Compulsive Buying occurs when a person indulges in excessive purchasing overcome by social pressures and negative emotions. The main objective in this study is to garner insights into this issue from a marketing perspective and also to understand whether the millennial’s preference to avoid social contact physically but to crave for it in a virtual space has an impact. Conducted over a seven-month period with data collected and analyzed from 202 respondents in Bangalore, the study revealed that emotions like loneliness, depression, low self-esteem and anxiety encourage the respondents to go ahead and maintain relationships in a virtual space rather than engage in face-to-face interactions. Furthermore, it was realized that the growing Internet Addiction can also be positively related to online Compulsive Buying. This study is of high significance as it allows marketers to reach out and capture that segment of elusive customers who are always online and are guaranteed to make a purchase. Therefore, allowing companies can align their marketing strategies accordingly develop products and services, resulting in better sales revenues and repeat purchases.

No abstract

Garnering insights into the relation between the general demographic variables such as age, gender, occupation status and psychological imbalances of anxiety, depression, self-esteem levels and loneliness and their subsequent influence on compulsive buying levels in an individual from the marketing perspective was the impetus and main motivation behind undertaking this study. Study was conducted over a 7-month period with a balanced homogeneous mix of randomly chosen respondents belonging to various occupations, ranging from an age band of 20 to 35 years. They were then administered a 5-Point Likert Scale questionnaire that incorporated demographic as well as psychological variables of loneliness, self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Responses were analyzed using frequency Analysis, principal component analysis, linear regression and cross tabulation to derive insights. The study revealed that along with loneliness, which was a major constituent, occupation type and marital status also significantly contributed in determining whether or not an individual would be compulsive in his or her purchase behavior. The study is significant as it discusses Compulsive Buying Behavior from a marketing perspective in a developing young economy such as India and discusses the implications of the findings as well.

Most online shoppers indicate that they visit e-retail websites on a social networking site. Previous research shows that visiting websites affect the consumer’s purchase intentions. This study identified various factors that affect consumer behaviour while shopping on social media. It further studied the services offered by social media and several factors that influence the consumer’s purchasing experience in social networking sites. Analysing 105 responses, the study revealed that factors such as price, services offered, advertising attitude, and shopping attitude have a significant impact on consumer behaviour.        

No abstract