Impulse Buying

Impulse buying is a tendency to purchase products without planning ahead that happens thanks to a well-developed promotional message. Impulse buyers purchase items spontaneously because they rely on sensations that urge the necessity to buy.

In this article, we’ll talk about the psychology of impulse buying, go over several ways to increase impulse buying online, and unveil the most popular impulse purchases.

The Psychology of Impulse Buying

Statistics show that the number of spontaneous purchases is increasing every year. Whether it is the influence of online stores, paid advertising, or people’s urge to feel happy and excited, the number of impulse buys just keeps growing. An average American makes around 12 unplanned purchases per month. Moreover, 62% of buyers affirm that they feel happy after this kind of shopping, which explains why impulse buying is so widespread.

The psychology of impulse purchases is quite simple — they are often caused by market-related stimuli and external triggers. Huge discounts and attractive offers, including the BOGO (buy one, get one free) campaigns, are the most powerful causes of unplanned purchases. Marketing strategies provoke the urge to buy and elicit positive emotions and satisfaction, as customers feel they bought some products at a reduced price. This kind of shopping is the easiest way to get dopamine here and now.

Since people don’t resort to rational decision-making during impulse buying, which is typical for planned purchases, discounts appeal to the emotional side of shopping. Impulse buyers are guided by emotions, unique experiences, and sensations that emerge while shopping.

Now that you know how impulse buying works, it’s time to discover the ways to drive impulse purchases online.

Discounts, upselling, excellent promotional campaigns across different channels, and social media tags are only a few of the tactics you can implement to hook your target audience and expand your reach. You can make your company attractive to impulse buyers in a number of ways. We’ll review different strategies brands use to encourage unplanned purchases.

• Consider upselling. You can encourage your prospects and existing customers to make an unplanned purchase. During the checkout, recommend relevant products that might be useful. Apart from that, offer the “Frequently bought together” discounts for product bundles. This way, you’ll be able to upsell some additional items and evoke the fear of missing out.
• Implement time-limited offers. Time-limited discounts, special deals, gifts, rewards, and free delivery work like a charm on users who purchase online. You need to provide customers with a reason to buy right now and drive urgency. When a discount or special deal is bound by time, you can trigger the fear of missing out. This way, your prospects or loyal clients will definitely make a purchase.
• Create engaging email campaigns. Email marketing is an effective marketing channel that helps communicate your message to subscribers. To encourage consumers to make impulse purchases, make an attractive offer. Users often look for promo codes and special offers before making any purchases online, which is why you need to interest your target audience with a good discount. Send an email campaign to your subscribers, tell them about your sale, and mention a promo code that will reduce the price of their order. SendPulse’s bulk email service allows you to do it for free.
• Conduct a giveaway. A giveaway is a wonderful strategy for two brands that share similar audiences. With your giveaway partner, you’ll be able to encourage purchases not only from people who land on your site but also leads from the other brand’s following. By running a giveaway and providing special offers, you can expand your reach fast and get new customers as a result.
• Offer free delivery. According to statistics, 94% of people are more willing to buy if the delivery is free. One in four respondents expects online brands to have free delivery, so it’s a great way to increase impulse purchases online. You can provide free delivery if a customer spends a certain amount of money on their order. This way, people will gladly add more items to their carts to avoid paying an additional fee.
• Leverage social listening tools. With social listening tools and social media search, you can easily find potential customers whose needs aren’t met yet. Consider using social listening platforms like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or BuzzSumo to do it.
• Use social media tools. Word-of-mouth promotion works smoothly when we talk about impulse buys. Once people hear about discounts, limited-time offers, BOGO (Buy one, get one free), and specials from bloggers, they instantly look up the site and the products it offers. So, it’s also a great idea to use social media and its tools. You can ask an opinion leader to promote your sale and give the link to your company website. Consider influencer marketing to make sure that more people know about your brand and discounts and make more impulse purchases.

Now that you know these marketing techniques, it’s time to delve into the most popular impulse buys.

5 Most Popular Impulse Purchases

Since the logic of impulse purchases thrives on emotional decision-making and sensations, this is an effective way to sell huge quantities of products. Try our approaches to reach out to your target audience and hook them, expanding your sales volume. We’ve prepared the five most popular unplanned purchases people make — they will help you decide on the products you can promote.

Apparel

Clothes are at the top of our list of impulse buys — they constitute more than half of all impulse purchases. When people make unplanned visits to stores or search for specific items online, they can encounter discounts. What can be more tempting than a sweater with a 40% discount, a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt for free, or free delivery? Customers often can’t resist even when these products are not on their shopping lists.

Below you can see an example from Motel Rocks. Anyone who lands on the brand’s website would surely like to explore items with an 80% discount.

Food & Groceries

Food is essential for our living. Customers visit grocery stores every day and make many unplanned supermarket purchases, which makes food another top-selling impulse buy. The desire to buy increases when a hungry customer sees discounts and red price tags. They drive the urge to buy and satisfy customers’ needs in food or sensations.

Shoes

Even if customers already have shoes for all seasons, they won’t miss a chance to grab an additional pair of Nikes at a good price. That’s why shoes are among our five most popular impulse purchases. Sporty, elegant, comfy, and original shoes help people look better and are often expensive, motivating consumers to look out for discounts.

For example, Puma entices customers with Black Friday deals.

Beauty & Personal Care Products

Beauty products are also in high demand, which is why you can encounter personal care items in impulse shoppers’ carts. Customers might be attracted by products’ miraculous benefits, price, advertising, or beautiful packaging, making these purchases often.

Below you can see attractive offers and discounts from Sephora, a famous retailer of beauty products.

Home Decor

People buy posters, pillows, bedspreads, rugs, and beautiful dishes to make their homes feel comfortable. This eagerness pushes them towards impulse purchases during big sales like Black Friday, Christmas, Cyber Monday, Mother’s Day, etc. Customers can’t walk by a wonderful soap dish that matches their bathroom or a cup with a cute reindeer without buying it.

You can see amazing offers from H&M Home at affordable prices.

To sum it up, impulse buys can significantly increase your customer base and revenue. If you implement these tactics right, you’ll build an effective marketing strategy that sells, making your business thrive and grow. Hope our examples inspired you to develop your own impulse buying strategy.

References:

1. This article unveils six ways to increase impulse buys.
2. In this article, you’ll discover factors that affect impulse purchases.
3. This article provides readers with tactics that boost impulse buys.

Last Updated: 22.03.2023