Do extrinsic factors encourage shoppers’ compulsive buying? Store environment and product characteristics

Purpose The study examines the extrinsic variables, namely store environment, promotional activities (PA), product features and stimulation factors that encourage compulsive purchasing in emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected from customers with recent compulsive shopping experiences at an online retail store. This study collected 469 original survey responses employing purposive sampling and data analyzed with covariance-based structural equation modeling and used segmentation analysis. Findings The study results indicated that extrinsic (stimulus) factors, such as shop environment, PA and stimulation factors positively impacted shoppers’ impulsive buying tendency (IBT), whereas product characteristics did not affect shoppers’ IBT. Similarly, IBT (organism) influenced compulsive purchase, as did a favorable mediating relationship between extrinsic factors (stimulus factors) and shoppers’ compulsive purchase (response factor). Moreover, segmentation results showed that female consumers had more IBT and compulsive buying behavior than male respondents. Originality/value This research adds to the corpus of information concerning impulsive and compulsive buying behavior. As this study incorporates the Stimulus-Organism-Response paradigm, new findings emerge; using this paradigm allows for the testing of new linkages to better understand consumers’ impulsive and compulsive behavior.