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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Consumer buying behaviour demands that retail stores satisfy both rational and irrational buying
motives of the market. Markets are replete with unplanned buying. In a competitive market
environment, only those retailers who exceed the expectations of their customers in terms of
providing an enjoyable shopping experience, which will drive them to make unplanned buying
can survive and become successful (Banerjee & Saha, 2012). This trend has made retailers to
have a wide range of several product lines in their store in order to respond to this customer
buying behaviour. This can be evidenced from modern shopping malls such as Shoprite, selling
different kind of products such as beverages, fruits, vegetables, fish, breads, food stuff, fabric,
household items, handset and electronics. Products are being displayed in such a manner that, it
spurs consumers to buy what they don‟t plan to purchase.
Impulse buying happens when a customer sees the product in a shop and the inner feelings
strongly urge the customer to purchase and bring it into possession (Akram, Hui, Khan &
Hashim, 2016). When buyers purchase a product or service without a plan, such instances of
purchase are known as impulse buying. Retailers are delighted when a shopper feels a sudden
impulse to buy a commodity while browsing at a Shopping Mall (Amos, Holmes & Keneson,
2013). Impulse buying contribute significant proportion to all purchases and that the purchases of
new products are characterized by impulse purchasing than from planned expenditure (Kacen,
Hess & Walker, 2012).
Both researchers and practitioners agreed that, impulse buying behaviour (IBB) is an antecedent
of so many variables such as store environment, situational factors and product related factors
(Tinne, 2010; Luniya & Verghese, 2015; Jamal & Lodhi, 2015), prominent among which include
demographic factors. Demography factors include personal characteristics such as occupation,
culture, race, family size, income level, education, location, ethnicity, marital status, gender and
age. They have been identified as one of the important factors that influence consumers IBB
(Bhuvaneswari & Krishnan, 2015).
Bashar, Ahmad and Wasi (2012) affirmed that demographic factors such as disposable income,
age, educational qualification and gender have a strong significant influence on impulsive buying
behaviour. Similarly, education exerts tremendous influence on impulse buying because higher
positions in the society (occupation) are determined by consumers‟ educational qualification,
which in turn affects their salary scale (income). This thereby boosts their ego to purchase
products, which could be planned or unplanned for as a result of the purchasing power of money
(Ekeng, Lifu & Asinya, 2012).
Tifferet and Herstein (2012) opined that gender influence consumers‟ impulse buying behaviour
as women have higher levels of impulse buying in comparison to men, and since impulse buying
operates through sensual cues, retailers can accentuate sensory cues in stores whose products
tend to appeal to women. Consumers‟ marital status is another demographic factor that may
likely influence impulse buying behaviour. While impulse buying phenomenon changes with the
marital status of the consumer. However, impulse buying differs significantly between single and
married shoppers/consumers, with the phenomenon more common among single shoppers
(Dittmar, Beattie & Friese, 1995).
According to Bashir, Zeeshan, Sabbar, Hussain and Sarki (2013), consumers, who were thought
to be rational are now considered to be driven by something other than rationality, most
especially when making their purchasing in modern shopping malls. Even though most impulse
decisions are made when consumers are inside Shopping Malls, the influence of consumers‟
characteristics on such decisions has not been adequately explored. Hence, this study seeks to
examine the influence of demographic factors (age, gender, marital status, educational
qualification, occupation and income level) on consumer impulse buying behaviour in Ilorin.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
About 80 percent of all purchasing decisions are made by the consumer at the point of purchase
(Heilman, Nakamoto & Rao, 2002; Kacen et al., 2012) which makes impulse purchases account
for a substantial volume of goods sold across a broad range of product categories (Weinberg &
Gottwald, 1982; Cobb & Hoyer, 1986; Rook & Fisher, 1995; Zhou & Wong, 2003). Yet, there
are many retail stores that have not explored this opportunity (Hughes, 2015). Business owners
and traders at some of the major markets in Ilorin, Kwara State capital have complained over
poor sales (Oladeinde, 2016). Larry (2016) opined that, it is important that businesses finds way
to drive impulse buying in order to increase their sales and maximize profit. He further stated
that whether people realize it or not, impulse buying represents a large percent of the profit for
retail stores.
Most of the studies conducted to measure the influence of demographic factors on impulse
buying behaviour were carried out in developed economies, such studies include the works of
Bashar et al. (2012); Awan and Abbas (2015); Khan et al. (2016). The socio-cultural differences
between developed and other developing countries limit the applicability of findings of these
studies to developing countries as recommended by Li and Liu (2014) that, differences in
economies is a significant gap in the literature. Therefore, there is need to replicate similar study
here in Nigeria to see if the result will be beneficial.
Although, few of these studies have been conducted in Nigeria (Ekeng, Lifu & Asinya, 2012;
Tom, 2015) on this phenomenon, the researchers did not consider all these demographic factors
(age, income, gender, education, occupation and marital status) as an integrative approach in
relation to Shopping Mall. On this basis, the study seeks to examine effect of demographic
factors on impulse buying behaviour in Ilorin. This very dimension in the context of Shopping
Mall has notably been neglected in developing countries like Nigeria and there is need to
conduct this study in order to fill the gap in the literature.
1.3 Research Questions
The study intends to answer the following specific research questions:
i. Does consumers‟ age affect impulse buying behaviour in Shoprite shopping Mall, Ilorin?
ii. Does consumers‟ gender affect impulse buying behaviour in Shoprite shopping Mall,
Ilorin?
iii. Does consumers‟ marital status affect impulse buying behaviour in Shoprite shopping
Mall, Ilorin?
iv. Does consumers‟ educational qualification affect impulse buying behaviour in Shoprite
shopping Mall, Ilorin?
v. Does consumers‟ occupation affect impulse buying behaviour in Shoprite shopping Mall,
Ilorin?
vi. Does consumers‟ income level affect impulse buying behaviour in Shoprite shopping
Mall, Ilorin?