The urge to splurge: Differentiating unplanned and impulse purchases

Shoppers’ e-store navigation combined with their physiological responses have shown significant differences among planned, unplanned and impulse purchases in terms of shoppers’ emotional engagement and cognitive involvement in the decision-making process. Moreover, these three types of purchases can be distinguished by different shoppers’ path to purchase and in-store touchpoints used for the decision-making.

In order to achieve in-depth understanding of the nature of planned, unplanned and impulse purchases and underlying mechanisms of the purchase decision-making process, we leveraged neuromarketing research methodologies.

Research conclusions include:

• There exist differences in the level of shoppers’ cognitive involvement and emotional engagement in the purchase decision-making process that leads to planned, unplanned and impulse purchases.
• Attention and motivation play distinctive roles for unplanned and impulse purchases (which are linked with different stages of the purchase decision-making).
• Shoppers have different paths to purchase associated with planned, unplanned and impulse purchases.
• Shoppers use different touchpoints (triggers) on the site while making planned, unplanned and impulse purchases (e.g., product list is more important for unplanned purchases than for the impulse ones).
• Shoppers buy different product categories as unplanned and impulse purchases (related/not related with the shopping need state).
• Time and window-shopping have a different role in unplanned and impulse purchase decision-making process (e.g., impulse purchases take the longest).

The project provides valuable insights and business recommendations that can be applied by e-tailers, consumer brands and social media companies. Moreover, the project addresses an existing academic gap around the nature of planned, unplanned and impulse purchases.

Key learnings and business recommendations became the foundation for the industry thought leadership on community commerce and the importance of retail media (see WARC community commerce paper), which was recognized as a main media trend in 2023 and has been implemented by Reckitt Benckiser and L’Oreal in their e-commerce strategy.

Key takeaways:

1. How to inspire unplanned and impulse purchases on various digital platforms (both social media and e-commerce).
2. What are the benefits of considering different types of purchases for driving ROI behind media investments?
3. What are the latest shifts in shopper behavior in digital and e-commerce?