Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues (Print ISSN: 1544-0036; Online ISSN: 1544-0044)

Research Article: 2021 Vol: 24 Issue: 1S

Correlation between Impulsive Buying and Customer Satisfaction on Online Purchase "X"

Sarah Logianti Diani, Universitas Padjadjaran

Ratna Jatnika, Universitas Padjadjaran

Nurul Yanuarti, Universitas Padjadjaran

Keywords

Online Shopping, Impulsive Buying, Customer Satisfaction

Abstract

 Impulsive buying is a purchase of goods that are not approved by the individual, relatively quickly, and suddenly there is a strong urge to buy goods and stimulated by emotional factors. The convenience of online shopping makes the phenomenon of impulsive buying increase. Impulsive buying has become a phenomenon, especially among teenagers, while college students are included. However, impulsive buying activities do not only bring satisfaction but also bring more dissatisfaction. The purpose of this study is to study whether there is a relationship between impulsive buying and customer satisfaction with online clothing purchases at Shopping Site “X” for college students. The research design used was non-experimental with the correlational method. A total of 50 college students became the respondents in this study. Data obtained through a questionnaire measuring instrument based on impulsive buying theory from Rook & Fisher (1995) and satisfaction theory from Oliver (2010). The data obtained is analysed using a Spearman rank correlation test. The results showed that there was no relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction (r=-0.078; p=0.591). However, there is a negative relationship between psychological imbalance and consumer satisfaction (rs=0.049; p=-0.280). It has a meaning that the higher the level of psychological imbalance, the lower the level of customer satisfaction. 

Introduction

Information and communication technology development nowadays has been rapidly increasing. One of them is internet network development. The data result from e-Marketer shows that the number of internet users in Indonesia is increasing each year. In 2013, the number of internet users recorded was 72.8 million people, which then increase to 102.8 million people in 2016. In 2018, internet users in Indonesia had reached 143.26 million people (Liputan6.com, 2018).

The rapid development of the internet is also affecting the business transaction area. Today's business transactions are greatly shifted to the internet or what usually known as online shopping (Janssons & Boyd, 2010). Online shopping is a process of buying and selling products, services and information electronically through the means of internet network. Improved comfortability in online shopping which provides more benefits to some sellers and ease of access to consumers to shop at leisure time, may encourage impulsive buying phenomenon (Dawson, 2009).

Rook & Fisher (1995) reckoned that impulsive buying is a consumer's tendency to buy spontaneously without consideration and occur suddenly. The phenomenon of online shopping and impulsive buying is also found in female college students aged 17-21 years which classified as the late adolescent developmental stage. From the result of initial data collection using an online questionnaire, most of the students have shown impulsive buying behaviour when buying clothes online at the "S" online shopping site. When doing impulsive buying, a student fails to hold back her desire to buy things that attract her attention. In the end, it is likely for female students to buy things not based on what their needs, but rather on a momentary fondness and in turn end up with wrong buying decision.

The disappointment comes from post impulsive buying behaviour by female students who consider the product they received not suitable with their expectations, thus cause the feelings of dissatisfaction. Disappointment experienced by these students is a form of dissatisfaction from the product received, where 61% female students experiencing negative disconfirmation that leads to dissatisfaction, and 39% female students experiencing positive disconfirmation, which leads to satisfaction. This means that 61% female students have the perception that the product or service performance they received is worse than they expected. While 39% female students perceived that the performance of the product or service, they received is suitable with or exceed their expectations.

Based on the above mentioned, it is obvious that impulsive buying behaviour can lead to consumer's satisfaction and dissatisfaction. However, most of them lead to dissatisfaction. Therefore, this study seeks to understand the relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction with online clothing purchases at the "S" shopping site on the female college students.

Literature Review

Gardner & Rook (1988) stated that impulsive buying behaviour is an individual behaviour to buy an unplanned item, relatively quickly with a sudden strong urge to buy the item and stimulated by emotional factors. According to Rook & Fisher (1995), impulsive buying has the characteristics of spontaneity, presence of strength, compulsion, intensity, excitement and stimulation, and indifference to the consequences that follow.

Chan, Cheung & Lee (2017) stated that impulsive buying behaviour had become a phenomenon since the rapid growth of internet networks. Compared to offline shopping, researchers claimed that the online shopping environment would inflict more impulsive buying. This happens because the online shopping environment frees consumers from various restrictions such as uncomfortable store locations, limited hours of operation, and social pressure from staff and other consumers that might occur during offline shopping activities.

This impulsive buying phenomenon is susceptible to happen at the age of 15-21 years (Eysenck et al., 1985). The age range belongs to late adolescent developmental stage according to the developmental stage of Monks, Knors & Hadinoto (1998). Surveys conducted by AC Nielsen Indonesia regarding product purchases by teenagers in Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya, revealed that product purchases are sometimes done without prior planning and create a tendency for impulsive buying (Kharis, 2011). Thus based on a research conducted on female students regarding impulsive buying behaviour, it shows that the reason for most of the female students to do impulsive buying is because the goods were seen as attractive so they do not consider whether the goods they bought are suitable with their needs or not (Arifianti, 2015). In the late adolescent stage, especially female college students, they should be able to manage and organize their own finance, so it can be a good asset for them to face a more independent adult phase. However, in reality, there are still female college students who do not pay careful attention to their purchasing activities by making spontaneous and unplanned purchases.

Based on the research conducted by Schultz and Schultz (Astasari & Sahrah, 2012), the consequences of impulsive buying behaviour can be negative, where 56% of respondents reported having financial difficulties as a result of impulsive buying behaviour, 37% of respondents felt disappointed with the product they bought, and 19% of respondents found disapproval from friends and family for what they have bought.

Impulsive buying behaviour can lead to consumer's satisfaction and dissatisfaction Consumer satisfaction is the consumer's assessment on the performance of a product or service they purchased, which provides a level of comfortability in relation with the need fulfilment, including fulfilment that does not meet consumer expectations or fulfilment that exceeds consumer expectations (Oliver, 2010). If the perceived performance of the product or service is worse than expected, it is called negative disconfirmation. If the performance of the product or service is better than expected, it is called positive disconfirmation, and if as expected, it is called a confirmation of expectation (Oliver, 2010).

Research Methods

This research approach is a quantitative non-experimental with a descriptive study type. Data is collected from female college students. Characteristics of the respondents in this study are students aged 17-21 years, female, and have made clothing purchases at the "S" online shopping site at least 6 times during the last 6 months. The selection of respondents is conducted using a stratified random sampling technique. The number of respondents in this study is 50 female students.

The Impulsive Buying variable is measured using the Buying Impulsiveness Scale questionnaire, which was developed by Rook & Fisher (1995). The instrument for measuring consumer satisfaction is a questionnaire developed by the researcher based on the definition of consumer satisfaction by Oliver (2010) namely, consumer assessment on the features of product or service, or the product or services itself, wherein there are two dimensions, product quality and service quality. Sub dimensions of product quality and service quality, are adapted by a researcher from the dimensions of product quality and service quality by Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1994); Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1988).

The impulsive buying questionnaire consists of 18 items that describe five dimensions, spontaneous and sudden desire to buy, psychological imbalance, psychological conflict, negative evaluation reduction, and consequences negligence. There are 17 positive items and 2 negative items in the instrument. There are 5 options of answering, which is in Likert scale, starting from 1 (Strongly Disagree) until 5 (Strongly Agree). For positive items, Strongly Agree will be scored 5 and Strongly Disagree will be scored 1, and vice versa for negative items. Respondent's score on impulsive buying is the total amount of the respondent's answers to each item. The higher the score acquired by respondents, thus the higher the impulsive buying possessed by female students, and the lower the score, the lower the impulsive buying possessed by the female students.

The customer satisfaction questionnaire consists of 40 items that describe two dimensions, namely the product quality and service quality. There are 40 positive items in the measurement tool. There are five options of answering, which is on a Likert scale, starting from 1 (Strongly Disagree) until 5 (Strongly Agree). For positive items, Strongly Agree will be scored 5 and Strongly Disagree will be scored 1. Respondent's assessment on consumer satisfaction is the difference between the questionnaire score on the real quality of the product and service and the questionnaire score on the quality expectation of the product and service of each item. The higher the score obtained by the respondents, the higher the satisfaction level of the female students to the products they purchased, and the lower the score obtained, the lower the satisfaction level of the female students to the products they purchased.

Categorization of the measurement tool is using the ideal norm which is by looking at the scores acquired by each respondent and will be sorted from lowest to highest. The score of impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction of the female students will be divided into four categories: High (H), High Tendency (HT), Low Tendency (LT), Low (L). This categorization was also applied to each dimension of impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction by looking at the total score.

The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient on the impulsive buying questionnaire is 0.897 and on the consumer satisfaction questionnaire is 0.986. Data collection procedures were started since informed consent filled out by respondents as a sign of readiness for the research. The study was carried out individually using an online questionnaire. The analysis conducted in this study is by using correlation tests to see the relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction. The analysis of demographic data and supporting data were also sought out using descriptive statistics by looking at the percentage. And then, to conduct a differential test to demographic data, researchers use non-parametric statistics which is the Kruskal Wallis test. The instrument for this calculation is using IBM SPSS Statistics 24.0.

Findings and Discussion

Table 1 shows the analysis result of the relationship between impulsive buying and customer satisfaction (rs=-0,078; p=0.591). It means that impulsive buying has no relationship with customer satisfaction. A later correlation test was conducted between the dimension of impulsive buying and customer satisfaction was carried out. After conducting a statistical test, the following results are as follows:

Table 1
Correlation Test of Impulsive Buying Variable With Consumer Satisfaction (n=50)
Variable rs p-value
Impulsive buying with Consumer Satisfaction -0.078 0.591

Table 2 shows the correlation coefficients of each dimension of impulsive buying with consumer satisfaction. On the dimension of spontaneous desire to buy, the resulting correlation coefficient is -0.125 with p-value=0.386, it shows that there is no significant relationship with consumer satisfaction. On the psychological imbalance dimension, the resulting correlation coefficient is -0.280 with p-value=0.049, it shows a negative correlation with consumer satisfaction, meaning the higher the level of psychological imbalance, the lower the level of consumer satisfaction.

Tabel 2
Correlation Test Between Impulsive Buying Dimension With Consumer Satisfaction (n=50)
Dimension rs p-value
Spontaneous desire to buy -0.125 0.386
Psychological imbalance -0.280* 0.049
Psychological Conflict 0.270 0.150
Cognitive evaluation reduction -0.132 0.360
Negative Consequences negligence -0.089 0.540
* p<0.05

The dimension of psychological conflict has a correlation coefficient of 0.270 with a p-value of 0.150, it shows that there is no significant relationship with consumer satisfaction. Dimension of cognitive evaluation reduction have a correlation coefficient of -0.132 with p-value=0.360, it shows that there is no significant relationship with consumer satisfaction. Then the dimension of negative consequences negligence has a 0.089 correlation coefficient with a p-value of 0.540, it shows that there is no significant relationship with consumer satisfaction. Therefore, it can be concluded that the dimension of impulsive buying that has a significant relationship with consumer satisfaction is the dimension of psychological imbalance.

Table 3 shows that as many as 37 (74%) respondents or almost the majority of respondents have a low tendency level of impulsive buying and tend to feel dissatisfied. And as many as 7 (14%) respondents have a high tendency level of impulsive buying and tend to feel dissatisfied. As many as 4 (8%) respondents have a low level of impulsive buying and tend to feel dissatisfied. There are 2 (4%) respondents who have a low tendency and high tendency level of impulsive buying and tend to feel satisfied. When looking at the comparison and frequency, the majority of respondents who have low, low tendency and high tendency level of impulsive buying, tend to feel dissatisfied after buying clothes online.

Tabel 3
Cross Tabulation Between Impulsive Buying With Consumer Satisfaction Data
Impulsive buying Consumer Satisfaction
Low Low Tendency High Tendency High
Low - 4 (8%)   -
Low Tendency - 37 (74%) 1 (2%) -
High Tendency - 7 (14%) 1 (2%) -
High - - - -

This study aims to determine the relationship between impulsive buying with consumer satisfaction. Table 1 show that there is no significant relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction. It means that if the level of impulsive buying is high or low, it is not followed by an increase or decrease in satisfaction felt by students after purchasing clothes on the "S" online shopping site. The result of this study is inversely related to the study of Li (2015), in which the result of the previous study indicates that impulsive buying behaviour is negatively related to post-purchase satisfaction.

There are several factors that because the absence of a relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction, including the research sample being not too wide which caused the less varied data. This is one of the causes of the absence of a relationship between the two variables because when the data varies highly the correlation will be higher. Another factor that causes the absence of a relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction is for not measuring the mediator in this study, which is mood. This is apprehended by the researcher based on preliminary data that showed the majority of students felt disappointed after impulsive buying, that disappointment feeling made them feel disappointed with the clothing they bought. Based on research conducted by Li (2015) regarding the relationship of impulsive buying with consumer satisfaction, shows that positive mood and negative mood (mixed emotion response) have an important mediating effect in the relationship between impulsive buying behaviour and consumer satisfaction post-impulsive buying (Li, 2015).

When consumers practiced impulsive buying, they will feel a positive or negative mood. When the target and result of the consumers are consistent, they will have a positive mood; if not, they will have a negative mood. This mood is affecting consumer satisfaction. When consumers feel happy after practicing impulsive buying, they will tend to feel satisfied with the purchase they made. If consumers feel guilty or regret after impulsive buying, then they will feel dissatisfied with the purchase they made. This is in accordance with Li's research result (2015) which shows a positive relationship between happiness and post impulsive buying satisfaction. And a negative relationship between guilt and post impulsive buying satisfaction (Li, 2015). Moreover, the researcher suspects that there are other factors that have more relationship with consumer satisfaction. According to Kotler & Keller (2007), there are several factors that are related to consumer satisfaction, such as product quality, service quality, emotion, price and costs.

Table 2 shows the correlation test between dimensions of impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction. On that table, we can see that the dimension of psychological imbalance has a negative correlation with consumer satisfaction. It clarifies that the higher the psychological imbalance of the students, the lower the satisfaction level. This psychological imbalance is related to self-control. According to Chaplin (2006), the definition of self-control is the ability of an individual to direct his/her owns behaviour and the ability to suppress or inhibit existing impulses. When students experience a high tendency of psychological imbalance, they will likely be unable to control themselves in buying clothes. They tend to disregard the things that can harm them, so they might have disappointment or regret after making the purchase. According to research done by Arisandy & Hurriyati (2007) about the relationship between self- control and impulsive buying, it is found that there is a significant relationship between self-control and impulsive buying. The relationship between these two variables is negative, which means the higher the person's self-control, the lower the chance of impulsive buying behaviour might appear (Arisandy & Hurriyati, 2007). This indicates that female students who have done impulsive buying tend to have lower self-esteem, and they will experience psychological imbalance. When female students experience a psychological imbalance that tends to be high, they will tend to be unable to control themselves in buying clothes. They tend not to notice things that can harm them; subsequently, they may experience disappointment or regret after the purchase. As of the case with research conducted by Schultz and Schultz (Astasari & Sahrah, 2012), which states that the consequences of impulsive buying behaviour can be negative, where 37% of respondents feel disappointed with the product they bought. Disappointment is one form of negative mood (Rook, 1987). The negative mood has a negative effect on satisfaction. This is in line with the results of Li's study (2015) which shows a negative relationship between guilt (negative mood) and post-impulsive buying satisfaction (Li, 2015).

The results of this study indicate that the majority of students fall into the category of the low tendency of impulsive buying. Students with a low tendency of impulsive buying are more inclined to plan in advance before making a purchase. They know what they need and need to buy. They are not easy to make a purchase on clothing if there are other more important needs to buy. They will prioritize buying more important necessities. However, there are times when female college students with a low tendency of impulsive buying could lose control when they have to make a clothing purchase, so they have a sudden and very strong desire to buy these clothes immediately. Therefore, even though the students already have some plans ahead, they still feel emotional conflict when they are faced with clothing purchase activity. It is because the product provides the attractive visual stimuli and that they feel a match with the clothes they see.

Based on the research result, the majority of female students (96%) are in the category of the low tendency of satisfaction with the clothing product they purchased. This shows that overall students tend to feel dissatisfied with the product quality and service quality of the clothing products they bought. In this case, according to Oliver (2010), consumers fell into the category of negative disconfirmation where there is a negative gap between the perceived performance of clothing products and their expectations prior to making a purchase. This results in a dissatisfaction response by the female students. Students feel that the reality they received or feel which is the performance of clothing products they bought and the service given, is not suitable or worse than their expectations before making the purchase. While on 4% of the female students who feel satisfied, according to Oliver (2010), there is a positive disconfirmation happened to them. In other words, the students feel that the reality they received (the performance of the clothing product and the service provided) is suitable even exceed their expectations thus made them feel satisfied.

Although impulsive buying does not have a significant relationship with satisfaction. However, if seen from table 3 shows that the majority of respondents whose impulsive buying level is low, low tendency or even high tendency, are likely to feel dissatisfied with the clothing purchase they made online at the "S" shopping site. This research has some limitations to be addressed to and to be considered for other similar research. The first limitation is that there are still some poor items on the measurement tool, so some items must be removed. But this research result still can be trusted because of other factors, which are reliability and validity. Moreover, the second limitation on this research is that it is only applied to female students.

Conclusion

This research aims to determine the relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction on the female students who make online purchases at the "S" shopping site. The results show that there is no significant relationship between impulsive buying and consumer satisfaction. This shows that the higher the impulsive buying possessed by the female students, not necessarily they would feel dissatisfaction. And there is a negative relationship between the dimensions of psychological imbalance and consumer satisfaction. This shows that the higher the psychological imbalance of the female students, the lower the level of satisfaction. The majority of the female students who did impulsive buying felt dissatisfied after buying clothes online at the "S" shopping site. Based on the correlation test of demographic and supporting data like age, purchase frequency, type of clothes bought, and monthly pocket money, it shows that they have no significant relationship with consumer satisfaction. As for suggestions for female college students, to make careful consideration in purchasing clothes online. Students or readers should pay more attention to the reputation and reviews of previous buyers, which can be used as a reference for making a purchase or not. This aims to minimize dissatisfaction that might be experienced after buying clothes online. And suggestions for the sellers, to pay more attention to customer satisfaction. Consumer satisfaction can be improved through improving the quality of products and services provided. The conclusion must be related to the title and purpose of the study. Don't make statements that are not adequately supported by your findings. Write down the improvements made in the field of industrial engineering or science in general. Don't make further discussions, repeat abstracts, or just list the results of the study. Don't use bullet points, use paragraph sentences instead.

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