Role of Visual Merchandizing, Sensational Seeking, and Collectivism in Consumers’ Impulsive Buying Behavior at Shopping Malls

Consumers’ trend of shopping at malls and retail outlets has increased in the last five years. Since, the bulk of the sales in these outlets were based on impulsive buying; hence, aim of this study was to measure the effect of visual merchandising, sensational seeking, and collectivism on impulsive buying behavior. Visual Merchandising Scale (Kim, 2003; Faber, 2000), Sensation Seeking Scale (Kacen & Lee, 2002), Collectivism Scale (Kacen & Lee, 2002), and Impulsive Buying Scale (Kim, 2003; Faber, 2000) were administered on sample. Mall intercept method was used for data collection from a convenient sample (N = 300) and data was analyzed with multiple step procedure inclusive of validity analyses and confirmatory factor analysis for all the constructs and model through structural equation modeling. Results revealed that a strong and positive relationship existed between sensational seeking and impulsive buying. On the other hand, visual merchandising and collectivism had nonsignificant relationship with impulsive buying. Inference of the present study indicated that retailing outlets in Pakistan had been in initial stages of development and the visual merchandising strategies used in local stares had not been adequate enough to make an impact on consumers. The major contribution of this study was the exploration of relationships of collectivism and sensational seeking with impulsive buying which was relatively newer arena of consumer behavior in Pakistan.