Researchers study psychology of compulsive online shopping

Research has investigated compulsive online shopping behavior in India, with a specific focus aimed at unzipping the triggers and antecedents related to the purchase of jeans. The research is published in the International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations.

D. Manimegalai of the Department of Management Studies and S. Senthilkumar of the College of Management at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Tamil Nadu, India, carried out an online survey with more than 200 participants. They identified several factors that drive compulsive shopping tendencies among different demographic groups, including both male and female consumers.

The team has identified, through a detailed statistical analysis of their survey results, what compels shoppers to by denim trousers. Internal triggers, such as emotions and personal experiences, interact with external stimuli like online usage patterns and social influences to shape the purchasing decisions of online shoppers. Their findings could help marketing executives better understand consumer behavior and so develop strategies to sell more jeans online.

The researchers point out that there are almost three-quarters of a billion pairs of jeans sold each year in India. That suggests on average that the population as a whole has a new pair of jeans every two years. But, the assumption is that everyone from toddlers to senior adults wears jeans.

However, the research does suggest that there is a lot of compulsive behavior and presumably a lot of adults with disposable income buying many more pairs of genes than that glib average would suggest.

Such repetitive buying may have future financial implications as well as highlighting latent social and psychological well-being issues. This would be especially the case if the compulsive buying extended to other products and led to increasing levels of debt.

Indeed, the findings hint at the role of loneliness, anxiety, and novelty-seeking tendencies in driving compulsive shopping. The work thus highlights a responsibility and the need for targeted interventions and support mechanisms.