research articles on purchase

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Factors Affecting Impulse Buying Behavior of Consumers

In recent years, the study of consumer behavior has been marked by significant changes, mainly in decision-making process and consequently in the influences of purchase intention (Stankevich, 2017 ).

The markets are different and characterized by an increased competition, as well a constant innovation in products and services available and a greater number of companies in the same market. In this scenario it is essential to know the consumer well (Varadarajan, 2020 ). It is through the analysis of the factors that have a direct impact on consumer behavior that it is possible to innovate and meet their expectations. This research is essential for marketers to be able to improve their campaigns and reach the target audience more effectively (Ding et al., 2020 ).

Consumer behavior refers to the activities directly involved in obtaining products /services, so it includes the decision-making processes that precede and succeed these actions. Thus, it appears that the advertising message can cause a certain psychological influence that motivates individuals to desire and, consequently, buy a certain product/service (Wertenbroch et al., 2020 ).

Studies developed by Meena ( 2018 ) show that from a young age one begins to have a preference for one product/service over another, as we are confronted with various commercial stimuli that shape our choices. The sales promotion has become one of the most powerful tools to change the perception of buyers and has a significant impact on their purchase decision (Khan et al., 2019 ). Advertising has a great capacity to influence and persuade, and even the most innocuous, can cause changes in behavior that affect the consumer's purchase intention. Falebita et al. ( 2020 ) consider this influence predominantly positive, as shown by about 84.0% of the total number of articles reviewed in the study developed by these authors.

Kumar et al. ( 2020 ) add that psychological factors have a strong implication in the purchase decision, as we easily find people who, after having purchased a product/ service, wonder about the reason why they did it. It is essential to understand the mental triggers behind the purchase decision process, which is why consumer psychology is related to marketing strategies (Ding et al., 2020 ). It is not uncommon for the two areas to use the same models to explain consumer behavior and the reasons that trigger impulse purchases. Consumers are attracted by advertising and the messages it conveys, which is reflected in their behavior and purchase intentions (Varadarajan, 2020 ).

Impulse buying has been studied from several perspectives, namely: (i) rational processes; (ii) emotional resources; (iii) the cognitive currents arising from the theory of social judgment; (iv) persuasive communication; (v) and the effects of advertising on consumer behavior (Malter et al., 2020 ).

The causes of impulsive behavior are triggered by an irresistible force to buy and an inability to evaluate its consequences. Despite being aware of the negative effects of buying, there is an enormous desire to immediately satisfy your most pressing needs (Meena, 2018 ).

The importance of impulse buying in consumer behavior has been studied since the 1940's, since it represents between 40.0 and 80.0% of all purchases. This type of purchase obeys non-rational reasons that are characterized by the sudden appearance and the (in) satisfaction between the act of buying and the results obtained (Reisch and Zhao, 2017 ). Aragoncillo and Orús ( 2018 ) also refer that a considerable percentage of sales comes from purchases that are not planned and do not correspond to the intended products before entering the store.

According to Burton et al. ( 2018 ), impulse purchases occur when there is a sudden and strong emotional desire, which arises from a reactive behavior that is characterized by low cognitive control. This tendency to buy spontaneously and without reflection can be explained by the immediate gratification it provides to the buyer (Pradhan et al., 2018 ).

Impulsive shopping in addition to having an emotional content can be triggered by several factors, including: the store environment, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and the emotional state of the consumer at that time (Gogoi and Shillong, 2020 ). We believe that impulse purchases can be stimulated by an unexpected need, by a visual stimulus, a promotional campaign and/or by the decrease of the cognitive capacity to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of that purchase.

The buying experience increasingly depends on the interaction between the person and the point of sale environment, but it is not just the atmosphere that stimulates the impulsive behavior of the consumer. The sensory and psychological factors associated with the type of products, the knowledge about them and brand loyalty, often end up overlapping the importance attributed to the physical environment (Platania et al., 2016 ).

The impulse buying causes an emotional lack of control generated by the conflict between the immediate reward and the negative consequences that the purchase can originate, which can trigger compulsive behaviors that can become chronic and pathological (Pandya and Pandya, 2020 ).

Sohn and Ko ( 2021 ), argue that although all impulse purchases can be considered as unplanned, not all unplanned purchases can be considered impulsive. Unplanned purchases can occur, simply because the consumer needs to purchase a product, but for whatever reason has not been placed on the shopping list in advance. This suggests that unplanned purchases are not necessarily accompanied by the urgent desire that generally characterizes impulse purchases.

The impulse purchases arise from sensory experiences (e.g., store atmosphere, product layout), so purchases made in physical stores tend to be more impulsive than purchases made online. This type of shopping results from the stimulation of the five senses and the internet does not have this capacity, so that online shopping can be less encouraging of impulse purchases than shopping in physical stores (Moreira et al., 2017 ).

Researches developed by Aragoncillo and Orús ( 2018 ) reveal that 40.0% of consumers spend more money than planned, in physical stores compared to 25.0% in online purchases. This situation can be explained by the fact that consumers must wait for the product to be delivered when they buy online and this time interval may make impulse purchases unfeasible.

Following the logic of Platania et al. ( 2017 ) we consider that impulse buying takes socially accepted behavior to the extreme, which makes it difficult to distinguish between normal consumption and pathological consumption. As such, we believe that compulsive buying behavior does not depend only on a single variable, but rather on a combination of sociodemographic, emotional, sensory, genetic, psychological, social, and cultural factors. Personality traits also have an important role in impulse buying. Impulsive buyers have low levels of self-esteem, high levels of anxiety, depression and negative mood and a strong tendency to develop obsessive-compulsive disorders. However, it appears that the degree of uncertainty derived from the pandemic that hit the world and the consequent economic crisis, seems to have changed people's behavior toward a more planned and informed consumption (Sheth, 2020 ).

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Research on the purchase intention of social commerce consumers in video streams: dual pathways of affection and rationality.

1. Introduction

2. literature review and theoretical background, 2.1. social commerce, 2.2. field theory, 3. hypotheses development, 3.1. atmosphere characteristics and similarity, 3.2. social capital and power, 3.3. similarity and purchase intention, 3.4. power and purchase intention, 3.5. research model, 4. methodology, 4.1. research design, 4.2. participants and data collection.

• Prohibition of repeated participation;
• Restriction of credit scores to ensure only eligible individuals could participate;
• Integration of validation questions to eliminate careless or irrelevant responses;
• Establishment of human–computer verification mechanisms to deter automatic generation or other forms of computer-generated responses;
• Request for participants to complete all items within the questionnaire.
• Failure to pass the validation question;
• Answer time less than 360 s or more than 900 s;
• More than 80% of the questions were assigned an identical value.

5. Data Analysis

5.1. validation of the measuring scales, 5.2. hypothesis test, 5.3. mediating effect test, 6. discussion, 7. conclusions, 8. implications, 8.1. theoretical implications, 8.2. practical implications, 9. limitations and future lines, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

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Deng, M.; Yang, Y.; Sun, B. Research on the Purchase Intention of Social Commerce Consumers in Video Streams: Dual Pathways of Affection and Rationality. Behav. Sci. 2024 , 14 , 738. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14090738

Deng M, Yang Y, Sun B. Research on the Purchase Intention of Social Commerce Consumers in Video Streams: Dual Pathways of Affection and Rationality. Behavioral Sciences . 2024; 14(9):738. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14090738

Deng, Minwei, Yitong Yang, and Baiqing Sun. 2024. "Research on the Purchase Intention of Social Commerce Consumers in Video Streams: Dual Pathways of Affection and Rationality" Behavioral Sciences 14, no. 9: 738. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14090738

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

The impact of consumer purchase behavior changes on the business model design of consumer services companies over the course of covid-19.

• 1 School of Business and Administration, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China
• 2 School of Statistics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound psychological and behavioral impact on people around the world. Consumer purchase behaviors have thus changed greatly, and consumer services companies need to adjust their business models to adapt to this change. From the perspective of consumer psychology, this paper explores the impact of consumer purchase behavior changes over the course of the pandemic on the business model design of consumer services companies using a representative survey of 1,742 individuals. Our results show that changes in consumer purchase behavior have a significant impact on the design of consumer services firms’ business models. Specifically, changes in consumers’ purchase object, motive, and timeframe are more likely to spark a novelty-centered business model design, whereas changes in purchase method tend to inspire an efficiency-centered one. Our findings provide a theoretical reference for consumer services companies in designing business models when faced with unexpected crises.

Introduction

The COVID-19 outbreak has abruptly disrupted the global political and economic order ( Fernandes, 2020 ), significantly impacting consumer services sectors such as retailing, hospitality, and tourism ( Pantano et al., 2020 ). The pandemic has resulted in unprecedentedly large-scale lockdowns across the world ( Kuckertz et al., 2020 ), severely restricting people’s daily activities. As a result, more consumer services companies are experimenting with new technologies and platforms in order to meet the changing consumer demands, leading to new consumption patterns. To cope with the restrictions, some consumer services companies have developed alternative business models, such as “contactless delivery” and “social cinema.”

The government’s strict restriction on population movement has led to seismic shifts in people’s livelihoods and daily lives. More people are suffering from depression and loneliness, and some have resorted to alcohol, drugs, or even self-harm for relief ( Alsukah et al., 2020 ). These unhealthy emotions and behaviors have caused quite shifts in individuals’ consumption psychology: people in a dire circumstance may develop a “nothing to lose” mentality and become more prone to risk-taking, resulting in more impulse purchases ( Hill et al., 1997 ; Harris et al., 2002 ); they might also develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and future anxiety, resulting in fewer purchases to increase savings ( Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991 ; Kılıç and Ulusoy, 2003 ; Kun et al., 2013 ). During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer psychology and purchase behavior have fundamentally changed.

Purchase behavior is a special and specific behavior that directly reflects people’s needs, desires, pursuit of material and spiritual interests ( Braithwaite and Scott, 1990 ). Factors that affect changes in purchase behavior include social factors, cultural factors, demographic factors, and situational factors ( Cici and Bilginer Özsaatcı, 2021 ). Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic as a social factor is also affecting different changes in purchase behavior. Scholars generally believe that a large number of consumers showed panic buying behavior or impulsive buying behavior in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Aljanabi, 2021 ; Stuart et al., 2021 ), and even accompanied by compulsive buying behavior ( Samet and Gözde, 2021 ). While purchase behavior in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic is characterized by mobility ( Gao et al., 2020 ; Zhang et al., 2020 ; Lu et al., 2021 ). The application of digital technology has created favorable conditions for consumers to participate in online shopping, and consumers’ online purchase activities have increased significantly ( Jiang and Nikolaos, 2021 ). However, the changes in purchase behavior in the above literature focus on changes in a single dimension, and do not systematically sort out the changes in consumer purchase behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, according to the basic theory of marketing, this study systematically sorts out the multiple dimensions of changes in consumer purchase behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic, and improves the items of the purchase behavior changes in each dimension, so as to provide supplements for the theory of consumer behavior.

Countries around the world have adopted special measures such as regional blockades in the process of fighting the epidemic. These measures are a shock to traditional business models and require corresponding changes to traditional business models. However, there are currently different perspectives on the impact of purchase behavior on corporate marketing models, including traditional brick-and-mortar store purchase models, green marketing models, B2B transaction models, and online marketing models ( Beuckels and Hudders, 2016 ; Nguyen et al., 2016 ; Sundström et al., 2019 ; Wei and Ho, 2019 ). However, there is little literature analyzing the impact of purchase behavior on firms’ business models from the perspective of sudden crisis events. Besides, there are many external factors affecting business model design, such as technological change ( Øiestad and Bugge, 2014 ), contextual factors ( Zott and Amit, 2013 ; Ghezzi et al., 2015 ), local market opportunities ( Sinkovics et al., 2014 ), and third-party partnerships in the customer value proposition development ( Velu, 2015 ). Among the above-mentioned external factors affecting business model innovation, less research is based on the impact of residents’ behavior. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the impact of changes in consumer purchase behavior on business model design in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

To answer these questions, this paper examines consumers’ psychological changes over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic based on the theory of environmental psychology, affective psychology, and consumer psychology. The stimulus-organism- response (S-O-R) model ( Mehrabian and Russell, 1974 ) is used to explain how the pandemic triggered people’s psychological alteration, which in turn sparked changes in their purchase behavior. Then, we conduct a representative survey of 1742 individuals to explore the impact of customer purchase behavior changes on the business model design of consumer services companies using the expectation confirmation theoretical model ( Oliver, 1980 ). The remainder of this article is structured as follows: Section 2 is devoted to conceptual basis and research assumptions; Section 3 presents the research design; Section 4 is the empirical analysis; Section 5 concludes the paper.

Conceptual Basis and Research Assumptions

Consumer purchase behavior changes during the covid-19 pandemic.

According to disaster psychology, different psychological changes of residents caused by different periods of emergencies make purchasing behaviors show distinctive characteristics, such as panic buying behaviors, impulse buying behaviors, compulsive buying behaviors and online buying behaviors. In the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, although only the individuals who experienced the event will be directly affected, the negative emotions caused will be transmitted to the entire society through social networks. The public is prone to irrational emotions, including anxiety and depression ( Clauw et al., 2003 ; Klitzman and Freudenberg, 2003 ). Public anxiety, especially in the face of a large-scale pandemic, can easily lead to the spread of negative emotions ( Hull et al., 2003 ). In addition, consumers’ perception of uncertainty, scarcity, and severity and other psychological factors will increase, causing customers to panic buying behavior ( Omar et al., 2021 ). The specific performance is to stock up on some necessities and reduce the purchase of non-essential items ( Roşu et al., 2021 ). The fear of out-of-stocks and supply chain disruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic will also increase consumers’ impulse buying behavior. The worse consumers perceive the COVID-19 outbreak, the stronger their inner fears, and the more likely they will lead to their impulsive purchases of health products. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the perceived pressure of consumers, and some consumers are accompanied by compulsive purchasing behavior. By increasing their buying behaviors, they can relieve their inner anxiety and tension ( Samet and Gözde, 2021 ). Besides, online purchasing behaviors have become increasingly popular with consumers after the COVID-19 outbreak. In the face of the government’s home isolation measures, it has become more and more common for consumers to use online shopping for food and other items. People who are aware of the risks of going out are more willing to buy fresh food online ( Lu et al., 2021 ). Consumer purchase behavior is no longer limited by time and space, and consumers use mobile tools such as mobile phones to achieve shopping freedom ( Zhang et al., 2020 ). Among the above-mentioned studies have carried out detailed research on a certain characteristic of changes in consumer purchase behavior, but have not systematically sorted out changes of the psychological characteristics and behavioral characteristics of consumers. Changes in consumer purchase behavior are reflected in many aspects, not just a single dimension of change.

The stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model reveals the influence of the environment on individual emotions. “Stimulus” refers to any environmental factor that causes an individual’s intrinsic response to the environment. “Organism” represents the individual’s emotional state and cognitive process ( Zinkhan et al., 1992 ). “Response” is the individual’s response to the external stimulus ( Hunt and Downing, 1990 ). In short, the S-O-R theory states that external stimulus triggers people’s emotional and cognitive changes, which in turn lead to different behaviors. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic as the external stimulus will change people’s consumption psychology and hence their purchase behavior in terms of purchase object, motive, place, timeframe, and method.

In terms of purchase object, the outbreak of the epidemic has made consumers put forward higher requirements for products or services. When consumers face an emergency, they choose problem-solving products or services over emotional healing products or services ( Yeung and Fung, 2007 ; Cai et al., 2020 ). Utilitarian products, as opposed to hedonic items, are more effective in addressing consumers’ immediate needs ( Yang et al., 2020 ). Consumers caught in the pandemic would increase their purchases of utilitarian products such as disinfectants, masks, and health foods. On the other hand, when people are under pressure or are anxious about external threats, instead of directly addressing the issues, they often activate a psychological defense mechanism—the cognitive and behavioral tendencies that individuals unconsciously adopt in the face of frustration or conflict in order to relieve tension and anxiety ( Cramer, 1991 )—to protect themselves ( Baumeister et al., 1998 ). The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered people’s psychological defense mechanism, leading to more cautious buying. Consumers are not only more price-sensitive, but they also demand higher-quality and more reliable products. In terms of purchase objects, consumers pay more attention to the quality of the objects they buy. The increase in online purchasing activities has also made consumers more willing to disclose their personal information ( Gao et al., 2020 ).

In terms of purchase motive, previous scholars can divide purchase motivation into hedonic motivation, social motivation and utilitarian motivation ( Voss et al., 2003 ). This framework, which shapes consumer motivation for product categories, has been widely used in the field of consumer behavior. In recent years, the application of new technologies has become more and more extensive. Therefore, new media is used by more and more people and brings more fun to consumers. Driven by hedonic motivation, consumers are more keen on new media shopping methods such as Douyin and Kuaishou ( Koch et al., 2020 ). The contribution of social responsibility can improve consumers’ willingness to purchase in advance ( Tong et al., 2021 ). During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Chinese companies have donated financial and material resources during the pandemic, which helped build positive customer perceptions and attitudes toward their products ( Yin et al., 2019 ). Therefore, driven by social motivation, consumers are more willing to choose brands that have contributed to society. In addition, consumers’ herd mentality makes them more utilitarian in the process of purchasing goods, and thus more willing to choose products with higher evaluation ( Samet and Gözde, 2021 ). Driven by the above motivation, consumers choose more and more brands of goods.

In terms of purchase place, the government’s home isolation measures have made consumers’ offline shopping channels difficult, and their online purchases have become more and more common ( Zhang et al., 2020 ; Lu et al., 2021 ). Specifically, consumers have gradually developed the habit of purchasing some daily necessities online. At the same time, the rapid development of social media has brought more shopping convenience to consumers. As a result, when consumers shop on social platforms such as WeChat ( Larios-Gómez et al., 2021 ), they are able to pick their favorite products more quickly ( Ali et al., 2021 ). As the number of consumers on social platforms increases, the number of consumers in offline venues decreases accordingly. Although consumers’ offline purchasing activities have decreased, consumers have become more demanding of offline shopping places. In order to reduce the risk of infection, when consumers shop offline, they pay more attention to the safety, convenience and goodwill of shopping places ( Butu et al., 2020 ). As a result, consumers have also changed significantly in terms of purchase place.

When it comes to purchase timeframe, advances in technology stimulate consumers’ perception of the value of time. The new shopping habits that consumers have formed during the COVID-19 epidemic have made their sense of time sharper than before the COVID-19 outbreak. Consumers expect the fastest way to obtain goods and services ( Kyowon et al., 2020 ), improving their shopping efficiency. The development of Internet technology and the wide application of mobile terminals have enabled consumers to satisfy their desire to shop anytime, anywhere. Therefore, consumers prefer a shopping method with unlimited time to purchase goods and less time-consuming in terms of purchase timeframe.

In terms of purchase method, in order to avoid contact with uncertain external services and reduce the risk of infection, consumers choose contactless delivery methods based on safety needs ( Larios-Gómez et al., 2021 ). Through the contactless delivery method, consumers can effectively relieve their inner anxiety and smoothly maintain the order of daily life.

Consumer Purchase Behavior Changes and Business Model Design

People’s fear and anxiety about the pandemic are unlikely to abate in the near future, and the resulting changes in consumer demand might eventually damage the supply chain performance of consumer services companies ( Ivanov, 2020 ). These companies have already been experiencing significant challenges with their existing business models due to strict social isolation, delayed return-to-work, and disrupted logistics. The pandemic is putting some major businesses to the test since consumers may not restore their previous buying habits anytime soon ( Pantano et al., 2020 ). According to the Expectation Confirmation Theory, consumer services companies have to adjust their business models to meet new customer expectations in order to obtain consumer satisfaction.

Changes in consumer purchase behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on the design of novelty-centered business models. Novelty-centered business models place more emphasis on exploiting new opportunities in new ways ( Foss and Saebi, 2017 ), and their essence is to satisfy new customer value propositions, need or experience through innovations in the content, structure or governance of the activity system. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a decline in consumers’ purchase power, the requirements for product quality upgrades will not change. Changes in purchase object drives consumer services companies to design novelty-centered business models. With the improvement of consumers’ overall consumption level, the enhancement of consumption power and the upgrade of consumption preferences, their satisfaction with standardized products gradually decreases, and the trend of pursuing more diversified and personalized products or services will continue. As consumer preferences increase in diversification, companies must launch new products and price them appropriately in the face of a fiercely competitive market, especially in the context of environmental uncertainty exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Novelty-centered business models can bring customers better products and experience through innovative methods on the basis of product technology innovation.

When it comes to purchase motive, consumers prefer products from companies with a reputable image or a strong sense of social responsibility. Branded products increase consumers’ perceived usefulness ( Bhattacherjee, 2001 ), which is precisely what novelty-centered business models could accomplish. Therefore, consumers expect companies to design novelty-centered business models. In terms of purchase method, consumers prefer novel purchase methods and services such as mobile payment and contactless delivery. This suggests that consumer demand for novel payment methods has not yet been completely satisfied. People who get exposed to the same products or services repeatedly will eventually get bored due to the diminishing marginal utility of overexposure ( Line et al., 2016 ). Bored customers will eventually feel less satisfied. Thus, consumer services companies should adopt a novelty-centered business model design in order to re-establish customer satisfaction. Moreover, consumers tend to favor a shorter purchase timeframe and a safer purchase place, indicating their expectation to reduce perceived risks ( Garaus and Garaus, 2021 ). To meet that expectation, firms would be better served by novelty-centered business model design. Therefore, changes in consumer purchase behavior have led to the emergence of novelty-centered business models. In summary, the following assumption is made:

H1a: Changes in purchase object facilitate the design of novelty-centered business models.

H1b: Changes in purchase motive facilitate the design of novelty-centered business models.

H1c: Changes in purchase place facilitate the design of novelty-centered business models.

H1d: Changes in purchase timeframe facilitate the design of novelty-centered business models.

H1e: Changes in purchase method facilitate the design of novelty-centered business models.

Changes in consumer purchase behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic have had an impact on the design of efficiency-centered business models. Consumer purchase behavior is a process from information acquisition, formation of purchase intention to purchase decision-making problem. Consumer purchase intention is an important factor that determines the final purchase decision. And information is an important factor that affects consumers’ purchasing intention and ultimately making purchasing decisions. Generally speaking, consumers are risk-averse, so they will collect a lot of relevant information before purchasing, so as to turn the uncertainty of purchasing a certain product into certainty. With the rapid development of information technology, whether the contradiction between the explosive growth of information and the limited attention of consumers can be resolved has become an inevitable requirement for enterprises to gain a competitive advantage. The rapid development of information technology also brings the risk of personal information being infringed on consumers at all times in the transaction, especially in the field of online consumption, the black industry chain of “stealing” and “illegal use” of consumers’ personal information shows an explosive growth trend. Whether companies can keep the personal information of consumers collected in business activities strictly confidential has become a matter of close concern to consumers. Efficiency-centered business models emphasize that enterprises can improve business efficiency by reducing transaction costs, improving information transparency and sharing, and improving transaction security. With this, information can be efficiently shared between customers and enterprises, and the “information island” between the two can be reduced, so that consumers can trust enterprises and generate purchase intentions.

In terms of purchase object, people are more rational in choosing what to purchase. This increases consumer demand for efficiency in the products or services purchased from consumer services companies. In this case, companies should choose an efficiency-centered business model design since it emphasizes improving the efficiency of business transactions. Customers are satisfied, and their expectations are confirmed when they perceive that the efficiency of the goods or services exceeds the expected efficiency. In addition, with regards to purchase motive, consumers tend to favor brands that are well rated and contribute to society. Consumers perceive branded products as allowing them to make the right choice more quickly. Efficiency-centered business models are consistent with this consumer perception. In terms of purchase place, people prefer to shop online or on social media platforms, highlighting their expectations for a safe and convenient shopping environment. Efficiency-centered business models are essential for firms to meet such customer expectations. As mentioned above, consumers prefer a shorter purchase timeframe, indicating that consumers’ time efficiency expectations have not been fully satisfied and the increasing need for consumer services companies to develop efficiency-centered business models. In terms of purchase method, the fact that consumers have become more favorable in mobile payment and contactless delivery reflects the growing consumer demand for efficient payment and delivery methods. Hence, consumer services companies need to design an efficiency-centered business model in order to increase customer satisfaction. Therefore, in addition to novelty-centered business models, the change in consumer purchase behavior has also created a demand for efficiency-centered business models. In summary, the following assumption is made:

H2a: Changes in purchase object facilitate the design of efficiency-centered business models.

H2b: Changes in purchase motive facilitate the design of efficiency-centered business models.

H2c: Changes in purchase place facilitate the design of efficiency-centered business models.

H2d: Changes in purchase timeframe facilitate the design of efficiency-centered business models.

H2e: Changes in purchase method facilitate the design of efficiency-centered business models.

On the basis of drawing on relevant research and theoretical achievements, this research innovatively constructs a theoretical research model of consumer purchase behavior on business model innovation under the background of normalization of the epidemic ( Figure 1 ).

Figure 1. Conceptual model.

Research Design

Survey design and variable measurements.

The data used in this paper was obtained through a representative survey. In order to ensure the reliability of the questionnaire, the design of the changes in consumer purchase behavior questionnaire adopted the literature method to select the measurement variables and corresponding items of the related research on consumer purchase behavior. On this basis, researchers related to consumer behavior were invited to evaluate the questionnaire, and potential consumers were selected as the survey objects for interviews, and some difficult and ambiguous questions were revised and supplemented. The scales for business model design mainly refer to the mature scales of relevant international studies. Then, modifications were made to account for the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. On this basis, 58 individuals were selected for pre-investigation. Based on the test results, questions with relatively low factor loadings were further revised. Then, a rating scale is developed. The questionnaire take a form of a five-point Likert scale, where 1 = Strongly disagree , 2 = Disagree , 3 = Not sure , 4 = Agree , and 5 = Strongly agree . The main variables include basic demographic characteristics, the changes in consumer purchase behavior (purchase object, motive, place, timeframe, and method), and business model designs (novelty- and efficiency-centered).

Dependent Variable

Business model design (BMD) was chosen as the dependent variable. Based on Zott and Amit (2009) , we categorized business model design into novelty-centered business model design (NBM) and efficiency-centered business model design (EBM). The survey questionnaire was similar to that provided by Zott and Amit, with a few modifications to account for the COVID-19 pandemic. NBM was measured by ten items: (1) ‘ The merchant offers a wider range of goods to attract new customers ’; (2) ‘ The merchant offers a wider range of services to attract new customers ’; (3) ‘ The merchant offers a broader selection of brands ’; (4) ‘ The merchant is using more of a combination of physical and online shops to offer goods or service ’; (5) ‘ The merchant has adopted a wider variety of payment methods ’; (6) ‘ The merchant has become an industry benchmark ’; (7) ‘ The merchant is more creative in its stor e design’; (8) ‘ The merchant offers more innovative products ’; (9) ‘ The merchant offers more innovative services ’; (10) ‘ The merchant’s business model is new ’. EBM was measured by eight items: (1) ‘ The merchant has made my purchase of goods or services more efficient ’; (2) The merchant made my shopping time shorter ’; (3) ‘ The merchant has given me more information about the goods ’; (4) ‘ The merchant has given me more information about the services ’; (5) ‘T he merchant gave me more ways to buy and settle my bill ’; (6) ‘ The merchant made fewer errors in the sales process ’; (7) ‘ The merchant offers cheaper goods or services ’; (8) ‘ My communication with the merchant is faster and more efficient. ’

Explanatory Variable

Consumer purchase behavior changes (CPC) were the explanatory variable. Based on Valaskova et al. (2021) and Vázquez-Martínez et al. (2021) , we described consumer purchase behavior changes from five dimensions: changes in purchase object (PO), changes in purchase motive (PR), changes in purchase place (PP), changes in purchase timeframe (PT), and changes in purchase method (PW). As before, we made a few modifications to the questions measuring these variables to account for the COVID-19 pandemic. The specific measurements of each dimension were as follows.

According to marketing theory, changes in purchase object refers to the goods or services that consumers buy. Based on Zhang and Zheng (2019) , Consumers’ choice of purchase object is mainly reflected in price, quality and service. The measurement of the purchase object is measured from the above three aspects. At the same time, combining the characteristics of purchasing behavior under the COVID-19 pandemic ( Cai et al., 2020 ; Gao et al., 2020 ; Yang et al., 2020 ) and the results of interviews with consumers, the changes in purchase object (PO) were measured by nine items. As follows: (1) ‘ I am more likely to buy technology products (e.g., sports bracelets, etc.) ’; (2) ‘ I am more likely to buy high protein products (e.g., milk, etc.) ’; (3) ‘ I am more likely to buy high-end products ’; (4) ‘ I am more likely to buy personalized items’; (5) ‘I am more cautious about buying non-essential products ’; (6) ‘ I have higher expectations of customer service for the products I buy ’; (7) ‘ I am more concerned about the quality and efficacy of products ’; (8) ‘ I am more concerned about the price of products ’; (9) ‘ I am more likely to allow merchants access to my personal information. ’

The hedonic shopping motivation research scale according to Mark and Kristy (2003) and the utilitarian shopping motivation research scale by Martínez-López et al. (2014) formed the basis of the measurement scale of change in purchasing motivation in this study. On this basis, items unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic were eliminated, and some items were improved to form a new measurement scale. The changes in purchase motive (PR) were measured by five items: (1) ‘ I am more likely to buy highly rated products ’; (2) ‘ I am more likely to try new brands ’; (3) ‘ I am more likely to buy products recommended by acquaintances ’; (4) ‘ I am more likely to buy products recommended in short video apps such as Douyin (Chinese TikTok) and Kuaishou ’; (5) ‘ I prefer brands that have contributed to society during the COVID-19 pandemic. ’

Marketing practice differentiates the place of purchase into online and offline ( Srikanth et al., 2011 ). Based on Volpe et al. (2013) , we measured the change in offline purchase location in purchase place. Ali et al. (2021) and Larios-Gómez et al. (2021) provided us with measurement items for changes in online purchase place. The changes in purchase place (PP) were measured by five items: (1) ‘ I am more likely to shop in a one-stop store ’; (2) ‘ I am more likely to buy goods in a contactless store ’; (3) ‘ I am more concerned about the safety of the shopping environment ’; (4) ‘ I am more concerned about the reputation of merchants ’; (5) ‘ I am more willing to shop on social media platforms such as WeChat. ’

Based on Eastlick and Feinberg (1999) , Consumers’ requirements for purchase timeframe were reflected in flexibility, speed and convenience. The survey questionnaire was similar to that provided by Eastlick, with a few modifications to account for the COVID-19 pandemic. Combined the results of the interviews, the changes in purchase timeframe (PT) were measured by three items. As follows: (1) ‘ I am more likely to spend an unlimited amount of time shopping ’; (2) ‘ I am more likely to spend less time shopping ’; (3) ‘ I am more organized in my shopping activities, such as making detailed shopping lists, planning shopping routes, and so forth. ’

Finally, based on Larios-Gómez et al. (2021) and the results of interviews with consumers, the changes in purchase method (PW) were measured by three items: (1) ‘ I am more willing to accept contactless delivery services ’; (2) ‘ I am more willing to use mobile payment ’; (3) ‘ I am more willing to use self-checkout. ’

Control Variable

Following existing literature, we selected respondents’ gender (Gender), age (Age), education attainment (Edu), and monthly income level (Income) as control variables.

To ensure measurement precision and accuracy, the data were analyzed using the item response theory (IRT) model rather than factor analysis, as the latter results in information loss ( Xue et al., 2019 ). The Item Response Theory (IRT) model estimates variables through an iterative computation process, making sufficient use of existing information. The IRT model also takes into account the difficulties of survey questions, making the estimations closer to real practice ( Xue et al., 2021 ). Therefore, we utilized the IRT model to measure business model design (BMD), including novelty-centered business model design (NBM) and efficiency-centered business model design (EBM).

Rabe-Hesketh et al. (2004) propose two types of IRT model, i.e., one-parameter logistic IRT (1PL-IRT) model and two-parameter logistic IRT (2PL-IRT) model. However, it is unrealistic to apply the 1PL-IRT model in real practices. Therefore, the 2PL-IRT model is widely used to measure latent variables. Given the fact that the 2PL-IRT model can only be applied to estimate binary variables, Zheng and Rabe-Hesketh (2007) integrate the partial credit model (PCM) into the 2PL-IRT model, namely the 2PL-PCM, to measure latent variables with multiple categories. Therefore, following Xue et al. (2019) , we employed the 2PL-PCM to measure BMD and NBM. The 2PL-PCM model specifications are as follows.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of consumer purchase behavior changes on the business model design of consumer services companies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intended population for this research was identified as individuals who have shopped during the COVID-19 pandemic and have a basic understanding of consumer services business models. We fielded the survey from 18 April 2020 to 23 July 2020. All questionnaires were anonymous, and rigorous distribution and return protocols were followed. Questionnaires were distributed in three main ways: first, upon contact confirmation, our team members conducted on-site interviews with the respondents and distributed the questionnaires; second, using the team members’ social connections, the questionnaires were distributed to those who qualified; Third, the questionnaires were distributed through email. In the end, a total of 1,887 questionnaires were distributed, and 1,742 were valid following careful screening.

The demographic profile of the respondents is as follows. Male respondents account for 43.456%, while female respondents account for 56.544%. In terms of age, 0.459% of the respondents are under the age of 18; 30.540% are between 18 and 25 years old; 25.316% are between 26 and 35 years old; 19.518% are between 36 and 45 years old; 19.346% are between 46 and 55 years old; 4.822% are 56 years and above. Regarding education attainment, 1.607% of the respondents have a junior secondary certificate or below; 6.257% have a senior secondary certificate (including high school and vocational and technical school certificate); 48.565% have a university certificate; 43.571% have a postgraduate certificate or above. Finally, in respect of monthly income level, 19.460% of the respondents earn no income; 6.889% earn less than RMB 2,000 per month; 18.657% earn RMB 2,001–5,000 per month; 24.799% earn RMB 5,001–8,000 per month; 30.195% earn RMB 8,001 or more per month.

Common method variance (CMV) is likely to lead to biased results for variables obtained from survey questionnaires ( Xue et al., 2019 ). Therefore, we employed the Harman’s single factor test to examine the existence of the CMV. The test results showed that the common factor only explains 18.733% of total variance, indicating that the common method bias is not a concern for this paper.

Empirical Analysis

This section presents the empirical analysis conducted on the collected survey questionnaires. It includes four parts: (1) descriptive statistical analysis and correlation coefficient analysis; (2) analysis of consumer purchase behavior changes by demographic characteristics (including gender, age, monthly income level, and education attainment); (3) regression modeling; (4) robustness tests.

Descriptive Statistical Analysis and Correlation Coefficient Analysis

Table 1 showed the descriptive statistics of the main variables. All variables have a relatively small mean value, indicating that respondents’ willingness to change their behavior for the pandemic is low. A plausible explanation is that people became less vigilant and concerned as the pandemic was gradually brought under control. On the other hand, the novelty-centered business model has a higher mean value than the efficiency-centered business model, suggesting that following the pandemic, respondents tend to favor the novelty-centered business model over the efficiency-centered one. This is because as the outbreak gradually subsides, people become less pessimistic and hence more interested in new things. In addition, the standard deviations of all variables are small, indicating small variations for variables used in this study. This is also reflected in the extreme deviations, with the largest extreme deviation being only 5. Moreover, all the variables range from −3 to 2, indicating no extreme values observed.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients.

Table 1 also showed the correlation coefficients between the main variables. The results indicate a significant and positive correlation between consumer purchase behavior changes and both types of business model designs. However, the correlation between consumer purchase behavior changes and novelty-centered business model design is more significant; the impact of consumer purchasing behavior changes on novelty-centered business model designs is likely to be greater. However, the exact relationships between the variables remain to be tested further below.

Analysis of Consumer Purchase Behavior Changes by Demographic Characteristics

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer purchase behaviors have changed dramatically. These changes exhibited a number of differences according to demographic characteristics. Figure 2 illustrated the differences in consumer purchase behavior changes by gender, age, monthly income level, and education attainment. Details were be discussed in the following four sub-sections.

Figure 2. Consumer purchase behavior changes by demographic characteristics. (A) Consumer purchase behavior changes by gender. (B) Consumer purchase behavior changes by age. (C) Consumer purchase behavior changes by monthly income level. (D) Consumer purchase behavior changes by education attainment.

Figure 2A displayed the pandemic-induced changes in consumer purchase behavior by gender. The changes in purchase object and timeframe exhibited an apparent gender variation. Females usually tend to act more impulsively than males ( Hesham et al., 2021 ). The pandemic have prompted male consumers to be more rational in shopping; therefore, the purchase behavior change of male consumers is greater. In terms of purchase place and motive, a relatively small gender variation is shown. Lastly, no significant gender variation is found for changes in purchase method.

Figure 2B showed the pandemic-induced change in consumer purchase behavior by age group. Observably, all parameters of consumer purchase behavior changed exhibit age variation. Individuals aged 18–25 and 26–35 showed a smaller change in purchase object, but those aged under 18, 36–45, 46–55, and 56+ showed the opposite. The change in purchase place followed a similar pattern, with the exception that persons aged under 18 exhibited a lesser change. In terms of purchase motive and timeframe, the variation across age groups was minor; individuals aged 36–45 and 46–55 showed a greater change while other age groups showed less change. Lastly, the change in purchase method was relatively small across all age groups. The reason for that is: young people had already adapted to the online lifestyle before the COVID-19 outbreak, therefore no significant change after; but for the elderly, although they tend to be more skeptical of the internet, they now have little choice but to purchase online due to the pandemic isolation and lockdown. Overall, the middle-aged and elderly have changed the most in their purchase behavior.

Monthly Income Level

Figure 2C depicted the pandemic-induced changes in consumer purchase behavior according to monthly income levels. As can be seen, there was a significant variation. Individuals with no income or a monthly income of less than RMB 2,000 exhibited smaller change in their purchase object, place, timeframe, and method. People with a monthly income between RMB 5,001 and RMB 8,000 or above RMB 8,001 showed a greater change in their purchase object, place, and timeframe. In terms of purchase method, less variation was shown across monthly income levels. This is because the pandemic has prevented people from returning to work, resulting in a reduction in current or future household income, and because it has also affected people’s emotions and cognitions by instilling fear and anxiety about the future in them, prompting people to save preventively.

Education Attainment

Figure 2D showed the changes in consumer purchase behavior by education attainment. The changes in consumer purchase object and motive varied less across different education attainment levels compared to the changes in purchase place, timeframe, and method. Individuals with postgraduate or higher education attainment showed a small change in all aspects of purchase behavior. Unlike other demographic characteristics, education attainment had less of an impact on consumer purchase behavior.

Regression Modeling

To examine the impact of consumer purchase behavior changes on the business model design of consumer services companies, this paper constructed a regression model as follows. As shown in equation (3), BMD represents business model design, which includes the novelty-centered business model design (NMB) and the efficiency-centered business model design (EBM). CPC is consumer purchase behavior changes, which includes the changes in purchase object (PO), the changes in purchase motive (PR), the changes in purchase place (PP), the changes in purchase timeframe (PT), and the changes in purchase method (PW). The relationships between BMDs and CPCs are examined using the following model:

Table 2 displayed the regression results for the relationship between the pandemic-induced changes in consumer purchase behavior and novelty-centered business model design. The regression result for Model 1 (M1) showed that the changes in consumer purchase object has a positive impact on the novelty-centered business model design (0.584, p < 0.001). The regression coefficient of the change in purchase object and novelty-centered business model was 0.584, and it was significantly positively correlated at the 1% level. That was, the greater the changes in the purchase object, the more inclined the consumer services companies is to design a novelty-centered business model. H1a is validated. Similarly, the results for Models 2–5 showed that the change in consumer purchase motive, place, timeframe, and method all have a positive impact on the novelty-centered business model design (0.583, p < 0.001; 0.516, p < 0.001; 0.505, p < 0.001; 0.459, p < 0.001, respectively). The regression coefficient of the change in purchase motive, place, timeframe, and method and novelty-centered business model was 0.583, 0.516, 0.505, 0.459, and it was significantly positively correlated at the 1% level. That was, the greater the changes in the purchase motive, place, timeframe, and method, the more inclined the consumer services companies is to design a novelty-centered business model. H1b, H1c, H1d, and H1e are validated. Model 6 integrated all parameters of consumer purchase behavior changes in order to test their combined impact on novelty-centered business model design. The results were consistent with Models 1–5, thus confirming the robustness of the findings. Therefore, consumer purchase behavior changes under the COVID-19 pandemic significantly contribute to the novelty-centered business model design of consumer services companies. Moreover, the variance inflation factor (VIF) of each model was less than 10. This indicated that multicollinearity in the models was not serious, and hence has no effect on the results.

Table 2. Consumer purchase behavior changes and novelty-centered business model design.

Table 3 presented the regression results for the relationship between the pandemic-induced changes in consumer purchase behavior and the efficiency-centered business model design. Models 7–11 showed that the changes in purchase object, motive, place, timeframe, and method all have a significantly positive impact on the efficiency-centered business model design under COVID-19 (0.526, p < 0.001; 0.495, p < 0.001; 0.515, p < 0.001; 0.495, p < 0.001; 0.495, p < 0.001, respectively). H2a, H2b, H2c, H2d, and H2e are validated. Model 12 examined the combined effect of all parameters of consumer purchase behavior changes on efficiency-centered business model design. The results were consistent with Models 7–11, confirming the robustness of the results. Therefore, consumer purchase behavior changes over the course of the pandemic have a positive effect on the efficiency-centered business model design of consumer services companies. The variance inflation factor (VIF) of each model was less than 10. Again, this indicated that multicollinearity was not serious in the models, and hence had limited impact on the results.

Table 3. Consumer purchase behavior changes and efficiency-centered business model design.

Based on the above evidence, consumer purchase behavior changes under the pandemic have a positive impact on both novelty- and efficiency-centered business model design. However, there is a significant variance in the magnitude of the coefficients, suggesting that consumer purchase behavior changes may have varying degrees of impact on each type of business model design. Specifically, the pandemic-induced changes in purchase object, motive, and method are more conducive to the novelty-centered business model design of consumer services companies (0.584 > 0.526; 0.593 > 0.495; 0.505 > 0.495, respectively); the changes in consumer purchase place have an equal effect on novelty- and efficiency-centered business model designs; and the changes in purchase method have a weaker impact on the novelty-business model design than the efficiency-centered business model design (0.459 < 0.495).

The changes in consumer purchase motive, object, and timeframe have a greater positive impact on the novelty-centered business model design. Consumers can retrieve much information on the internet to reduce their risks and uncertainty, thereby increasing trust in decision-making ( Hussain et al., 2020 ). People are also more likely to purchase products or services recommended by others, and the internet is an effective way to obtain such information. As such, the changes in consumer purchase motive create an opportunity for consumer services companies to develop novelty-centered business models. During the pandemic, people have become more rational and quality-oriented in shopping, and consumer demand has shifted from quantity-focused to quality-and-quantity-focused. In this context, the market demands a wider range of products and services from companies, which can be achieved through novelty-centered business models. Therefore, the changes in purchase object have a positive impact on novelty-centered business model designs. In terms of purchase timeframe, when online shopping and home delivery cannot fulfill consumer demands in a timely manner due to pandemic disruptions and limited manpower, the consumer preference for community and near-home stores emerges. Therefore, the changes in consumer purchase timeframe have promoted novelty-centered business models, such as the physical community business model.

On the other hand, the changes in purchase method have predominantly favored efficiency-centered business models. The COVID-19 pandemic has put people at unprecedented risks. In order to reduce the risk, consumers have grown more interested in contactless delivery and mobile payment, which incorporate the omnichannel supply and provides the option to shop at any time. The customer need for low-risk, efficient, mobile, and fragmented shopping experiences opens up new business prospects for efficiency-centered business models. Therefore, the changes in consumer purchase method have a positive impact on efficiency-centered business model design for consumer services companies.

Finally, the changes in purchase place have a similar impact on novelty- and efficiency-centered business model design. Since COVID-19, there has been an increasing consumer demand for more diverse, personalized, convenient, and accessible shopping locations. Consumers want to shop in an innovative one-stop store that provides a safe or contactless environment, and this can be achieved by a business model that emphasizes both novelty and efficiency. Consumer services companies need to increase the diversity of their products and services while at the same time reducing their transaction costs to improve operational efficiency. Therefore, the changes in purchase place encourage both novelty- and efficiency-centered business model designs.

Robustness Checks

Alternative measures.

In the previous section, we used the Item Response Theory (IRT) model to measure the variables related to consumer purchase behavior and business model design. To check the robustness of the results, we re-measured the variables using the weighted average method. The regression results were all significant, as shown in Table 4 . All parameters of consumer purchase behavior changes have a significant impact on both novelty- and efficiency-centered business model design. The empirical results remain consistent with our prior findings. Therefore, our baseline results are robust.

Table 4. Alternative measures.

Control for Occupation

Another concern is the influence of missing variables on the relationship between consumer behavior changes and business model design. In the survey questionnaire, the respondents also provided information about their occupations. On the one hand, consumers’ occupation might alter their consumption behavior; while on the other hand, merchants might adjust their business strategies with respect to consumers with different occupations. As such, consumers’ occupation might affect the impact of consumer behavior changes on business model design, rendering the baseline results biased. Therefore, following Xue et al. (2019) , we introduced respondents’ occupation into the baseline regressions and re-estimate the models. The results are displayed in Table 5 . It shows that the results are highly consistent with baseline findings, with all regression coefficients being highly significant and positive ( p < 0.01). Accordingly, our baseline results are again robust and reliable.

Table 5. Adding control variable (occupation).

First of all, after the outbreak of the epidemic, there have been subtle changes in consumer buying groups. Male buying behavior has changed more. For example, they will increase the purchase of some necessities ( Vázquez-Martínez et al., 2021 ). In the face of crisis, people’s utilitarian motivation is more significant ( Voss et al., 2003 ). Therefore, people’s demand for daily necessities will increase substantially. In addition, the elderly no longer reject the purchase behavior through mobile methods, and many online shopping activities have been increased. This also makes life service companies need to further segment the market in terms of population in the future, such as adding more preferential activities for online service items for the elderly, so as to facilitate such people to further enhance their willingness to purchase.

Second, our findings suggest that changes in consumer purchase behavior have a significant positive impact on business model design. This influence reflects that consumers have put forward higher requirements for the marketing model of life service companies after experiencing the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the results of the study, changes in purchase object, purchase motive and purchase timeframe have a more profound impact on novelty-centered business model design. This shows that under the impact of the epidemic, consumer services companies should take rapid response measures, and carry out business model innovation according to the characteristics of the COVID-19 outbreak and changes in purchase behavior, such as: online transfer of sales model, expansion of target market, socialization and fragmentation of marketing model, unmanned retail, contactless service and enterprise platform integration.

Third, changes in purchase place and purchase method have a significant impact on efficiency-centered business model design. This shows that consumers currently hope that consumer services companies can reduce their selection costs, procurement costs and payment costs as much as possible, so as to ensure that they can obtain the required products or services more efficiently.

According to the research conclusions, this paper draws the following management implications: First, the consumer services companies based on new technologies should reduce their costs as much as possible and provide products or services efficiently. The company makes full use of the construction of new infrastructure such as Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Internet, and Internet of Things to power it, and makes innovations on this basis. In the future, the development direction of consumer services companies should be a deep and efficient combination of online and offline. In this way, a consumer-centric dynamic management model can be realized, and business models can be flexibly adjusted to respond to transform according to changes in the external environment. Second, enterprises should deeply explore consumers’ consumption preferences and stabilize the target market. The consumer market is unstable. While continuing to invest, companies should pay attention to the improvement of quality and service models, and deeply explore the consumption preferences of different consumers. On this basis, companies should continuously improve business models and stabilize the consumer market. Third, enterprises need to carefully introduce new models and services. During the outbreak of the epidemic, marketing models of live stream, community and short video have rapidly emerged. Not only have various e-commerce platforms started to adopt this marketing model, but some brand retailers have also begun to develop the live stream industry. According to the findings, consumers are enthusiastic about these emerging marketing models. At the same time, the unmanned retail model is also arousing the interest of consumers, and various intelligent retail products and services are put into operation, such as intelligent express cabinets, contactless distribution and unmanned convenience stores. The rapid development of these two types of models is affected by the epidemic environment, and managers should also consider the resources and capabilities of their own enterprise while rapidly innovating and introducing new models. At the same time, enterprises need to maintain a sense of crisis, cautiously introduce unfamiliar industries, and reasonably adopt various business models.

There are also limitations of this study that deserve future research attention. First, we explore the positive impact of consumer behavior changes on business model design in the consumer services sector. However, such relationship might vary across different sectors, cultures, and institution backgrounds. Future studies might examine it in a different research setting. Second, the picture of the nexus between consumer behavior changes and business model design might be incomplete. Future research might zoom into the consumption process or after-consumption behavior, investigating how the key findings might change with regard to different consumption stages.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Author Contributions

HT collected literature. XS designed the research and wrote the manuscript. XS and HT performed the empirical analysis. XL provided the data. JT cleared data. DZ did the additional tests. All authors rewrote sections of the manuscript, contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.

This research was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 21BTJ019) and the Social Science Planning Foundation of Shandong Province (21CGLJ16).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : consumer psychology, consumer purchase behavior, efficiency-centered business model, novelty-centered business model, consumer services company

Citation: Tao H, Sun X, Liu X, Tian J and Zhang D (2022) The Impact of Consumer Purchase Behavior Changes on the Business Model Design of Consumer Services Companies Over the Course of COVID-19. Front. Psychol. 13:818845. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.818845

Received: 20 November 2021; Accepted: 10 February 2022; Published: 03 March 2022.

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*Correspondence: Xin Sun, [email protected]

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Customer perception, purchase intention and buying decision for branded products: measuring the role of price discounts

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• Published: 13 March 2021
• Volume 20 , pages 194–203, ( 2021 )

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• Amit Dangi 1 ,
• Chand P. Saini 1 ,
• Vijay Singh 2 &
• Jayant Hooda 3  

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The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of customer perception and its effect on the purchase intention and finally on buying decision-making about branded products especially luxury products, finally the role of price discounts in converting intentions into buying decision. This research has been carried in NCR with a collection of primary data by including statements related to the customer perception, buying intentions regarding branded luxury products and one section of the questionnaire included statements of Price discounts and buying decisions. The study used Exploratory Factor Analysis, Structure Equation Modeling, and Mediation through AMOS 19 to analyze the data. Results explored four major determinants named Quality, Trust, Psychological, and Social which were considered to contribute to building the perception of any customer for branded products and creates the purchase intention which will finally be converted into buying decisions making. The price discount plays a role of partial mediation, where due to price discount available for luxury branded products the buying decision-making has been reduced significantly.

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Dangi, A., Saini, C.P., Singh, V. et al. Customer perception, purchase intention and buying decision for branded products: measuring the role of price discounts. J Revenue Pricing Manag 20 , 194–203 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41272-021-00300-7

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An examination of the factors affecting consumer’s purchase decision in the Malaysian retail market

PSU Research Review

ISSN : 2399-1747

Article publication date: 13 February 2018

Issue publication date: 12 April 2018

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, sales promotion, store environment and perceived value on a purchase decision in the retail sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research methodology was used and the data were collected from 278 customers of retail stores in Malaysia. The collected data were analysed using SPSS 19 and structural equation modelling on AMOS.

The findings showed that corporate social responsibility has significant positive effects on a purchase decision, whereas sales promotion has a negative effect on purchase decision. The outcomes of this study also indicated that store environment has a significant positive effect on consumers’ purchase decisions. Contrary to expectations, the findings revealed that the effect of social media marketing on purchase decision is insignificant. Finally, the results showed that perceived value has a significant positive effect on a purchase decision.

Originality/value

The findings of this study contribute to an understanding of the importance of the selected factors in affecting a consumer’s purchase decision in the retail industry.

Purchase decision

Sales promotion, perceived value, social media marketing, store environment.

Hanaysha, J.R. (2018), "An examination of the factors affecting consumer’s purchase decision in the Malaysian retail market", PSU Research Review , Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 7-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/PRR-08-2017-0034

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Copyright © 2018, Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha.

Published in the PSU Research Review: An International Journal . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

In today’s continuously changing and dynamic business environment, it has become necessary for retail managers to clearly understand and foresee how different types of consumers behave when buying different products and services to fulfil their needs. Thus, to establish a competitive advantage in the marketplace, several retailers have focused on creating favourable images about their brands in the minds of consumers to influence their purchase behaviour ( Shamsher, 2015 ). Consumer behaviour emphasizes on understanding the purchase decision process of individual consumers and how they utilize their existing resources such as time, money and effort to get a product or service ( Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007 ). Hence, retail managers should have knowledge about consumers’ characteristics and preferences as they play an important role in forming purchase decisions. This information could enable them to foster their competitiveness and ensure their long-term survival.

The consumer decision-making process can be described as the phases that consumers go through in making a final purchase decision. The task of a marketer is to focus on the whole purchasing process instead of emphasizing solely on a purchase decision, because consumers experience different phases before reaching a conclusion ( Basil et al. , 2013 ). Understanding buyer behaviour is not easy because several factors can influence consumer behaviour before making a purchase decision. In some cases, consumers tend to spend less time in thinking about purchasing either low- or high-value products, because they consider that fulfilling their needs is more important. This has urged marketing managers to adopt strategies that motivate consumers to purchase their offerings by creating an effective marketing plan. Previous studies reported that corporate social responsibility ( Elg and Hultman, 2016 ) and social media marketing ( Duffett, 2015 ) play significant roles in influencing a consumer’s purchase behaviour and attitude towards a brand. Other scholars also considered store atmosphere ( Hosseini et al. , 2014 ), perceived value and sales promotion ( Andreti et al. , 2013 ) as important predictors of consumer behaviour and brand choice.

However, although previous studies emphasized on both corporate social responsibility and social media marketing in influencing consumer behaviour, only few scholars examined their effects on purchase decision in retail industry settings, particularly in Malaysia. Furthermore, limited studies have explored the role of store environment and sales promotion in forming purchase decision. In other words, considerable research has already been done on examining consumers’ purchase decisions in various business sectors, but there is no mutual agreement towards the factors conditioning consumers’ purchase decision. Thus, this paper is designed to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, store environment, perceived value and sales promotion on consumers’ purchase decision with empirical data from department stores in Malaysia. The next sections present a brief review on past literature and methodological approach used in data collection; finally, the conclusion and recommendations for this study are established based on the findings.

Literature review

Purchase decision involves a sequence of choices formed by a consumer before making a purchase which starts once he/she has a willingness to fulfil a need. The consumer should reach a decision with regard to the place of purchasing, the desired brand, model, purchase quantity, time to buy, amount of money to be spent and the method of payment. These decisions can be influenced by marketers by providing information about their products or services that may inform consumer’s assessment process. Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) stated that consumers normally search for information relevant about a specified consumption-related need from their past experiences before looking for external sources of information. In other words, past purchase experience is regarded as an internal source of information that a consumer relies on before making a decision. In addition, several consumers’ decisions are most likely to be formed by integrating past purchase experience as well as marketing programs and non-commercial information sources ( Schiffman and Kanuk, 2007 ). Past literature also stressed that consumers usually attempt to minimize the risk in their purchase decisions ( Chaipradermsak, 2007 ).

Blackwell et al. (2001) reported that to comprehend consumers’ purchasing decisions, marketing managers should understand their consumption process and the benefits of organizational products and services in their perceptions. The authors also added that when consumers intend to buy certain products, they pass through numerous phases which would influence their purchase decision process and post-purchase behaviour. The first phase represents the problem recognition wherein consumers intend to satisfy their needs and wants. The role of marketers in this phase emerges while using advertisements, personal selling and packaging to arouse the recognition of desired needs or wants. In the second phase, consumers begin to seek information from either internal sources (usually from their past experiences) about the products or outside sources, for example, friends, family, relatives, neighbours, annual reports, publications, sales persons, social media or packaging label. Finally, consumers evaluate the alternatives and select from brands that best suit them and satisfy their needs.

Corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility has been conceptualized in the literature by a number of scholars. However, there is no consensus on its definition and measurement despite the significant amount of research on this topic. According to Kilcullen and Kooistra (1999 , p. 158), corporate social responsibility can be conceptualized as “the degree of moral obligation that may be ascribed to corporations beyond their simple obedience to the laws of the state.” Similarly, Kotler and Lee (2005) expressed the concept of corporate social responsibility as an organization’s commitment to enhance the welfare of a society through voluntarily business activities and support from its resources. Erkollar and Oberer (2012) also illustrated that the majority of scholars view corporate social responsibility as a term through which organizations incorporate social and environmental aspects or considerations into their business processes and in their dealings with various stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility is usually used as a tactical tool for creating a positive brand image and attracting a larger number of customers ( Reich et al. , 2010 ).

In today’s business environment that is characterized by strong rivalry, corporate social responsibility is regarded as an important strategy for assisting businesses to maintain their competitive strengths ( Luo and Bhattacharya, 2006 ). Albus (2012) reported that corporate social responsibility represents an important strategic marketing tool than can be employed to develop a positive brand image. Corporate social responsibility is a key strategy that organizations should exploit, not only for the purposes of uplifting profit margins, but also due to the necessity to protect the environment. For example, organizations can be involved in social responsibility activities, such as treating business stakeholders (customers, vendors and staff) well. Pakseresht (2010) reported that several brands can be distinguished based on how they behave under the observation of business stakeholders. Consequently, the investment in corporate social responsibility programs enables a brand to foster its competitive advantage and improve its performance in the long term ( El-Garaihy et al. , 2014 ; Ghosh and Gurunathan, 2014 ).

Corporate social responsibility has a positive effect on purchase decision.

Social media is an important marketing communication tool to reach and interact with customers at minimal cost and at different times of the day. Effective management and implementation of social media marketing is one of the key objectives and interests of several brands ( Hanaysha, 2016 ). Successful brands have become aware of the power of social media marketing in today’s interactive marketplace for building and maintaining customer relationships, as well as communicating and interacting with larger numbers of customers ( Bulearca and Bulearca, 2010 ). Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) conceptualized social media as an internet-based program that provides a platform for consumers to express their own opinions, share information and past experiences using different social networks, blogs and other content areas. The efficiency of social media has empowered the marketers and customers with fast interaction and communication processes to enhance customer service, increase brand awareness and build strong customer–brand relationships. Using social media tools, consumers will have the chance to express their opinions to a larger number of individuals and also find the desired information quickly without incurring much cost ( Severi et al. , 2014 ).

Social media channels have appeared as the foremost convenient digital communication media through which several consumers can learn, share information and directly interact with business stakeholders ( Chappuis et al. , 2011 ; Qualman, 2013 ). With the existence of social media, business marketers will have the opportunity to interact with their existing and potential customers using two-way communications to obtain rich and valuable insights quickly and at lower costs. Marketers have also realized the additional values of social media channels through easier collaborations with brand referrals and quality of information sharing ( Hudson et al. , 2016 ). In addition, social media has enabled consumers to easily share important information about products or services offered by certain brands with their peers ( Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012 ; Mangold and Faulds, 2009 ). Such exchanges have provided companies with several advantages represented by cost-effectiveness, increased brand awareness, improved brand recognition, higher customer loyalty and greater profit margins.

Effective implementation of marketing programs on social media can enable organizations to create beneficial relationships with their customers by increasing customer satisfaction ( Hanaysha, 2016 ) and commitment as well as generating positive word of mouth. Through the continuous development and wide-ranging applications of several social media channels, many businesses considered this way of communication to be a noteworthy prospect. They have also started looking for the best ways of using social media for sustaining their businesses, creating healthier relationships with their consumers, marketing their products and services and developing reputable images for their brands to the public. To stay competitive in today’s challenging business environments, it requires firms to put prime emphasis on social media as a marketing strategy. Global companies employ several experts and consultants in social media to gain better recommendations on the contents and features of their advertisements before sharing them on social media to maximize the efficiency of the marketing program ( Erdoğmuş and Cicek, 2012 ).Moreover, customers regard social media communication as a tool to engage with various brands any time.

Social media marketing has a positive effect on purchase decision.

The importance of constructing an appealing physical environment has attained considerable attention from several scholars and business managers due to its power in attracting and satisfying customers ( Ali et al. , 2013 ; Han and Ryu, 2009 ). In retail stores, the atmospheric environment is considered as a key competitive tactic employed by retailers to stimulate consumer behaviour and increase sales volumes ( Chebat and Michon, 2003 ). The attributes of atmospheric environment focus on several stimuli such as colour, music, scene, layout and space, as they have been considered to be important clues for consumers ( Oh et al. , 2008 ). Lee and Jeong (2012) described physical environment as an environment that is shaped through overall layout, colour, design, decoration, surroundings and aesthetics. Particularly, the atmospheric environment in a store includes various stimuli such as ambience, colour, sound, scent, taste, layout and space, which are important clues for buyers. Prior research also established that physical environment enables a service provider to differentiate itself from rivals and influence customer’s choice ( Mahmood and Khan, 2014 ).

Assessing consumers’ perceptions of the characteristics of a store’s environment may form certain brand associations in their minds, enhance their perception of brand value and elevate buying intentions by minimizing cost and time, as well as the efforts in acquiring potential customers ( Kumar et al. , 2010 ). According to Mahmood and Khan (2014) , the physical environment allows service providers to distinguish their brands from those of competitors and influence consumers’ purchase decisions. Prior literature showed that store environment had a positive impact on consumer purchase behaviour. For instance, Belk (1975) found that the physical environment of a retail store influenced consumer’s buying behaviour. Likewise, creating an attractive store atmosphere was stressed in the past studies as a key strategic factor that many retailers consider to stimulate consumer behaviour and improve their performance ( Chebat and Michon, 2003 ). Further support can be found in the study by Richardson et al. (1996) who revealed that store atmosphere enhances the consumers’ perceptions toward the service and product quality of the department store. Similarly, Newman and Patel (2004) indicated that store environment plays an important role in affecting consumer choice.

Store environment has a positive effect on purchase decision.

In the theoretical literature, promotion is regarded as a key element of marketing mix that aims to inform, encourage and remind the target market about a product of service offer in an attempt to influence the consumers’ feelings, perceptions or purchasing decisions ( Stanton et al. , 2007 ). In other words, promotion programs are used by organizations with the purpose of communicating the benefits of certain products or services to a group of potential and existing customers ( Reibstein, 1985 ). Sales promotion is widely accepted as an important component in marketing campaigns for inspiring and stimulating quicker and effective response (comprising purchase quantity and speed) to the sales of particular products or services. According to Kotler and Keller (2012) , sales promotion represents a strong incentive tool for attracting consumers and increasing sales volumes. Agrawal (1996) conceptualized sales promotions as an aggressive strategy used by many brands to attract profitable customers and avoid issues of switching to other competitors. Thus, sales promotions are adopted by brands to motivate customers’ purchases and reward fast responses ( Kotler et al. , 2004 ). Other benefits of sales promotion can be achieved by attracting the attention of consumers and influencing their purchase decisions.

In the previous studies, it can be observed that price promotion is one of the main strategies frequently used by a number of marketing managers to exploit their sales and performance ( Zoellner and Schaefers, 2015 ). Essentially, promotional sales that can be grasped through several approaches such as customer coupons, displays and price reductions are usually used in diverse retail stores around the world. Price promotions as explained by Mullin and Cummins (2010) can comprise numerous forms such as buy one and then get the other one free, extra packs and money-off coupons. In the early 1990s, several retailers used price promotions to influence consumers who have price sensitivity by presenting to them the discounts on various product items. Generally, retail managers apply promotion strategies as incentives for obtaining a greater number of consumers and uplift their sales revenues ( Cui et al. , 2016 ). Currently, consumers deemed to be price sensitive tend to have high awareness towards the promotional deals and look for them frequently ( Yeshin, 2006 ).

Sales promotion has a positive effect on purchase decision.

Perceived value has a positive effect on purchase decision.

Based on the above literature review and existing research gaps between the selected variables, the framework for this research is presented as follows ( Figure 1 ).

Methodology

This research aimed to examine the predictors of a purchase decision in the retail industry. Therefore, the data was collected using a survey method from 278 customers of several department stores in East Coast Malaysia. The selection of a quantitative approach to conduct this research was considered appropriate to involve as many participants as possible and obtain larger number of responses. Additionally, a quantitative survey methodology is the researchers’ best choice when the targeted population comprises a larger number of individuals without requiring special skills to fill in the questionnaire. McDaniel and Gates (1998) illustrated that the quantitative survey enables researchers to conduct statistical analysis and generalize the results in a given context. To minimize the response bias and sampling error, the respondents were briefed about the purpose of the study and assured that their answers will be kept confidential.

Before starting the data collection process, the questionnaire was designed based on several measurement items for the constructs. Purchase decision was measured using a five-item scale adapted from the study of Shareef et al. (2008) . Furthermore, the measurement scale of corporate social responsibility was adapted from Tong and Wong (2014) . To measure social media marketing, five items were taken from the study by Schivinski and Dabrowski (2014) . In addition, the items used to measure store environment were taken from the study by Hussain and Ali (2015) . To measure sales promotion, a total of four items were taken from Villarejo-Ramos and Sánchez-Franco (2005) and modified to fit the context of this study. Finally, perceived value was measured using four items taken from Puncheva-Michelotti and Michelotti (2010) . All of the items were measured on a five-point Likert scale which ranges from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Analysis of results

Out of the 384 sets of questionnaires distributed to visitors of department stores in East Coast Malaysia, only 278 responses were received from the participants. While analysing the demographic characteristics, it was found that 54.7 per cent of the respondents were women and men represented 45.3 per cent. The respondents’ profile also showed that most of the participants held a bachelor degree certificate. Additionally, the respondents were classified based on monthly income and it was found that 48 participants (17.2 per cent) received an average income of less than RM 500 per month, while 15 participants (5.4 per cent) obtained a monthly income between RM 501 and RM 1000. A total of 44 responses (52 per cent) were represented by the participants with an average income of RM 1,001 to RM 4,000. Those whose monthly income ranged from RM 4001 and above accounted for 71 (25.4 per cent) responses. Furthermore, the reliability assumptions were established on all constructs and the results revealed that the value of Cronbach’s alpha for the measurement scales of constructs exceeded the cut-off point of 0.70. Therefore, the reliability assumptions are fulfilled ( Appendix ).

For testing the hypotheses of this study, structural equation modelling method was used and the procedure was carried out using AMOS 18. At first, the measurement model comprising all measurement items of the constructs was drawn to calculate confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicated that the factor loadings for remaining items of each construct exceeded 0.50; therefore, convergent validity was achieved. Then, the structural model with the residual items was estimated. According to Hair et al. (2010) , the hypotheses can be tested when the fit indices in the structural model fall in the accepted range. Overall, the findings as shown in Figure 2 indicate that the structural model for this study maintained a reasonable fit with the data with the chi-square value being 376.333 1( p = 0.000); values of other criteria (GFI = 0.841, AGFI = 0.792, df = 230, TLI = 0.909, CFI = 0.924 and RMSEA = 0.063) attained the acceptable cut-off point based on the suggestions of Hair et al. (2010) .

To check the normal distribution of the data set, multicollinearity was calculated using AMOS 18 for all variables. According to Tabachnick and Fidell (2001) , multicollinearity issues exist when the relationship between any two distinct variables is 0.90 or more. As shown in Table I , the relationship between any two different variables is less than 0.90; thus, there is no sign of multicollinearity issues in the current data set. Furthermore, the discriminant validity among the constructs was verified by computing the average variance extracted (AVE) and correlation values between each pair of constructs. As cited by de Pablos (2016) , Bagozzi et al. (1991) reported that discriminant validity is achieved when the correlation values between pairs of constructs are less than 1.00. This was further advocated by Mohammad and Yusoff (2017) who stated that discriminant validity exists when the correlation values between pairs constructs are below 0.95. Overall, the output confirmed the existence of discriminant validity among the constructs.

After achieving an acceptable fit for the structural model and fulfilling the reliability and validity assumptions, the hypotheses in this study were verified. The results presented in Table II show that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive effect on purchase decision ( β = 0.188, C.R. = 1.803, p < 0.10); hence, H1 is accepted. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that social media marketing has an insignificant effect on purchase decision ( β = −0.165, C.R. = –1.536, p > 0.05); therefore, H2 is rejected. Moreover, the analysis confirmed that store environment has a significant positive effect on purchase decision ( β = 0.351, C.R. = 2.637, p < 0.05); consequently, H3 is accepted. The results also indicated that sales promotion ( β = −0.158, C.R. = −2.035, p < 0.05) has a significant positive effect on purchase decision; thus, H4 is rejected. Finally, the findings of this paper showed that perceived value has a significant positive effect on purchase decision ( β = 0.593, C.R. = 4.142, p < 0.05), which implied that that H5 is validated. Overall, these factors explain 72 per cent of the total variance in purchase decision.

Discussion and conclusion

This study aimed to examine the effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, sales promotion, store environment and perceived value on purchase decision in the retail industry. The findings revealed that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive effect on purchase decision and this is in line with previous researches ( Elg and Hultman, 2016 ; Green and Peloza, 2011 ). Hassan et al. (2013) stated that if individuals feel that a brand has social responsibility towards them and the society, they will prefer to select its products/services. Similarly, Handelman and Arnold (1999) found that marketing activities which are socially responsible influence consumers’ evaluation of a brand and enhance their willingness to purchase its offerings. The second purpose of this paper was to test the link between social media marketing and purchase decision. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that the effect of social media marketing on a consumer’s purchase decision is insignificant. The insignificant result could be attributed to the lack of or inefficient marketing activities among the selected retail stores through social media. Additionally, negative word of mouth through social media sites could lead to negative perceptions among consumers, which may hinder their purchase intentions. Overall, social media sites can be a strong platform for building brand awareness, but its effect on purchase decision may not be strong enough in the retail context.

The findings of this study also showed that the store environment has a significant positive impact on purchase decision. The result was supported by many scholars ( Amofah et al. , 2016 ; Hasan et al. , 2016 ) who confirmed that the store environment plays an important role in affecting consumer purchase behaviour. Mahmood and Khan (2014) indicated that the store environment enables a brand to distinguish itself from competitors, thus leading to favourable customer’s choice. Therefore, store environment is an important means through which retailers can influence consumers’ behaviour and their purchase decisions. Furthermore, the results revealed that sales promotion has a negative effect on purchase decision. Eleboda (2017) also confirmed that sales promotion had a negative impact on consumer purchase decision. The result was supported by Santini et al. (2015) who stated that much discount leads to a state of discomfort among consumer, which will ultimately causes a sense of caution highlighted earlier, associating negatively with the hedonic features. Furthermore, Simonson et al. (1994) confirmed that sales promotion had a negative impact on brands. Similar views were shared by Shrestha (2015) who revealed that sales promotion does not have any effect on brand building and may lead to declining impacts for the brand, especially those which are well established. Thus, this study concludes that sales promotions could have a negative effect on consumers’ perceptions towards brand quality as lower priced items tend to have low quality.

Finally, the outcomes of this research confirmed that perceived value has a significant positive effect on purchase decision. The results were supported by a number of researchers ( Astuti, Silalahi, and Wijaya, 2015 ; Bakırtaş, 2013 ; Cheng et al. , 2006 ; Nochai and Nochai, 2011 ) who reported that perceived value plays a significant role in affecting purchase decision. Demirgünescedil (2015) also reported that perceived value plays an important role in affecting consumers’ purchase decisions. This means that marketing programs associated with added values reinforce consumers’ purchases and improve organizational profitability. Consequently, retailers are recommended to cultivate their customer value to attain greater competitive advantages in the presence of competitive marketplace environment. This study also suggests that retailers should focus on communicating their product values to customers and compare their prices with those competitors and observe how they influence consumers’ purchase decisions.

This study has some limitations which would provide directions for future research. Firstly, the main focus of the study was restricted to department stores and involved only consumers. Therefore, future studies can extend the scope by collecting the data at different areas in the country and include several staff of department stores to get better insights into the important factors in retail sector. Secondly, the data were gathered through quantitative survey using structured questions; thus, future studies can involve other research methodologies to confirm the findings. Additionally, the sample size used in this study may not be enough to represent the population. Thus, future studies are recommended to rely on larger sample sizes and in different industry contexts. Future studies may also examine other marketing factors, such as cultural factors and reference groups to gain further insights about their role in affecting consumers’ purchase decision in the retail sector. Finally, only five independent variables were examined in this study; hence, future research can consider other factors that can influence consumers’ purchase decision in the Malaysian retail sector such as service quality and store image.

Implications

The examination of the direct effects of corporate social responsibility, social media marketing, store environment, sales promotion and perceived value on purchase decision in the retail industry provides a theoretical contribution to the existing literature in this field. This study is one of the few research studies which attempted to examine the causal link between these variables. Particularly, the findings have theoretical significance by providing empirical evidence with regard to the relationships between the stated factors and purchase decision. Furthermore, there are useful practical implications for the business practitioners of retail stores. Managers can benefit from the results of this research to achieve better recognition and sustainable competitive advantage. The findings of this study also indicate that managers should understand the implications with respect to social media marketing in the Malaysian context; although this variable was found to be insignificant in affecting purchase decision in the retail context, it may yield different outcomes in future research.

Research framework

Structural model

Discriminant validity

Results of hypotheses

Measurements of constructs

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Corresponding author

About the author.

Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha is currently a Senior Lecturer at DRB-HICOM University of Automotive Malaysia. He obtained his PhD majoring in Management from Universiti Utara Malaysia, Malaysia, in 2015, as well as an MSc (Management) from Universiti Utara Malaysia in 2011. He also received a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Arab American University – Jenin, Palestine in 2008. To date, he has published more than 45 research articles in international journals and conferences. He has also received several awards for best research papers being presented at local and international conferences. His research interests include business management and marketing, in particular branding, consumer behaviour, social media marketing, CSR, business and product innovation, human resource practices, and business strategy.

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Research: Consumers Spend Loyalty Points and Cash Differently

• So Yeon Chun,
• Freddy Lim,
• Ville Satopää

Your loyalty strategy needs to consider four ways people value points.

Do consumers treat loyalty points the same way that they treat traditional money? And, how do they choose to spend one versus the other?  The authors of this article present research findings from their analysis of  data describing over 29,000 unique loyalty points earning and spending transactions made during two recent years by 500 airline loyalty program consumers.  They found that points users fell into four distinct categories: 1) Money advocates, who prefer cash over points, even when their value is identical in terms of purchasing power; 2)  Currency impartialists, who regard points and cash interchangeably, valuing them equally based on their financial worth; 3) Point gamers, who actively seek out the most advantageous point redemption opportunities, opting to spend points particularly when their value significantly surpasses that of cash; and 4) Point lovers, who value points more than money even if their purchase power is the same or lower. This article explores the strategic implications of these findings for companies that manage loyalty programs.

In the years since The Economist  spotlighted the astonishing scale of loyalty points — particularly frequent-flyer miles — as a potential global currency rivaling traditional money in 2005, usage has grown rapidly in size and scope. For example, the number of flight redemptions at Southwest Airlines doubled from 5.4 million in 2013 (representing 9.5% of revenue passenger miles) to 10.9 million in 2023 (representing 16.3% of revenue passenger miles).

• SC So Yeon Chun is an Associate Professor of Technology & Operations Management at INSEAD, a  global business school with campuses in Abu Dhabi, France, and Singapore.
• FL Freddy Lim is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Analytics at the National University of Singapore, School of Computing in Singapore
• VS Ville Satopää is an Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD, a  global business school with campuses in Abu Dhabi, France, and Singapore.

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• Credit Cards

3 Reasons I Pay for Everything With a Credit Card

Published on Aug. 28, 2024

By: Lyle Daly

• By paying for everything with a credit card, I earn travel points on all my spending.
• Many credit cards have complimentary protections on eligible purchases and zero-liability fraud policies.
• It's easier to pay with a credit card than a debit card, since you don't need to keep track of your checking account balance when making purchases.

Credit cards are controversial. You might've heard at least a few horror stories about them from people who have ended up in debt. Even some financial gurus are completely against credit cards. Based on that, the idea of using them for all your purchases could seem like a huge risk.

1. I earn travel rewards on all my spending

The main reason I love paying by credit card is because it allows me to earn rewards on my purchases. Personally, I'm a huge fan of travel rewards cards . Every time I use my cards, I earn travel points. I use these points later to cover my largest travel expenses, which is typically business-class airfare or stays at highly rated hotels.

If you don't travel that much, or you'd just rather have rewards you can use at any time, there are also plenty of cash back credit cards . Earning cash back is one of the easiest ways to save more money. You can apply your cash back as a statement credit toward your credit card balance, or you can deposit it to your bank account balance.

For an idea of how valuable credit card rewards can be, let's say you spend about $4,000 per month on your credit cards. You use a card that earns 2% back on purchases. You'd earn $960 every year in credit card rewards. That's value you wouldn't get if you paid in cash or by debit card. There are some options for rewards checking accounts, but they don't earn nearly as much as rewards credit cards.

2. I get purchase and fraud protections

When I make a purchase, I want to feel as if I'm covered if anything goes wrong. For example, your online order isn't delivered, and the seller is unresponsive. Your laptop gets accidentally damaged a few days after buying it, or it breaks down right after the warranty expires.

Paying by credit card could protect you in all of those situations, and many more. With just about any credit card, you can dispute transactions if there's an issue you can't resolve with the merchant. If your order isn't delivered or it's defective, you could file a dispute with your card issuer and potentially get your money back.

Many credit cards also have complimentary protections that apply to eligible purchases. These may include:

• Purchase protection for new purchases that are damaged or stolen
• Extended warranty protection
• Travel insurance, such as rental car insurance and lost luggage insurance

Credit cards also keep you safe from fraud. Card issuers typically have zero-liability policies for fraud. If a transaction is fraudulent, you can dispute it and have it taken off your credit card bill.

3. It's more convenient

I'm not the type of person who likes to keep a lot of cash in a checking account. I'd rather have as much of my money as possible invested or in a high-yield savings account. If I paid for purchases with my debit card, I'd need to keep track of my checking account balance to make sure I didn't overdraft it.

With credit cards, I don't have that problem. The cards I use most often have credit limits much higher than what I spend in a month. I just use them for whatever I need, without worrying about my balance in relation to my credit limit. I also pay my credit card bills in full every month, bringing the balances back down to $0.

What to know about using credit cards

Paying for everything by credit card has its benefits and risks. Using credit cards only works in your favor if you stick to your normal spending habits and pay off your full balance every month. You'll stay out of debt and avoid interest charges this way.

If you do that, you'll come out ahead with credit cards. You'll be able to earn cash rewards or travel points on your spending. You'll be protected in the event of fraud, and your card may also have useful purchase protections, too. Last but not least, you won't need to monitor your checking account balance, like you do when paying with a debit card.

Our Research Expert

Lyle Daly is a freelance writer who has been covering personal finance since 2016.

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