Impulsive Buying decisions in fashion

I want a 700-800 word of the rationale/ Introduction (     

Should set out the purpose and scope of the dissertation clearly introducing the background context and the research question showing why this research is important through a clear rationale, aims, and objectives) for my research paper with Harvard citations, graphs, 3-4 Aims, and objectives. 

research is based on the drivers and factors influencing impulsive buying. How it’s a marketing tool, focusing on people in the United Kingdom between the age of 18-25 years ( reason, why this age group is important to focus on). Please include UK government surveys to back it up. 

Introduction

Thepopularity and existence of shopping in the United Kingdom is a clear indication of impulse buying as a critical element of consumer behavior. Early studies brought out impulsive buying as being strictly similar to unplanned buying (Lim and Yazdanifard, 2015). According to Saleh (2012), virtually everyone buys an item on impulse at one time in their lifetime. As highlighted by a Whistl survey (2017), the majority of the Brits (91%) admit to making impulse purchases every month. All the impulsive purchases in the UK, including the fashion industry, build up a monthly expenditure of £3.14 billion, which works out at a per-person cost of £47.84 (Halliday, 2017). Using figures acquired from the Office of National Statistics in the UK, Gough (2016) approximated that the Britons aged over 18 years spend approximately £21.7 billion annually on impulsive buying. According to Clark (2018), 41% of the impulsive buyers in the UK were generation Z, followed by generation X, with 32%. Generation Z involves individuals born after 1995 and thus aged between 18 to 25 (Hughes, n.d.). Generation Z is the group that is most influenced by the internet, spending almost 10.6 hours on the internet each day (Hughes, n.d.). In a study by Wadera and Sharma (2018), the frequency of internet exploitation in online shopping between 2014 and 2015 surged from 81% to 86%. In the same period, the cost spent on online fashion shopping drastically escalated from 48.6% to 60.2% (Wadera and Sharma, 2018). A report by Eurostat (2017) brought out that two-thirds of shoppers in the UK browse every day and are online shoppers. There were several drivers and factors influencing impulsive buying, including the price of product and delivery (good deals), speed of product delivery, and time spent on the internet. In a survey conducted by PRmoment.com. (2017), the top five factors that drove the Britons to impulsive buying included monetary deals or offers (92%), credible and convincing online displays (64%), reviews by families and friends (57%), the uniqueness of the item (48%) and lastly convincing by the retailers or salesperson (17%). This research is purported to evaluate the factors influencing impulse buying in the UK fashion industry. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Who said it? Comment by Microsoft Office User: Grammar Comment by Microsoft Office User: The most imp research. Extract Importatnt One Comment by Microsoft Office User: Cannot be slang. Academic language. Like, British Consumer. Concentrate only on fashion. Filter your research. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Remove general statistics Comment by Microsoft Office User: What are the rest of the 27% doing? Comment by Microsoft Office User: Mention Fashion Comment by Microsoft Office User: Make a point and then back it up!!!

Aim: To understand the drivers and factors stimulating impulsive buying among individuals aged between 18 and 25 years in the UK fashion industry. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Rewrite Comment by Microsoft Office User: To identify the driver and the factors that lead to impulse buying in the fashion industry in physical store environment and online.
Critical evaluation Recommendations.

Objectives: To discuss factors influencing impulsive buying in the UK fashion industry. To discuss impulsive buying as a marketing tool. To discuss the significance of the associated age group (between 18 and 25 years) in the UK fashion industry.

Rationale of the study Comment by Microsoft Office User: Read the learning outcomes from the guidelines.

Impulse buying has, for decades, been considered as a significant factor for escalating the sales volume in the retail industry. Impulse purchases between 1945 to 1959, escalated from 38.2% to 50.9% of the purchases made on supermarkets (Khan et al., 2015). According to Tooke (2018), 26.5% of the clothing shoppers buy the products on impulse, incurring overall spending of 30%. With the drastic development of technology in the world today, more and more consumers have shifted to online shopping due to the convenience associated with the internet. Researchers have come up with several drivers and factors that influence impulse buying. In a report by UK Criteo Online Shopper Survey (2017), when respondents were asked to rank factors influencing them to make impulse purchases, the price was the leading factor with 83% of the respondents, product description and display the second with 59% and lastly product rating and reviews with 49%. In a research by Whistl. (2017), one of the most driving factors for impulse buying among the UK generation Z included good deals that covered 46% and 39% claiming to be tired and online browsing. In the study, shoppers in Bristol were reported to be the most tempted in impulse buying of special offers, whereby 71% blamed that for impulse buying (Whistl., 2017). Additionally, in a survey by Halliday (2017), that involved 1,106 respondents, 56% of the respondents were impulsive buyers of clothes, making fashion to be the most popular impulse buy. One of the primary reasons for impulse buying in this study was technology in the modern world, where anything the consumers desire is readily accessible and available to order online. In the survey, 56% of the respondents were online shoppers (Halliday, 2017). The younger generation has been reported to be more drawn in technology and internet, whereby 55% of individuals under 24 years asserting that late-night internet browsing significantly contributes to their instant or impulse buying (Whistl., 2017). Whistl survey also found out that in making an impulse purchase, the factor of the speed of delivery plays a significant, whereby a third of the respondents claimed the longest they would wait for delivery of a product was two to three days. Individuals under the age of 24 were the most impulsive and impatient, with 16% claiming that they would wait up to one week, in comparison with 38% of elderly adults age (Whistl, 2017). To this end, time and speed of delivery is a significant driver for impulse purchase behavior. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Not relevant. More recent.

Secondary Research

Sudden, hedonically motivated purchasing behaviour is rampant in fashion retailing. Impulse buying behaviour plays a crucial role in the fashion industry. Fashion retailers use visual merchandising as a tool that strengthens positive emotions where products and brands are visually communicated to attract, engage, and motivate the customer towards making an impulse purchase. A digitised retailing context also helps in offering consumers’ products, and changes in information technology have enabled them to gain fashion inspiration online. Some of the factors that encourage impulse buying include current mood and individual differences. Theoretically, enhanced perceived physical proximity to a product can create a feeling of partial ownership and potential loss when the product is not ultimately purchased. moreover, enhancing the vividness and interactivity of online products helps a consumer feel physically closer to a product. Online fashion sellers currently rely on free returns; free deliveries and special discounts that enable them attract impulse purchases. Impulse buyers depend on refund policies when purchasing, especially when buying clothing. For instance, products that are promoted on sale or which are seen as a good deal encourage impulse buying. Social influence can also encourage impulse buying. It can also be encouraged by social comparison, for example when a consumer sees their peers purchasing a product through social media, a friend posts on social media about a particular product in local establishments to predict the same online purchase and also visit similar establishments.

The bar graph has be taken from Global Data’s UK e-retails survey of 10,000 nationally representatives online shoppers. Chart shows the proportion of the online shoppers who have clicked through Instagram shopping to a product page on a retailers website to buy products.

Some of the strategies that an organization can use to encourage impulse buying include shipping. Shoppers are also encouraged through providing suggestions for certain products in a certain price range and checking them out to meet a consumer’s specific shopping threshold. Provisions of special pricing and incentives also encourage impulse buying. A free shipping threshold, can be used to encourage consumers, this results to a promoted sale. Another strategy is ensuring that it is quick and easy to purchase a product from an e-commerce store. Ensure that products are streamlines and optimized to take full advantage of impulse purchases. Impulse buying behaviour begins with product awareness; this is where impulse buyers begin by browsing without necessarily having an intention to buy a product. When impulse buyers have the desire to purchase, they always make a purchase without searching for information and evaluating alternatives and reclassifying the alternative factors. Research on shopping motivation and boredom indicates that this behaviour results to exposure to stimuli such as those of monotony and frustration. Consumers are influenced by internal factors such as desire, mood, needs, and hedonic, cognitive and affective evaluation. External factors such as window display, visual merchandising, promotional signage and floor merchandising triggers consumer impulse purchase behaviour. Where fashion buying decisions are governed through strong emotions such as boredom, the decisions tend to be more guided by an impulse behaviour that rational behaviour. Besides, online site atmospheric and engagement in responsiveness are also crucial and triggers impulse purchases.

Furthermore, consumers usually shop to satisfy their hedonic needs, specific products acquired during the shopping trips were also deemed secondary to the action of shopping as such it constituted and impulse buying event. Some of these hedonic needs that consumers constantly seek to satisfy comprise of surprise, fun novelty. Further, consumers involved in impulse purchases are more likely to shop due to indulgent reasons compared to those consumers who obtain a moderate score on the impulsive scale. Additionally, the desire to satisfy their self-esteem increases a consumer’s impulse buying behaviour. Consumers use their shopping experiences as a strategy for self-reward and as a way of establishing identity. In the fashion industry, there is a positive orrelation existing between impulsiveness and style-consciousness. Comment by Microsoft Office User: Recommendations- loop holes, how it can be used by someone else in the future.

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Appendix

The bar graph has be taken from Global Data’s UK e-retails survey of 10,000 nationally representatives online shoppers. Chart shows the proportion of the online shoppers who have clicked through Instagram shopping to a product page on a retailers website to buy products.