What Triggers Impulse Buying Online? A Croatian Perspective

Impulse buying is a spontaneous consumer behavior, so it is important to identify the factors that influence such decisions in order to increase their frequency. Given the growing importance of online shopping, the aim of this study is to determine the factors that influence impulse purchases in e-commerce. In this study, an established model of impulse buying uses to examine the effects of situational, external and internal factors on consumers’ impulse buying behavior in e-commerce. Data was collected through a survey on a sample of 193 respondents. The analysis includes reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and regression analysis, through structural equation modeling (SEM), to ensure the robustness of the results. The results show that internal factors play a significant role in influencing impulse buying in e-commerce. Conversely, external factors that can be manipulated by retailers and situational factors such as time and money availability were found to have no significant influence on impulse purchases. The main limitation of this research concerns the sample size, which is relatively small and may not fully represent the Croatian population. However, this limitation points to opportunities for future research with a larger and more diverse sample. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on consumer behavior by demonstrating the impact of various factors on impulse purchases in e-commerce. The findings emphasize the importance for online retailers to focus their marketing strategies on increasing impulse purchases.