Research Proposal

Impulsive Buying Behavior

Background:
The purpose of this research is to identify the variables related to impulsive buying, to find the
relationships of these variables and statistically test the derived hypotheses. Impulsive buying is
a phenomenon that is widely recognized in all over the world. It’s defined as “any purchase that
has been made without planned” or it can also be said as unplanned purchase. Many factors are
involved behind impulse buying which results in buying products without any plan.
Impulse buying affects the normal decision making power of consumers. There are four different
categories of impulse buying.1) Pure impulse buying.2) Reminder impulse buying.3) Suggestion
impulse buying.4) Planned impulse buying. Mostly incidents recorded of impulse buying are
related to the buying of snacks and confectionaries. People of almost every age group have the
impulsive buying behavior.
PROBLEM STATEMENT

What are the variables related to impulse buying and what will be the relationship among these
variables?
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this research is

 To find out the variables that are related to impulse buying
 To study the relationship among these variables
 To find out which product people mostly buy impulsively

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
4. RESEARCH DESIGN & METHODOLOGY

This research is mainly an exploratory research, because it is not known why consumers have an
impulsive buying behavior. As exploratory research is being conducted for a problem that is not
clearly defined. This research study is conducted in a natural setting, means it is done in the
natural environment where work proceeds normally and not in an artificial environment.

4.1. Respondents of the study

The main respondents of this research will be the consumers of age group of 18 above.

4.2 Sample size

The sample size of this research will be 100 through random sampling technique.

5. Research instruments
5.1 Questionnaires: Both open ended and close ended questionnaires will be conducted.
Questions will be based on likert scale as it may help us in analyzing and finding the results
Through open ended questions respondents are able to list their own choices;. The
questionnaires will be conducted by all the respondents of the study.
6. Sources of data

6.1 Secondary data: The Internet being a source of massive material, news, articles and other
sources would be utilized to gather the relevant and supporting material. Books and publications have
also accounted for secondary sources.

6.2 Primary data: Questionnaires have been accounted for gathering primary data.
Questionnaires will be filled from 100 consumers.
7. Data Analysis

The data will be analyzed through the answers given by the consumers in the questionnaire and
those answers will be narrated as it is.

8. Limitations:

 People were not very receptive or did not know how to respond to certain questions.
 As students, we had limited amount of resources to spend on this research.
 The findings cannot be extended to all the supermarkets in Karachi. Hence the findings are
only applicable to certain stores.
 Some other influencing factors such as in-store stimuli, consumer traits other than gender,
situational factors and normative traits of decision making have not been studied.