The influencing factors of consumers’ impulse buying behavior on shopee’s online shopping platform: A study on university students in Vietnam
Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020
THE INFLUENCING FACTORS OF CONSUMERS’ IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOR
ON SHOPEE’S ONLINE SHOPPING PLATFORM: A STUDY ON UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS IN VIETNAM
Ngo Thanh Sang
Master Student, College of Business, Chinese Culture University, Taipei City, Taiwan
Faculty of Marketing, University of Economics – The University of Danang, Danang City, Vietnam
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
E-commerce has generated a substantial market in Vietnam, while the attention regarding impulse buying
behavior continues to shift from brick-and-mortar stores to online ones. As such, an increased probe into
evaluating the key factors leading to impulse buying in the online context is expected. However, little effort has
been made to assess these influencing factors specifically on Shopee's online shopping platform, a research gap
we aim to address and fulfill. In this study, we used a framework that measures four indices of online impulse
buying behavior: (1) Merchandise attractiveness, (2) Ease of use, (3) Enjoyment and (4) Website communication
style. The model was tested using survey data from 102 respondents. Our results showed that merchandise
attractiveness and website communication style are major driving forces behind impulse buying behavior on
Shopee, while ease of use and enjoyment showed no significant effects on it. Furthermore, the study should
enhance our understanding of online impulse buying on a particular online shopping platform, Shopee.
Keywords: Online impulse buying; Electronic commerce (E-commerce); Shopee; Merchandise
Attractiveness; Ease of Use; Enjoyment; Website Communication Style.
1. Introduction
With the proliferation of e-commerce, there is growing evidence that online impulse buying is
an emerging phenomenon, which has been the focus of researchers from a variety of disciplines (Wells
et al., 2011). A high proportion of 40% of online consumers considers themselves as impulse shoppers
(Verhagen & Van Dolen, 2011; Liu et al., 2013). Researchers have argued that the online shopping
environment is now more conducive to impulse-buying behavior than its offline counterpart, as the
online shopping environment frees consumers from the constraints (e.g., inconvenient store locations,
limited operating hours and social pressure from staff and other consumers) that they might experience
during physical shopping activities (Chan et al., 2016).
The e-commerce market in Vietnam has grown rapidly over the past few years. According to
data provided by CCI France Vietnam magazine in 2018, Vietnam is a land of opportunity for E-
commerce companies because of its young population, high Internet penetration rate (ranked 17th in
the world) and climbing smartphone penetration rates. The penetration of the Internet is projected to
increase steadily, with the percentage of Internet users set to reach 65% in 2022, offering great
potential for online shopping development.
Shopee, a Singaporean e-commerce platform, was first launched in 2015 in Singapore and has
since expanded internationally. Currently, Shopee is operating in many Southeast Asian countries
(such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam), as well as Taiwan and Brazil. It serves
users to buy and sell products online. Due to the mobile and social element built within the concept,
Shopee was described as one of the "5 disruptive e-commerce startups we saw in 2015" by Tech In
Asia (Wikipedia). We have seen across most of the other countries in Southeast Asia, Shopee
dominates Vietnam’s e-commerce landscape (Simon Kemp & Sarah Moey, 2019). SimilarWeb’s data
suggest that Shopee’s Vietnamese website attracted an average of 34 million visits per month between
June and August 2019.
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As Vietnam’s e-commerce market continues to develop, an increasing number of younger
shoppers prefer to shop online, especially on Shopee; therefore, this paper focuses on the study on
university students in Vietnam. This arrangement is backed by previous studies from Wells et al.
(2011), which suggests that the use of student samples is appropriate because young people are the
dominant group of online consumers. In particular, the study limits the definition of “university
students” to students who belong to Generations Y and Z in Vietnam. Generation Y refers to
individuals born between the 1980s to early 1990s, while Generation Z is classified as individuals born
in the mid-90s. Generation Y's massive purchasing power and unparalleled technical skills are crucial
to the success of online retailers (Ladhari et al., 2019). They are an ideal subject of this study as they
are always online and given the ample amount of time they dedicate to the Internet, they are more
prone to making online purchases. Likewise, Generation Z has already been estimated to become the
largest consumer in 2020; their direct spending is approximately $29–$143 billion (Lestari, 2019).
Verhagen & Van Dolen (2011, 320) stated that: “As an insight into consumer buying behavior
is vital for e-commerce practitioners, it is important to understand the nature of such online buying
behavior. Surprisingly, there has been little research into the influence of the online store on impulse
buying behavior.” The growing association of online shopping to impulse buying has underscored a
necessity in understanding impulse buying in the online context. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to
further enrich the impulse buying literature by placing a focus on one of Vietnam’s most widely-used
online shopping websites - Shopee. Determining the underlying factors that drive shoppers to commit
impulse buying behavior on Shopee may provide the company greater knowledge in how to attract
new customers and at the same time, leverage these advantages to retain existing customers.
2. Literature review
The conceptual model of the current study is based on the online impulse buying model of
Verhagen & Van Dolen (2011), which has been further simplified to accommodate smaller-magnitude
research. It is also supplemented with study by Wu et al. (2016). Furthermore, the theoretical structure
is derived from the Cognitive Emotion Theory (CET). According to this, observing a stimulus and the
consequent formation of evaluative perceptions causes emotions. Following the conceptualization of
impulse buying in the consumer behavior literature, browsing behavior, urge to buy and the overt
impulse buying behavior were included as facets of impulsive actions that are determined by emotions.
Specifically, the key constructs of this research are from media and communication, marketing
and information management.
2.1. Impulse buying behavior
An impulse purchase or impulse buying is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service,
made just before a purchase. It is a spontaneous, immediate purchase without pre-shopping intentions
either to buy a specific product category or to fulfill a specific buying task (Beatty & Ferrell, 1998).
Early research defined impulse buying as any unplanned purchase that was the result of a comparison of
alternative purchase intentions with actual outcomes; these studies focused on the comparison of the
actual shopping outcome with the intended shopping goal (Kollat and Willett, 1967). Some researchers,
emphasizing the effect of environmental cues, suggested that impulse buying is the result of exposure to
in-store stimuli (Applebaum, 1951). More recent studies have conceptualized impulse buying as a
process–outcome mechanism within the domain of an individual psychological approach that occurs
when a consumer experiences a sudden, often persistent urge to buy something immediately. Such an
impulse is hedonically complex and may stimulate emotional conflict (Rook, 1987).
Research on online impulse buying began in the last decade. According to a review by Chan et
al., (2016), they discovered that the number of studies of online impulse buying grew steadily in the
earlier years and increased exponentially with the emergence of e-commerce activities. More than two-
thirds of the studies (n = 25) were published in the period 2009–2014. In their review, they found three
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predominant disciplines such as management information systems (59%), marketing (21%) and
management (9%).
According to Floh & Madlberger (2013), impulse buying behavior is often triggered by a
specific stimulus during shopping. Different hypotheses from various researchers have been studied
upon; however, Verhagen & Van Dolen (2011) focused on the distinction between two beliefs,
particularly: (1) Functional convenience (Merchandise attractiveness; Site ease of use) and (2)
Representational delight (Enjoyment; Website communication style). Madhavaram & Laverie (2004)
have suggested that these website elements are likely to lead to impulsive buying behavior. The four
categories, namely: (1) Merchandise attractiveness, (2) Ease of use, (3) Enjoyment and (4) Website
communication style will be the framework that this study will be based upon.
2.2. Merchandise attractiveness
The definition for merchandise attractiveness includes (1) Value for money, (2) The variety and
intrigue brought about by-product discounts, such as free delivery, buy-one-get-one-free promotions,
(3) The capacity to cater and align products with consumer’s interests and (4) The amplitude and
appeal of merchandise assortment. Verhagen & Van Dolen (2011) argued that websites with products
that are in the consumers’ interests and have interesting offers are likely to create positive emotions.
Sales (e.g., clearance, markdowns), promotions (e.g., buy one get one free, gift certificate, cash
rebates), purchase ideas (e.g., one-stop shopping, new arrival products) and suggestions (e.g.,
bundling) are sales promotion stimuli that can induce buying impulses (Dawson & Kim, 2010). It has
been suggested that this influences emotional response. In the online context, the link between special
offerings and positive emotions (i.e., excitement) has been shown to occur in auctions. We, therefore,
argued that websites with products that are in the consumers’ interests and have interesting offers are
likely to create positive emotions. Therefore, we hypothesized that:
H1: Merchandise attractiveness has a positive impact on impulse buying behavior on
Shopee.
2.3. Ease of use
Website navigation, visual appeal and transaction safety are all atmospheric cues that can
directly influence the possibility that consumers will experience buying impulses (Wells et al., 2011).
Researchers emphasize that since products in online stores cannot be physically examined, a
particular importance falls on product organization. Ease-of use website interfaces, especially a well-
organized display of products, may reduce the cognitive load of consumers during use (Chen et al.,
2010; Parboteeah et al., 2009). Consumers often act impulsively when making online decisions, which
can be effortlessly triggered by easy access to products, such as easy purchasing (one-click ordering,
one-click purchase-again options, automatic monthly purchases and so on).
In online shopping, consumers require good web skills for finding out their real needs from
searching or navigating the websites and further, they can experience the challenges of shopping
activities especially in unfamiliar web stores (Teng, 2011). A particular study for online consumer
behavior reported that the level of web skills and challenges presented by an activity are the important
predictors of flow experience (Koufaris, 2002). As online consumers perceive their web skills to be
higher, they will be more likely to have positive enjoyment experience to the web store. Similarly,
positive challenges from online shopping experience can influence consumer responses with enjoyment
to that experience. Other studies have pointed out that the challenges and web skills are particularly
important for consumer’s flow experience in a mobile commerce context (Ho, 2012; Zhou, 2013).
The perceived ease experienced by online visitors in navigating the store is important. In an
empirical study by Ethier, Hadaya, Talbot, & Cadieux (2006), they found that a positive evaluation of
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usa
bility, including ease of use, had a positive impact on positive emotions. Accordingly, we propose
the hypothesis that:
H2: Ease of use has a positive impact on impulse buying behavior on Shopee.
2.4. Enjoyment
Online store enjoyment can be stimulated by music in the background and visual fun effects; it
can have a significant effect on positive emotions. Van Dolen et al. (2008) showed that a fun website
(e.g., one including comic strips, cartoons, etc.) may create positive affect. Also, they demonstrated
that fun aspects could offset negative effects. They also should pay attention to the enjoyment aspect of
their websites such as the animated banner advertising and real pictures of products that can lead
customers to an unplanned purchase decision. Thus, we hypothesized that:
H3: Enjoyment has a positive impact on impulse buying behavior on Shopee.
2.5. Website communication style
Website communication style is another important factor: It is the subjective perception of the
style in which the site communicates with and services its visitors. Sparks (2002) stated that website
communication style mirrors the ‘‘kindness’’ of the approach (Calm instead of assertive), its social
orientation (Friendly, building relationships) and demonstration of expertise and competence
(Knowledgeability). We argued that consumers’ evaluations are influenced through exposure to a
particular communication style due to a need for social presentation and cognitive consistency;
individuals use socially induced cognitive and affective strategies to match the style of those with
whom they interact. Applying the logic of social contagion to website-consumer interactions, it seemed
that consumers would respond in a similar way to the communication style of the website. Mccoll
Kennedy and Sparks (2003) indicated that a friendly and fair communication style leads to more
positive and less negative consumer evaluation. Thus, we argued that a calm, friendly and
knowledgeable style would trigger positive, affective based evaluations by customers with less
distress. Thus, we posit the following hypothesis:
H4: Website communication style has a positive impact on impulse buying behavior on
Shopee.
Figure 1 graphically summarizes the research hypotheses that were previously defined. The
direct relationships between four factors, namely: (1) Merchandise attractiveness, (2) Ease of use, (3)
Enjoyment, (4) Website communication and the impulse buying behavior on Shopee are represented in
this research framework.
Figure 1. Research Framework
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3. Methodology
3.1. Sample
The target population of this study is university students in Vietnam who had experience
shopping on the Shopee platform. Due to limited time, the expected number of samples is 100
respondents through convenience sampling.
3.2. Procedure
All factors in the research model (Include 4 independent factors: Merchandise Attractiveness
(MA) – 4 observed variables, Ease of Use (EU) – 4 observed variables, Enjoyment (EN) – 3 observed
variables, Website Communication Style (CS) – 3 observed variables and the dependent variable:
Impulse Buying (IP) – 4 observed variables) will be measured using a multivariate scale used from
previous studies (Verhagen & Van Dolen, 2011; Wu, 2016), with modifications to ensure consistency
with the social and contextual of university students in Vietnam.
The questionnaire will consist of three parts: A filter section to select impulse purchases on
Shopee, to eliminate planned purchasing decisions; the main information and consumer information is
finally located. The questionnaire is going to test with 5 students to check the semantics, the content of
the questions before sending them online to the respondents based on Google Forms. The 5-point
Likert scale from "1 = Strongly Disagree" to "5 = Strongly Agree" will be used for this study.
Data will be collected via Google Form and then will be imported to SPPS. 20 software to
analyze. Statistical methods will be used for the data analysis in this study are descriptive statistics,
frequency tests, and regression analysis.
4. Data analysis and results
4.1. Descriptive analysis
4.1.1. Characteristics of Respondents
The online survey yielded 103 responses. There is one missing questionnaire from the 103
questionnaires; thus 102 questionnaires are usable.
Table 1 shows its demographics, which indicated that the majority of the respondents are less
than 30 years old (n = 98, ~ 96%), with the number of female respondents, accounts for 53.90%. The
main education level of interviewees is a bachelor's degree (n = 68, 66.70%). Most of the respondents
consider themselves experienced in online shopping from 1 year to more than 5 years (n = 79, ~
77.50%), but more than half of the respondents (n = 52, ~ 51%) have less than 1-year shopping
experience on Shopee. The survey also shows that with the question “Have you ever bought a product
on Shopee that you did not plan to buy when visiting this website?” which related to impulse buying
behavior on Shopee, 63.70% of respondents (n = 65) say Yes and their comments on impulse buying
will be further analyzed in the next section.
Table 1. Sample Demographics (n = 102)
Category
Male
Frequency
Percent
Demographics
46
55
1
45.10%
53.90%
1.00%
Female
Gender
Other
< 20 years old
49
48.00%
48.00%
3.90%
21 - 30 years old 49
31 - 40 years old
Bachelor degree 68
Age
4
66.70%
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Master degree
PhD degree
Other
28
1
27.50%
1.00%
5
4.90%
< 1 year
1 - 3 years
3 - 5 years
> 5 years
< 1 year
1 - 3 years
3 - 5 years
Yes
23
40
19
20
52
37
13
65
37
22.50%
39.20%
18.60%
19.60%
51.00%
36.30%
12.70%
63.70%
36.30%
Online Shopping Experience
Shopping Experience on
Shopee
Impulse Buying on Shopee
No
* Impulse Buying on Shopee ~ Have you ever bought a product on Shopee that you did not plan to buy when
visiting this website?
4.1.2. Descriptive Analysis of Research Variables
Table 2. Describe the influencing factors of consumers’ impulse buying behavior on Shopee (n = 65)
Mean Std. Dev
Items
Merchandise Attractiveness (MA)
MA1 I feel that Shopee’s merchandise selection has good product value for money.
3.66
3.74
0.97
1.02
The website’s merchandise selection has a variety of attractive offers, such as discount,
MA2
free delivery, raffle…etc.
MA3 I can find many products that I am interested in.
MA4 There is an abundance of merchandise selection on the website.
Ease of Use (EU)
3.78
3.69
1.05
0.90
EU1 The Shopee website is easy to use for online shopping.
3.68
3.51
1.05
1.06
EU2 I find that my navigating interaction with this website is clear and understandable.
This website has an organized layout which makes it easy to find the products I am
looking for.
EU3
3.40
3.60
1.07
0.92
EU4 It is easy for me to learn and become skillful in using this website.
Enjoyment (EN)
Browsing Shopee website is fun to me with visual effects.
I feel great pleasure when browsing through this website.
I find this website is visually appealing.
3.66
3.74
3.65
0.94
0.91
0.94
EN1
EN2
EN3
Website Communication Style (CS)
When I browse the Shopee website, I feel in control of buying what I want.
3.43
3.69
3.65
1.06
1.01
1.04
CS1
CS2
CS3
This website tries their best to meet my needs and preferences.
This website is like a real expert in assessing and providing product information.
Impulse Buying (IP)
IP1 When shopping on the Shopee website, I often have the idea “buy now, think about it later”. 3.48
0.99
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When shopping on this website, I often buy things according to how I feel at the
moment.
IP2
IP3
3.57
1.03
Before visiting this website, I often do not have the intention to do this impulse
purchase.
3.40
3.45
1.09
0.90
IP4 I often could not resist doing impulse purchases on this website.
In this survey, we have utilized a 5-point Likert Scale. It is a response scale primarily used in
questionnaires to obtain participant’s preferences or degree of agreement with a statement or set of
statements (Bertram, 2016), with the level of agreement expressed as follows:
1
2
3
4
5
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
Then:
The distance value = (Maximum - Minimum) / n = (5-1) / 5 = 0.8
The meanings of the levels are as follows:
1.00 - 1.80: Strongly disagree
1.81 - 2.60: Disagree
2.61 - 3.40: No comments/ Neutral
3.41 - 4.20: Agree
4.21 - 5.00: Strongly agree
As can be seen from the table 2, we will describe in detail the influencing factors of Vietnam
university students’ impulse buying behavior on Shopee:
[1] For the Merchandise Attractiveness (MA) factor, there are 4 observed variables
(Verhagen & Van Dolen, 2011). The sample cases show a range from 3.66 to 3.78 on the 5-point
Likert scale. In particular, variables MA3 – “I can find many products that I am interested in.” and
MA2 – “The website’s merchandise selection has a variety of attractive offers, such as discount, free
delivery, raffle…etc.” are respectively the most rated by consumers among the variables with an
average score of 3.78 and 3.74 out of 5. Although the difference with the other two variables in this
factor is insignificant, but it can be seen that consumers are interested in the diversity of goods and the
variety of attractive offers, such as discount, free delivery, raffle…etc. on Shopee website, which can
lead to impulse buying behavior.
[2] For the Ease of Use (EU) factor, we also have 4 observed variables (Verhagen & Van
Dolen, 2011). The sample cases show a range from 3.40 to 3.68 on the 5-point Likert scale. In this
factor, consumers appreciate the ease of use of the Shopee website for online shopping (Variable
EU1), with the highest average score is 3.68 out of 5. On the contrary, the variable EU3 – “This
website has an organized layout which makes it easy to find the products I am looking for.” is rated
lowest. This proves that how goods are arranged (merchandise layout) still makes consumers not easy
to find products that they want.
[3] For the Enjoyment (EN) factor, 3 observed variables are used to evaluate and measure this
factor (Verhagen & Van Dolen, 2011 & Wu, 2016). The sample cases show a range from 3.65 to 3.74
in the 5-point Likert scale. And variable EN2 – “I feel great pleasure when browsing through this
website.” gets the highest average points from consumers (3.74 out of 5). This is a good signal for
Shopee company but they still need more efforts to improve the level of customer satisfaction when
shopping on Shopee
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[4] For the Website Communication Style (CS) factor, 3 observed variables were generated to
measure this factor by Wu, 2016. The sample cases show a range from 3.43 to 3.69 in the 5-point
Likert scale. The highest average point belongs to the item CS2 – “This website tries their best to meet
my needs and preferences.” (3.69 out of 5.0). That means customers’ experience on the Shopee
website is receiving positive feedback.
[5] For the Impulse Buying (IP) factor, there are 4 observed variables (Verhagen & Van
Dolen, 2011 & Wu, 2016). The sample cases show a range from 3.40 to 3.57 in the 5-point Likert
scale. The observed variable IP2 – “When shopping on this website, I often buy things according to
how I feel at the moment.” get the highest agreement from customers (3.57 out of 5.0). This shows that
emotions are important for impulse buying behavior.
4.2. Regression analysis and testing of research hypotheses
4.2.1. Correlation Analysis Results
This research used Karl Pearson’s correlation analysis for testing the degree of the correlation
between each two variables, not the relationship between each two variables.
The R values are from -0.3 to 0.3 means low correlated, between 0.3 and 0.6 or -0.6 and -0.3
means medium correlated, and between 0.6 and 0.9 or -0.9 and -0.6 means highly correlated.
Table 3 shows the results of Pearson’s correlation analysis.
Table 3. Pearson’s correlation analysis (n = 65)
Correlations
MA
1
.795**
.855**
.762**
.660**
EU
-
EN
CS
IP
-
MA
EU
EN
CS
IP
-
-
-
-
1
-
.716**
.668**
.565**
1
-
-
-
.780**
.658**
1
.812**
1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Note: MA is Merchandise Attractiveness, EU is Ease of Use, EN is Enjoyment, CS is Website
Communication Style, IP is Impulse Buying
Pearson’s correlation analysis shows the factors in the research model are correlated with each
other. This is the basis for regression analysis in the next steps.
4.2.2. Model Summary
Table 4. Model Summary
Model
R
R Square Adjusted R Square
.814a
.663 .640
Std. Error of the Estimate
.48816
Durbin-Watson
1.893
1
a. Predictors: (Constant), CS, EU, EN, MA
b. Dependent Variable: IP
From Table 4, we obtain the values of the coefficient of determination (denoted by R2) and
The Adjusted Coefficient of Determination (denoted by Adjusted R2) of the research model. We have
the coefficient of determination R2 = 0.663, this means 4 independent variables CS, EU, EN, MA
explained 66.30% of dependent variable IP. Therefore, 1 – R2 = 0.337 (33.70%) of dependent variable
IP is explained by factors not included in this model and this is also considered as one of the
limitations of the study.
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4.2.3. ANOVA analysis
Table 5. ANOVA analysis
Sum of Squares df Mean Square
Model
F
Sig.
.000b
Regression
Residual
Total
28.093
14.298
42.390
4
60
64
7.023
.238
29.472
a. Dependent Variable: IP
b. Predictors: (Constant), CS, EU, EN, MA
This table provides us value of F test = 29.472 and significance level = 0.000 < 0.05, so we can
confirm the existence of the relationship between independent variables (CS, EU, EN, MA) and
dependent variable (IP) on overall.
4.2.4. Hypotheses testing
Table 6. Estimated parameters for variables in the research model
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
t
Sig. Collinearity Statistics
B
Std. Error
Beta
Tolerance
VIF
(Constant)
MA
.830
.102
.281
.158
.111
.149
.110
2.950
.642
.005
.003
.909
.983
.000
.110
-.014
-.003
.740
.192
.358
.229
.352
5.200
EU
-.013
-.003
.647
-.115
-.021
5.858
2.794
4.372
2.840
1
EN
CS
a. Dependent Variable: IP
Table 6 illustrates the value of Bj (Unstandardized Coefficients), significance level (Sig.), the
variance inflation factor (VIF). We can see all the VIF coefficients <10, so there is no autocorrelation
between variables.
The regression output above shows that the MA and CS predictor variables are statistically
significant because their p-values less than 0.05. On the other hand, for EU & EN factor, the significance
level (Sig.) of these factors is 0.909 and 0.983 respectively > 0.05 which means there is an insignificant
difference relationship between 2 independent variables (EU, EN) and dependent variable (IP). Thus,
Hypothesis 2 (H2) and Hypothesis 3 (H3) are not supported (B = - 0.12 & - 0.003, Sig. > 0.05).
Therefore, the specific model is estimated as follows:
IP = 0.830 + 0.102*MA + 0.647*CS
Meaning of Regression Coefficient:
The coefficient value signifies how much the mean of the dependent variable changes given a
one-unit shift in the independent variable while holding other variables in the model constant.
With B1 = 0.102, the value of the dependent variable (IP) will increase 0.102 for every one unit
change in the independent variable MA. This means it has a positive impact on Impulse Buying on
Shopee. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 (H1) is thus supported.
In the same way, with B2 = 0.647, the value of the dependent variable (IP) will increase 0.647
for every one unit change in the independent variable CS. Website Communication Style (CS) is
indicated as an important influencing factor on Impulse Buying Behavior of Vietnam University
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Students on Shopee. It is positively related to Impulse Buying on Shopee. Therefore, Hypothesis 4
(H4) is accepted.
Overall, Hypothesis 1 (H1): “Merchandise Attractiveness has a positive impact on Impulse
Buying on Shopee.” and Hypothesis 4 (H4): “Website Communication Style has a positive impact on
Impulse Buying on Shopee.” are accepted. In contrast, Hypothesis 2 (H2): “Ease of Use has a positive
impact on Impulse Buying on Shopee.” and Hypothesis 3 (H3): “Enjoyment has a positive impact on
Impulse Buying on Shopee.” are not supported.
5. Conclusion and Recommendation
Our study provides three important results: (1) Synthesize the theories related to online impulse
buying behavior from the previous research papers, (2) Identify the indicators which drive consumers,
especially are Vietnam University Students to purchase impulsively on the online shopping platform -
Shopee, (3) Give some suggestions from our tests for Shopee company to improve their online
businesses as well as enhance the marketing strategy to lure consumers’ attention on specific products
or services, trigger to impulse buying occurs to increase revenue for company and maintain their
competitiveness in the market.
First, we reviewed the articles regarding online impulse buying behavior. The vast majority of
previous studies focused on e-commerce as well as online impulse buying in general, however, these
studies were similar lack of considering in a specific online shopping platform. Therefore, based on the
available theories (Verhagen & Van Dolen, 2011; Wu, 2016...), we have synthesized and generated an
adjusted research model and applied it to study influencing factors on impulse buying behavior of
university students on Shopee platform in Vietnam. Thus, this finding can enrich the existing theories
and can use it as a reference to study for other online shopping platforms like Tiki, Lazada, Sendo... in
the future.
Second, a high proportion of 40% of online consumers considers themselves impulse shoppers
(Verhagen & Van Dolen, 2011; Liu et al., 2013). Many online vendors have been attempting to
understand online impulse buying for providing greater opportunities to attract and retain customers.
Accordingly, the above discussions lead us to promote a complete model with four factors for the key
drivers on Impulse Buying (IP) of Vietnam University Students on Shopee: Merchandise
Attractiveness (MA), Ease of Use (EU), Enjoyment (EN), Website Communication Style (CS) with 18
observed variables (18 items). Through descriptive analysis of the level of agreement of consumers to
research variables, we gained some knowledge of impulse buying as we mentioned above, such as
Consumers are interested in the diversity of goods (MA3) and the variety of attractive offers, such as
discount, free delivery, raffle…etc. (MA2) on the Shopee website, which can lead to impulse buying
behavior; or the consumers appreciate that the Shopee website tries their best to meet my needs and
preferences. More important, consumers expressed their highest agreement for the statement: “When
shopping on this website, I often buy things according to how I feel at the moment.” (IP2). This shows
that emotions are crucial to impulse buying behavior. On the other hand, some observed variables, e.g,
This website has an organized layout which makes it easy to find the products I am looking for. (EU3),
this proves that how goods are introduced (merchandise layout) on the Shopee website still makes
consumers not easy to find products that they want. Shopee company should re-evaluate this situation
and improve it next time.
Third, our research showed what the decisive factors might trigger impulse buying by Vietnam
university students on Shopee. After regression analysis and testing hypotheses, the results provided
support for our assumptions. For the Functional Convenience beliefs, Merchandise Attractiveness
(MA) loaded significantly on Impulse Buying (Bj = 0.102). Surprisingly, Ease of Use (EU) factor has
no significant effect on Impulse Buying (IP). From this perspective, Ease of Use seems to function as a
basic factor and not as a motivator in forming impulse buying behavior. Concerning Representational
Delight factors, Website Communication Style (CS) has a highly positive impact on Impulse Buying
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Kỷ yếu Hội thảo quốc tế “Thương mại và phân phối” lần 2 năm 2020
on Shopee (Bj = 0.647). But Enjoyment (EN) factor has an insignificant impact on Impulse Buying on
Shopee. In an online context, consumers thus believe that e-vendors like Shopee platform should be
able to help fulfill their needs in the exchange (Wu & Tsang, 2008) by trying their best to meet
consumers' needs and preferences (CS2), help consumers feel in control in buying what they want
(CS1) as well as Shopee website performs like a real expert in assessing and providing product
information (CS3). Accordingly, Website Communication Style (CS) is considered as the important
influencing factor, the major indicator trigger impulse buying on Shopee.
From a managerial perspective, our research has several implications. We show that the
Merchandise Attractiveness (MA) and the Website Communication Style (CS) are important to
Impulsive Buying (IP) settings. So to stimulate impulsive buying, first, Shopee should improve the way
the website communicates with its shoppers according to a calm, friendly, knowledgeable way with an
attractive assortment; providing pleasure when customers browse through it. The second is to enhance a
flexible and traceable navigational structure for browsing the Shopee website in an association with a
highly effective search engine for creating an atmosphere of the challenges in impulse shopping
activities. The third is related to the content of the Shopee website in terms of providing rich product
information and a variety of product categories, creating attractive offers, such as discount, free delivery,
raffle... for consumers to feel useful in an attempt to promote online impulse buying.
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