Shopping Context and the Impulsive and Compulsive Buyer

Impulsive and compulsive buying are behaviors with unique antecedents and consequences. Each has been studied at length but not in the duel context of offline and online retail environments. This current research examines the interaction of shopping context (online or offline) in relation to impulsive and compulsive buying behaviors. We find evidence that compulsive buying tendency is positively associated with online shopping, while impulse buying tendency is positively associated with offline shopping. The implications of this research suggest that purchasing as a result of compulsive and impulsive buying tendencies vary as a result of the shopping context which includes physical proximity to product and store atmospherics. This study reports the behavior of 353 young adults who provide a survey and shopping diary data over a two-week period during the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving