Impulse Buying And Why It Matters

Impulse buying is the tendency of a customer to buy goods and services without planning in advance. When this is done, it is usually triggered by emotions and feelings.

There is a great likelihood that consumers end up making a purchase of products after entering the marketing, without any intent of doing so.

There are 4 types of buying impulses:

• Pure Impulse: completely unplanned purchase of a novelty product.

• Reminder Impulse: seeing a product and remembering that you need it.

• Suggestive Impulse: seeing a product and visualizing a need for it.

• Planned Impulse: taking advantage of a promotional offer with an unplanned purchase.

It is important to keep in mind the path the consumer took in order to arrive at the impulse buy. Since shoppers make impulsive buys after being exposed to a product/promotion, the more there is, the greater potential for impulse buys.

An impulse buyer is image-concerned, and therefore always want to look good in the eyes of others. These customers are more likely to experience anxiety, and have difficulty controlling their emotions. This makes it harder for them to resist emotional urges, and are more likely to impulsively spend their money.