Impulse Purchasing Behaviors of the Turkish Consumers in Websites as a Dynamic Consumer Model: Technology Products Example

This paper examines the concept of imp ulse purchasing be havior online basically . The phe nomenon of impulse purchasing has been researched in consumer research as well as for example in psychology and economics since the 1950s. A detailed review and anal ysis of the literature asserts that there are some unsolved issues regarding the state of know ledge on impulse p urchasing be havior. F urthermore, n owadays con sumers bu y an in creasing amou nt of purchases on the Internet. The current conceptualizations of impulse pur chase be havior do not ade quately c apture impulse p urchase b ehavior ove r th e I nternet. Today s everal researchers have c laimed that the phe nomenon of impulse purchasing should be examined also in the context of online shopping environment. This article aims to reveal that what attitudes of the customers are the points in question w hile purchasing on internet in t erms of impulse buying. The results of ou r exp loratory research are con sistent with our conceptualization, an d p resent a s trong bas e for fu ture research.

Abstract-This paper examines the concept of imp ulse purchasing be havior online basically . The phe nomenon of impulse purchasing has been researched in consumer research as well as for example in psychology and economics since the 1950s. A detailed review and anal ysis of the literature asserts that there are some unsolved issues regarding the state of know ledge on impulse p urchasing be havior. F urthermore, n owadays con sumers bu y an in creasing amou nt of purchases on the Internet. The current conceptualizations of impulse pur chase be havior do not ade quately c apture impulse p urchase b ehavior ove r th e I nternet. Today s everal researchers have c laimed that the phe nomenon of impulse purchasing should be examined also in the context of online shopping environment. This article aims to reveal that what attitudes of the customers are the points in question w hile purchasing on internet in t erms of impulse buying. The results of ou r exp loratory res earch are con sistent with ou r conceptualization, an d p resent a s trong bas e for fu ture research.
Index Terms-Consumer Be havior, impulse buy ing, ecommerce.

I.
INTRODUCTION "Work to live, live to love, love to shop; thus you will see that... If you can do sufficient shopping, then you will be never obliged to work for love." These sentences are quoted from the card in a gift shop. The people spend most of their lives with consumption and consumptionrelated activities. The individual, as a consumer, is involved in the process of meeting his needs, compares the products, walks around the shops, collects information from the surrounding resources, watches the commercials, selects the most appropriate time for shopping, consumes what he purchases and then evaluates whether his needs are met or not following the consumption process. The consumer tries to be satisfied by means of experiencing his shopping with its personal and social interaction dimensions (Odabasi and Baris, 2003: 15). In this respect, shopping is one of the important facts in the life of modern people of the day.
In the modern societies, shopping and consumption are no longer activities directed at eliminating the physiological needs only, but they started to play important roles in shaping the human life and lifestyles and even taking new dimensions by their personalities (Brown, 1995: 12). Because of this reason, some researchers prefer to use some concepts relating to emotional, sensual and belief-related concepts such as "psychological treatment" and "worship" in defining the fact of shopping. In terms of the role undertaken, shopping provides the today's people with the benefits which are directing, palliative and beyond physiological (Verplanken and Herabadi, 2001: 71-83). In addition to the functional dimension of the consumption, it is set forth that the symbolic aspect also carries weight increasingly in the consumer behaviors writing. The hedonic consumption, conspicuous consumption and impulse shopping etc could be listed among the concepts which loom large in this respect. Various parties argue in details on this subject (Babin and Attaway, 2000; Owerby and Lee: 2006;Jones et.al, 2006;Paridon, 2004).
In addition to this, today's consumers are inclined to make their purchasing decisions with the direction of the non-rational other external or internal elements and situational factors, instead of the rational purchasing in which it is tried to be set forth in the traditional purchasing decision making models (Shiffman and Kanuk, 2000). Particularly taking into consideration that the works are shaped in the frame of the traditional model to a considerable extent until today in respect to the purchasing behaviors, it should be stated that the impulse purchasing subjects are relatively new studies. This study examines mainly the impulse purchasing behaviors as well. And it studies that on the purchasing preferences in internet. The purchasing preferences of the consumers are also mentioned with the technology products example in the study. In the light of aforesaid, the purpose of this study is to examine the decisions of the consumers who exhibit impulse shopping consumption behaviors in the purchasing process which started to reveal as the new dimensions of the consumption purchasing behaviors and got more and more importance in the course of time on the consumption behaviors. The study, in this manner, aims at making stipulations for the future researches and sectors.

II. IMPULSE PURCHASING BEHAVIOR
The impulse purchasing behavior could be defined as being impulse, sudden and mostly strong and insisting purchasing desire of the consumption and the will of purchasing something immediately. This behavior includes the tendency of "acting without thinking". This tendency is formed up automatically and poses an obstacle against seeing the behavior results clearly by the individual (Cobb and Hoyer, 1986;Piron, 1991;Rook, 1987). While, according to somebody, this behavior is considered as a primitive, simple and roughly designed impetus causing IMPULSE PURCHASING BEHAVIORS OF THE TURKISH CONSUMERS IN WEBSITES AS A DYNAMIC CONSUMER MODEL: TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS EXAMPLE the exhibition of this behavior for his desire of not stopping his own wills and devotion for his own comfort by the individual, some others express that definitely illogical behavior is not necessary for exhibiting such behaviors (Bayley and Nancarrow, 1998). Going to a store and purchasing gift are not considered as the impulse purchasing behavior for performing a planned duty. In the impulse purchasing behavior, the individual does not intend to purchase a product in any product category before entering the store (Beatty and Ferrel, 1998). In fact, the impulse purchasing behavior is a freedom movement which occurs in an unlimited situation. According to this, the consumer individual transfers the control to the fascinating products and the impulse behavior permits and stimulates the individual to be dependent on his desires according to the external restrictions. In this respect, the impulse purchasing behavior becomes a tool for not adhering to a life which is presented to the individual and predictable behaviors. There are two important factors in the impulse purchasing behavior. First of them is not planning in advance the purchasing behavior, that is to say performing the purchasing behavior without thinking in depth and evaluating its different reasons.
The other one is emotional responses. The emotional responses appear before the purchasing behavior, concurrently with the behavior or after the purchasing behavior (Verplanken and Herabadi, 2001). The most evident feelings which accompany the impulse purchasing behavior are pleasure and excitement, but before the occurrence of the feelings, the sudden impulse of purchasing occurs with the individual before exhibiting the behavior. The remorse appears just after the behavior in the impulse purchasing behavior which could be expressed also as a diminished form of the compulsory purchasing behavior. For example, such as the feeling of remorse this is felt after spending place for unnecessary reasons (Dittmar and Drury, 2000). It is determined in the researches performed that the hedonic feelings is the most powerful factor in the appearance of the purchasing behavior. The psychological condition, emotional impulses and desires of the individual influence the purchasing behaviors.
It is also possible to do shopping as a consequence of the irrational reasons such as in order to diminish a regretting situation, or to express one's personality or just for fun (Verplanken and Herabadi, 2001). It is difficult to evaluate the behavior according to the rational behavior model. In the rational behavior model, the behaviors occur mostly in the frame of the benefit-cost elements (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1980). In the impulse purchasing behavior, in addition to the logical elements (price and benefit), some emotional factors (entertainment, fear or pleasure) are also effective. There are various factors which are effective in the impulse purchasing. The low price, marginal need level for the product/brand, mass distribution, self-service, mass advertisement, recognized store name, short product life, small product dimension and storage easiness could be listed among them. The researches set forth that the consumers did not perceive some purchases incorrectly and they like such purchases made. In the study of Rook and Gardner (1987), it is determined that only 8% of the subjects feels bad because of their impulse purchasing behaviors, however a vast majority like 75% stated that they feel happy because of their impulse purchasing behaviors (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998).

III. ONLINE IMPULSE PURCHASING BEHAVIOR
It is clear that the most hopeful forecasts for the development of Internet retailing have not been met; an increasing amount of purchases is made nowadays online all over the world. It is an example that despite the recession in the US economy, online buyers spent USD 29 billion during the 2009 holiday season. Moreover, by the end of the second quarter of 2009, about 7% of US consumers bought goods or conducted financial transactions via cell phone. The number of Internet users in the US is forecasted to reach 205 million in 2010, accounting for 66% of the total population (USA B2C E-Commerce Report 2010, 2010). As more and more consumers shop today online, understanding consumer behavior in the online shopping environment becomes increasingly prominent for all retailers. Online consumer buying behavior is frequently thought as being rational with information, price comparisons, product diversity, attractive campaigns etc., thus expecting consumers to make logical and wellgrounded purchase decisions. On the other hand, we have to say that the consumer does not every time act so rationally even when buying online. A more hedonistic and experiential view on consumer behavior in the internet has appeared, which sees consumer online behavior as less aimed. It is claimed that one example of this experiential online buying behavior is impulse buying.
Nowadays relatively a few research has been conducted on impulse or other types of unplanned purchases online (see Lee, 2002 On the other hand, most of these researches investigate the features of Internet in general as a shopping environment rather than going into detailed features of a website. Our research also has indicated the influence of consumers' general tendency to buy impulsively on consumers' intentions to buy online especially. In addition to this, the study is performed by gathering empirical material (both qualitative and quantitative) on consumers' experiences on impulse buying on the Internet by the sample of technology.
IV. ONLINE IMPULSE PURCHASING BEHAVIOR IN CORPORATE LEARNING As we know that the business environment today is competitive and challenging. Firms are faced every day with increasing customer wants, and needs, for quality performance. And they need to deliver excellent quality in your products and services, flawless on-time delivery, ever-shorter delivery lead-time, unmatched pre and postsales service. Providing supreme enterprise performance requires an integrated systems approach. There are so many agents and technical elements for the firms to manage. But one of the most important is the 'competency' of firms' workforce. In this point, one question comes to mind: Is workforce competency and corporate performance a concern for the firms?
Corporate learning, in particular, is a distinct focus and integral part of our subject especially when we think of online impulse purchasing process. It can be said that online impulse purchasing process is beneficial in deliver- ing high quality, interactive, full-media, self-paced training that really delivers for especially corporate learning in the subject of sales and marketing. Thanks to online impulse buying, firms can specialize in technical process training. Its dynamic, social and participative orientation favors networking and aids the establishment of informal teaching-learning processes for the firms. This way of working and of learning can be channeled in organizations through online impulse purchasing process. It delivers highly interactive, media-rich off-theshelf and custom training that changes behavior about sales, marketing and attitudes in the workplace. This know-how is used to support strategic change, build key management skills, and for the development of new products and brand communications.

V. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
This study explored the concept of impulse purchasing in the context of Internet purchases by the sample of technology products. The main aim of this study is to analyze factors that, on the other hand, attitude towards impulse buying on the Internet. What features does Internet as a shopping environment have that encourage impulse purchasing? What feature does it have that discourage impulse buying? At this point, to discover what consumers associate with impulse purchases and to investigate what kinds of stimuli leads impulse purchases on the Internet are important to reveal. When we look at the limitation of this paper, we try to use the use of a convenience sample. It has to be stated that this study was exploratory and descriptive and thus not generalizable. Therefore, this discussion and findings are speculative and only try to make more evidence available in support of broadening the concept of impulse purchases.

A. Methodology
This study is based on data collected using a selfadministered screening questionnaire followed by an indepth questionnaire. The initial questionnaire consisted of an open-ended question that asked the respondents define impulse purchases in their own words and questions that asked respondents to describe impulse purchases they had made on the Internet. The open-ended question on defining impulse purchase was included to gain insights into consumer's understanding of an impulse purchase. The respondents were asked to describe purchases that they had made on the Internet and to respond to some questions regarding those purchases. The informants who had made purchases on-line formed a convenience sample of consumers who made an impulse purchase on the Internet according to their definitions; they then completed an indepth questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions aimed at exploring the characteristics associated with impulse purchases online and clarifying the unresolved issues with impulse purchases. Questions in the questionnaire, the compilation of the literature and relevant research in results developed by researchers studies conducted by Madhavaram  The majority of survey questions with a Likert scale, with five consumers participating in the phrase not to participate were given as measured. Sampling surveys prepared by the method can easily perform the selected pretest was conducted with 15 people. Pretest results and taking into account the corrections made to the final version of the questionnaire was given. About the survey field work in Eastern Anatolia with the availability of facilities was conducted in Southeastern Anatolia and Marmara regions. It is performed on 240 participants. The study is descriptive, for the problem at hand; these problems are related to state variables and considers the relationship between variables.

B. The Data Obtained by Research and Analysis of
Findings Participating in this part of the research survey of consumer demographic characteristics, scale, reliability analysis of the results, test, factor analysis, frequency analysis, correlation analysis and variance analysis was carried out. As a result of this research, research is presented in accordance with research question. The 240 can be used in research analysis was conducted via questionnaire.

C. Findings 1) Demographic Characteristics of Consumer in the Research Sample
Data concerning the ages of the participants are provided in the Table-1.     30 percent of the participants have income less than 1000 TL, 32.5 percent between 1000-2000 TL, 22.5 percent between 2001-3500 TL, 11.7 percent between 3501-5500 and 3.3 percent more than 5500 TL.

2) The Attitudes of Consumer towards Purchasing Preferences
The participant opinions concerning the importance of purchasing via internet are presented in the Table-5. According to the Table 5, 70.9 percent of the participants stated that the place of purchasing the branded product is not important and 13.4 percent stated that it is important. The reasons of doing shopping from the internet store are presented in the Table-6.  According to this, the most important reasons of doing shopping from the internet store by the participants are economical prices (58.3% and chance of fast access to a lot of stores (20%). The important point here is attaching importance at lower level on the environment, facilities, promotions, easy access, cleaning and product replacement elements by the participants. The participant opinions concerning the way of doing shopping via internet are given in the Table 7.   TABLE VII.  WAY OF SHOPPING FROM THE INTERNET STORES   n  %  According to the previously prepared list  26  10,8  According to the attraction of the shopping  environment  89  37,1   According to the budgets  70  29,2  Do shopping totally impulse  55  22,9  Total  240  100,0 37.1 percent of the participants do shopping according to the attraction of the shopping environment, 29.2 percent according to their budgets, 10.8 according to the previously prepared list and 22.9 do shopping totally impulse as they stated. The frequency of visiting the Internet store by the participants is presented in the Table-8. According to the Table -8, while 10.8 percent of the participants visits to an Internet store every day or for 2/3 times in a week, 37.1 percent visits once in 15 days and 30.8 percent visits once in a month, and 21.3% percent stated that they do not visit much. The approximate periods of staying in the Internet stores of the participants are presented in the Table-9. 25 percent of the participants stay in Internet store less than 1 hour, 52.9 percent between 1-3 hours, 12.1 percent between 4-6 hours and 2.1 percent more than above, and the time is not important for 7.9% of the participants. The visiting day preferences of Internet stores by the participants are given in the Table-10.  A vast majority of the participants (65.4%) stated that the store environment is important in their purchasing preferences while doing shopping in an internet store. The rate of those that think it is unimportant is 8.7%. The subjects which the participants give importance while purchasing the technological products are seen in the Table-12. When the items which are presented in the Table-12 are examined, the participants expressed opinions that the content characteristics of the website are not important (60.1%), product diversity (90.9%), attractive campaigns (70%), general design characteristics of the website (60.9%), opportunities of exhibiting different product alternatives (85.9), quality of the customer services (58.7%) and the quality of the after-sale services (85.4). The opinions of the participants concerning the influence of making feel special by an Internet website on preferring that place (special card application, discounts special for you) are presented in the Table-13.   TABLE XIII.  TO WHAT EXTENT IS MAKING FEEL SPECIAL BY AN  INTERNET WEBSITE IMPORTANT ON YOUR PREFERRING  THAT PLACE (SPECIAL CARD APPLICATION The opinions concerning the influence of making feel special by an Internet website on preferring that place are at indecisive level (66.7%). The opinions of the participants concerning whether to keep interested in the customer after shopping by an internet store (birthday celebration, campaign information, etc) is important on the second purchasing or not are given in the Table-14. According to the Table-14, a vast majority of the participants (68.7%) stated that to keep interested in them after shopping by an internet store (birthday celebration, campaign information, etc) is not important on their second purchasing. The changes which occur in the consumption habits after the Internet stores are seen in the Table-15.   TABLE XV.  CHANGES WHICH OCCUR IN THE CONSUMPTION HABITS  AFTER THE INTERNET STORES 60.4 percent of the participants stated that the quality started to become more important for them, 48.7 percent stated that they started to become more conscious while shopping, 51.2 percent stated that they realized that quality could be purchased cheap, 45.3 percent stated that their expectations increased, 48.8 percent stated that they make more regular budgets now, 39.6% percent stated that their shopping habits changed, 47.5 percent stated that they recognized the products which they did not see previously and they purchased a lot of products which were not in their plans and 50.9 percent state that their desire of shopping increased.
VI. DISCUSSION AND THE CONCLUSIONS Impulse buying is a type of shopping habit and an aspect of consumer behavior that involves unplanned shopping -purchasing something one didn't intend to buy initially. Impulse buying is a phenomenon that has received considerable attention from academic area and marketing researchers and has been interrogated widely especially in an offline environment. With the growth of the e-business practices, many research head towards to study impulse buying in an online setting. In this context, this study also paper suggests a theoretical model that asserts this behavior in an electronic commerce setting. A research study was administered to validate the research questions. The results of this study suggest that there are many conditions to enhance online impulse purchase behavior. Study shows that there are many good reasons to shop online. Participants think that shopping online can be a great time-saver and easy to use. Study also indicates that the most important reasons of doing shopping from the internet store by the participants are economical prices. Its proportion is 58.3%. Other important points here to use online environments for purchasing are facilities, promotions, easy access, cleaning.
Furthermore, study reveals that consumers offer online retailing makes it easier to make impulse purchases. The results in the study suggested that online impulse purchases are projected in alteration in determinations thanks to response to stimuli. Moreover, there are other spur that may influence consumers, which will then affect impulse purchasing. It is also stated that atmospheric cues are elements to influence impulse purchases. Mood and affect have to be stated that they may influence consumers' desire to purchase products and their follower desire to make online purchases impulsively. It can be also state that hedonic experiences which are related to impulse purchases online. Study shows that 37.1 percent of the participants do shopping according to the attraction of the shopping environment, 29.2 percent according to their budgets, 10.8 according to the previously prepared list and 22.9 do shopping totally impulse as they stated. We know that impulse buying is the stimulating of the moment, unplanned decision to buy, made just before a purchase. On the internet, in the paper it is stated that it's not quite so impulsive in the online environment. The factors like benchmark sites, virtual shopping cart, price and payment bring about to get consumer rethink the purchase for the several minutes. However, perceptions of quality and experience with the product are not as realistic online.
As a final comment that can be said, it can be said that the emersion of Internet makes it easier than ever before for consumers to buy impulsively. Researchers have to pay specific heed to the excessive role that Internet can play in facilitating easier for providing hedonic shopping environment and impulse environment. In addition to this, next research needs to strive more time and renewed efforts on broadening the concept of impulse purchases to accommodate impulse purchases on the online environment.