consumers to develop strategies that can help them control their urge and motivation of buying the unbudgeted products or services. The results of this research will also be critical in controlling the long-term consequences related to impulse buying such as remorse and unhappiness.

1.2 Research Objectives

Based on the current literature, consumers are motivated to engage in impulse buying so that they can improve their social status, have fun or experience pleasure (Niazi et al., 2012). Further, the current studies note that the feelings of fun, social improvement and pleasure are short-run compared to the long-term remorse feelings (Muruganantham&Bhakat, 2013). After conducting an extensive review of the existing literature, the researcher identified that the attributing factors influencing the level of impulse buying in the retail industry have been ignored. Some of the factors that can affect the level of impulse buying in the retail industry includes packaging attractiveness, product colour, product arrangement, window displays, income levels and credit card offers. However, the researcher specifically identified window displays, income levels and credit card offers as the three vital attributes that have been ignored in the existing literature. The mentioned factors can significantly influence the level of impulsive buying behaviour in the Nigeria retail industry. It is, therefore, evident that this dissertation will have a considerable positive impact in helping consumers to develop strategies that will limit them from engaging in impulse buying. Therefore, the three specific research objectives obtained by the researcher include:

• To assess the influence of window displays on impulsive buying behavior in the Nigeria retail industry.
• To investigate how the income level influences impulsive buying behavior in the Nigeria Retail Industry.
• To examine the influence of credit card offers on impulsive buying behavior in the Nigeria retail industry.

1.3 Structure of the Dissertation

The researcher aimed at investing the factors that influence the level of impulse buying behaviour in the Nigeria retail industry. The researcher structured this dissertation into five chapters. Chapter one provides an overall introduction to this research with a detailed research background, research rationale, objectives and the research structure. An extensive review of the previous literature concerning impulse buying is discussed in chapter two. The study methodology is provided in the third chapter while the research findings and analysis are presented in the fourth chapter. The last chapter makes recommendations and conclusion.

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