Impulse purchases during emergency situations: exploring permission marketing and the role of blockchain
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0799 |
| Published date | 26 April 2022 |
| Date | 26 April 2022 |
| Pages | 155-187 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems |
| Author | Achint Nigam,Abhishek Behl,Vijay Pereira,Shreya Sangal |
Impulse purchases during
emergency situations:
exploring permission marketing
and the role of blockchain
Achint Nigam
Birla Institute of Technology and Science–Pilani Campus, Pilani, India
Abhishek Behl
Management Development Institute Gurgaon, Gurgaon, India
Vijay Pereira
NEOMA Business School–Campus de Reims, Reims, France, and
Shreya Sangal
Birla Institute of Technology and Science–Pilani Campus, Pilani, India
Abstract
Purpose –The paper explores how consumer behavior for purchasing impulse products changed in the
complex and disruptive (emergency) situation of the COVID-19 pandemic when the customer is shopping in-
home and not visiting the offline stores in an emerging economy context. This paper further explores how
digital transformations like the use of blockchain technology can aid offline/omnichannel retailers in reviving
sales via permission marketing for impulse products.
Design/methodology/approach –The authors followed a qualitative research design and conducted 24
personal interviews with millennials and 15 interviews with offline/omnichannel retailers from an emerging
economy. The data collected were analyzed using the thematic analysis procedure.
Findings –The authors discuss their findings under three themes –customers’conscious impulse buying
during the pandemic, customers’unconscious impulse buying during the pandemic, and a viable solution for
retailers in response to the pandemic.
Practical implications –The authors suggest that marketers primarily from an offline/omnichannel store
should adapt to permission marketing and use technologies like blockchain for the digital transformation of
their marketing strategies. Doing so can help offline retailers minimize future damages in the retail sector
during emergency situations.
Originality/value –This paper is one of the first that explores how impulse –pure,suggestion, planned and
reminder –purchases got affected during the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in an emerging economy. This
paper is also one of the first to explore the roleof permission marketing and digitaltransformation by the use of
blockchain in helping offline retailers in forming swift trust and practice trust-based marketing.
Keywords Impulse buying, Blockchain, Consumer trust, Digital transformation, Permission marketing,
Retailing
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Consumer consumption changes when there is a change in context. The changing context can
be social, technological, regulatory or ad hoc natural disasters (Cruz-C
ardenas et al., 2021;
Sheth, 2020;Sheth and Kellstadt, 2021). Recently, customers’buying behavior has been
impacted worldwide due to the pandemic (ad hoc natural disasters). At the onset of the
pandemic, scared customers had cut unnecessary expenditures (Eger et al., 2021;Sheth, 2020).
However, customers have adapted to changing environments for better or worse. With the
pandemic looming ahead, customers are still scared to move out and make purchases.
However, economic conditions are improving compared to the early pandemic days. These
Impulse
purchases and
blockchain
155
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0263-5577.htm
Received 30 December 2021
Revised 28 February 2022
3 April 2022
Accepted 6 April 2022
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 123 No. 1, 2023
pp. 155-187
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-12-2021-0799
uncertain emergencies restrict customers from moving and shopping. Customers prefer to
have necessities delivered to their locations (Roggeveen and Sethuraman, 2020;Sheth, 2020).
For example, watching movies in theaters has been replaced by movies delivered to personal
devices via OTT platforms (Arkenberg et al., 2020;Nigam, 2021). In-person restaurants and
fast food meals have been replaced by takeaways, meals delivered by gig workers or
increased consumption of ready-to-eat meals (Cummins et al., 2020;Filimonau, 2021;Poelman
et al., 2021). Gym membership has been replaced by online classes and in-home fitness
equipment (Nyenhuis et al., 2020). Shopping in retail malls and convenience stores have been
replaced with in-home delivery via offline or online retailers (Roggeveen and Sethuraman,
2020;Sheth, 2020). These changes disrupt conventional buyer behavior, and new buyer
behavior emerges with everything in-home consumption (Sheth, 2020). The customer is now
adapting to the new normal and consuming everything at home, and this shift may last longer
as the pandemic is far from over. New variants of COVID-19 that are more communicable
have emerged, and businesses are seeing significant disruptions once again (Pulliam et al.,
2021). Many businesses failed when the first occurrence of COVID-19 appeared in 2020 and
thereafter, owing to the pandemic. The survivors found their sales figures at a fraction of the
pre-pandemic level (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020). With the pandemic being the new normal,
businesses need to become resilient to survive, serve existing customers and attract new ones.
Offline retail is still the most extensive retailing channel in emerging economies such as
India (IBEF, 2021). Impulse purchases constitute a significant part of revenue for the retailers
(Soler et al., 2019). Previous literature has shown that product characteristics influence the
offline sale of impulse products and other environmental characteristics, such as store layout
and store atmosphere (Amos et al., 2014;Bellini et al., 2017;Chan, 2020;Stern, 1962). Up to
60% of a customer’s shopping cart consists of products purchased impulsively. Gen-Z and
millennials are 50% more likely to make impulse purchases than older generations do (Amos
et al., 2014;Mattila and Wirtz, 2008;Wood, 2013). We use Stern’s (1962) classification of
impulse buying into pure, reminder, suggestion and planned impulse buying. It is necessary
to use the classification of impulse rather than considering impulse as a whole because not all
products are purchased with similar impulses. Some impulses are emotional, whereas others
are rational. To the best of our knowledge, no prior study has explored consumer behavior
toward impulse purchases, as per Stern’s (1962) classification. With most offline stores
inaccessible to customers, it is interesting to see how the sale of impulse products was
influenced during the pandemic. This leads to our first research question:
RQ1. What impact has the pandemic had on millennials’purchase behavior of impulse
products?
Companies need to develop new products and services that remain continuously relevant.
Various forms of promotional campaigns precede the adoption of new products (Lee et al.,
2011), which are purchased either on pure or suggestion impulses, as customers are unaware
of the utility of such products in totality (Amos et al., 2014;Stern, 1962). With limited customer
mobility, offline retailers find it challenging to reach consumers primarily to promote and sell
impulse products. Therefore, marketers can maximize this impact if there is a significant
negative impact on the sale of impulse products via offline channels. This leads to our second
research question:
RQ2. What can offline retailers do to increase sales of new products for customers
shopping in-home?
While trying to answer RQ2, we emphasize permission marketing (Bhatia, 2020).
Furthermore, businesses are rapidly adopting technologies to undergo digital
transformations to counter the effects of disruptions. Transformation must meet the
criteria of the three “Bs”–it must be big, bold and lead to better outcomes (Gong and Ribiere,
IMDS
123,1
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2021). Digital transformation is the departure from traditional activities to innovative digital
models and technologies. Marketers have undergone digital transformations using
disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics and AR/VR, to
facilitate the functioning of their businesses (Bozkurt and Durak, 2018;Hanelt et al., 2021;
Hildebrand, 2019;Schnack et al., 2021;Zhen et al., 2022). These technologies have allowed
marketers and customers to transact more efficiently. AI and robotics enable marketers to
automate regular tasks such as customer care, recommendation systems and order
fulfillment without human intervention. This allows marketers to provide round-the-clock
services to customers, thereby increasing customer satisfaction. There is a need to
understand how offline marketers can leverage disruptive technologies, such as blockchain,
gamification and AR/VR, as digital transformation agents in influencing consumer impulse
purchase behavior during emergencies. This leads to our final research question:
RQ3. To what extent can blockchain and other emerging technologies act as digital
transformation tools to revive the purchase of impulse products for offline
retailers?
While trying to answer RQ3, we emphasize blockchain technology (Bhatia, 2020;Queiroz and
Wamba, 2019). To answer these research questions, we use theories of impulse buying,
trust-based marketing, swift trust, consumer trust, guilt and satisfaction as our theoretical
underpinnings (Amos et al., 2014;Blomqvist and Cook, 2018;Saintives and Lunardo, 2016;
Zhang, 2006).
We used the qualitative method of personal interviews (PI) for data collection from Indian
millennials and offline retailers. We analyzed the data via thematic analysis to understand
how consumer behavior has changed with “In-home everything”for each impulse type (Amos
et al., 2014;Stern, 1962). Our “In-home everything”scope covers products sold by pure click,
omnichannel and brick-and-mortar stores that deliver products at the customer’s location
(Sheth, 2020). Further, we explore strategies for offline retailers to increase impulse product
consumption by customers in the new normal. Specifically, we explore whether permission
marketing rejuvenates impulse buying for customers in the new normal market and helps
ailing offline retailers. We also explore how offline retailers thrive in disruptive situations
such as the pandemic by undergoing digital transformation via technologies such as BCT.
We present our findings under three themes: customers’conscious impulse buying during the
pandemic, their unconscious impulse buying during the pandemic, and a viable solution for
retailers in response to the pandemic. Finally, we propose a conceptual plan that uses
permission marketing and technology to bring a store to the customer when the customer
cannot come to the store.
In the following sections, we provide a literature review, followed by the methodology
used in this study. We then present a detailed discussion of the themes found by thematic
analysis of the data. Finally, we conclude the study with theoretical and managerial
implications, limitations and directions for future research.
2. Literature review
2.1 Impulse buying
Customers’purchases can be divided into planned and unplanned purchases (Sohn and Ko,
2021;Suher and Hoyer, 2020). The customer regularly purchases items that were not planned
before entering an offline store or logging into an e-commerce website. Such customer buying
behavior is called “unplanned buying”(Amos et al., 2014;Sohn and Ko, 2021;Stern, 1962;
Suher and Hoyer, 2020). Impulse buying has been formally defined “as a sudden, hedonically
complex purchase behavior in which the rapidity of the impulse purchase precludes any
thoughtful, deliberate consideration of alternative or future implications”(Sharma et al., 2010,
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