the impact of tiktok on young people’s online impulse buying behaviour

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS ---*****---RESEARCH REPORT Topic : THE IMPACT OF TIKTOK ON YOUNG PEOPLE’S ONLINE IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOUR Instructor Course

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

-***** -RESEARCH REPORT

Topic :

THE IMPACT OF TIKTOK ON YOUNG PEOPLE’S

ONLINE IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOUR

Instructor Course Group

: Ph.D Pham Thi Cam Anh

KTEE206(GĐ1-HK1-2223).1 : Group 12

Hanoi, September 2022.

Table of Contents

I ABSTRACT 3

II INTRODUCTION 3

III LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1 Impulse buying behavior: 5

2 Online impulse buying: 6

3 Social commerce: 6

4 Research model and hypothesis: 7

IV RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS 8

1 Product-related cognitive stimulation and emotional responses (perceived speciality, perceived enjoyment) 8

2 Perception of enjoyment, confidence and emotional impulse buying impulse: 9

V METHOD 9

1 Cronbach’s alpha: 9

2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA): 9

3 Pearson analysis: 10

VI RESEARCH ETHICS 11

VII APPENDIX 14

VIII.REFERENCES 14

I ABSTRACT

With the rapid development of technology as well as the global economy, the way humans purchase merchandise is also stimulated and gradually transferred to many new forms One of the most popular forms of shopping today is online shopping Users will perform the product information browsing and payment process through popular e-commerce sites This is the condition for the birth of a completely new e-commerce model named s-commerce Many social network founders have taken advantage of the interaction between social network users to commercialize users’ activities to increase revenue TikTok is also one of the applications that have done this very well However, not many previous studies have clarified this phenomenon Thus, our group decided to use the S-O-R model

to study the product-related stimuli (visual appeal, product feasible) on the organism (perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness), towards the urge to purchase impulsively This study collected primary data through the distribution and data of close-ended questionnaires across online channels The findings conclude that visual appeal and product feasibility have direct relationships with perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness; and indirect impact on an urge to purchase impulsively In addition, the study emphasizes the existence of the positive effect of perceived enjoyment and perceived usefulness among TikTok users on their impulsive buying behavior

II INTRODUCTION

Over seventy years ago, the importance of understanding impulse purchasing in retail stores was first identified in marketing literature (Clover, 1950) Impulse buying can be interpreted as unplanned purchases that are the result of stimulus and decided on the spot (Piron, 1991), made both in-person and online by the consumer The proliferation of e-commerce and social networking sites has increased this practice Thus, in this research, we attempt to focus on online on-the-spot purchases, more precisely, on the influence of TikTok on the impulsive online buying behavior of young generation

TikTok is a million-user social networking site that has been growing rapidly in the last 3 years, especially when the social lockdown was implemented due to the outbreak of COVID-19 It is an application that allows users to make and post videos under 3 minutes, known as TikTok in general and Douyin in China Vietnam is currently one of the Southeast Asian countries with the highest TikTok user growth (Ogechi Adeola and Olaniyi Evans, 2020) According to Nguyen Lam Thanh, TikTok's policy director in Vietnam, by the end of March 2020, the platform had 12 million regular registered users in Vietnam With the advancement

of electronic commerce and the superiority of TikTok, many international and local brands have conducted their marketing campaigns on this platform, which has stimulated users’ shopping behavior as well as brand awareness As a result, in

2022, TikTok has developed its own purchasing channel, called TikTok Shop

Gen Z is a topic that has received significant attention recently on social media They are considered as the generation grown up in the age of digital communication (Ogechi Adeola and Olaniyi Evans, 2020) Compared to other age groups, these audiences consume information more often, spending approximately

11 hours each day reading, liking, and sharing content across all of their devices (Adobe, 2018) Therefore, they have become the most potential customers to marketing strategies of brands This target audience’s shopping behavior is often affected through texts and images, which sometimes leads to spontaneous purchasing decisions

There have been numerous studies contributing to our understanding of impulse buying, but still a lack of researchers investigating how 'vlog' content like TikTok affects unplanned purchase behaviors Thus, in this article, our purpose is to: review and analyze the literature to make more precise the concept of impulse buying; and examine the influence of TikTok on young consumers' impulse shopping behavior

Our team had made a great effort to research theories and collect data from surveys to complete this report However, due to lack of research experience as well as time limitation, errors cannot be avoided We are looking forward to receiving Ph.D Pham Thi Cam Anh’s comments to improve our research qualification

Sincere thanks from the research group!

III LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Impulse buying behavior:

The first research on impulse purchase can be found in the

"POPAI/DuPont consumer buying habits study," which took place from 1948

to 1965 and was primarily concerned with understanding how this phenomena occurred and its scope In early studies, researchers discovered that an impulse buy is similar to an unplanned purchase, which is the difference between a consumer's total purchases at the end of a shopping trip and those that were recorded as planned purchases before entering a store (Clover, 1950)

Applebaum (1951) developed a concept of stimulus exposure into the concept of impulse buying, defining it as a purchase that was most likely not planned by the buyer prior to entering a store, but occurred as a result of a stimulus provided by sales promotion equipment in the store Although this was an improvement over the earlier definition, it was still a limited definition because the stimulus discussed by Applebaum (1951) is limited to sales advertising equipment at the store

Several researchers have argued that describing impulse buying only on the basis of unplanned buying is rather simplistic (Stern, 1962;Kollat and Willett, R P., 1969; Rook, 1987), and that while all impulse buying is unplanned, not all unplanned purchases are necessarily decided impulsively (Iyer et al., 2020) In this way, Stern (1962) identified four types of impulsive purchasing:

(i) Planned impulse buying: occurs when a customer decides to make a specific purchase based on the price discounts, coupon offers, and the like

(ii) Reminded impulse buying: occurs when a shopper sees an item and recalls an advertisement or other information

(iii) Suggestion impulse buying: occurs when a shopper sees a product for the first time and visualizes a need for it

(iv) Pure impulse buying: is a novelty or escape purchase which breaks a regular purchasing pattern

Over time, researchers started to focus more on consumer traits rather than product qualities or stimuli as it became clear that impulse buying was not restricted to any certain product or product category (Rook, 1987) In numerous research, the hedonic or affective aspects of this kind of purchasing were highlighted (Cobb and Hoyer, 1986; Piron, 1991; Rook, 1987) Rook (1987) also affirmed that consumers often felt a calling to purchase the product

“Impulse buying occurs when a consumer experiences a sudden, often powerful and persistent urge to buy something immediately The impulse to buy is hedonically complex and may stimulate emotional conflict Also,

impulse buying is prone to occur with diminished regard for its consequences.” (Rook, 1987)

Future research will continue to concentrate on the study of customer behavior during the purchasing decision-making process with the aim of identifying internal (personal traits) and external (advertising, product characteristics) elements that influence impulse buying (Amos et al., 2014); Bhakat and Muruganantham, 2013)

Based on previous definitions, an impulse buying decision has three features: First, the decision is spontaneous and unplanned Second, the consumers have little regard for the consequences of their purchasing decisions Third, the purchasing decision is triggered by some instantaneous, overpowering and persistent desire

2 Online impulse buying:

With the strong development of the Internet and potential online shopping services, studies on impulsive online shopping behavior are essential (Dawson and Kim, 2009) Dawson and Kim analyzed and evaluated the impact

of internal and external factors on impulse buying behavior They studied the affective-cognitive aspects and produced a finding of a relationship between a person's affective and cognitive state and their online impulse-buying behavior (Bhakat and Muruganantham, 2013) Its implication is providing useful information for both marketers and consumers globally

According to Rook and Fisher's definition, impulse buying is buying behavior that is strongly, suddenly and persistently stimulated to buy something spontaneously and immediately Therefore, with online shopping channel, impulse buying is more likely to occur than in offline counterpart (Wu

et al., 2020)

Online shopping applications often have a live-streaming feature This is

a feature that helps increase impulse buying Sellers can describe product details and try them on for customers in real time (Abdelsalam et al., 2020) Besides, users of these social networking platforms can also interact with other customers and sellers This kind of interaction can trigger online impulse buying behavior easily

3 Social commerce:

S-commerce is a new phenomenon with four unique features including:

“interactivity, collaboration, community, and social aspects.” (Abdelsalam et al., 2020) It, is defined as a new business model of E-commerce, applies Web 2.0 technology and social media to online buy and sell activities (Han et al., 2018)

Zhan and Benyoucef divide S-commerce into two categories: “(1) social network-based sites that integrate commercial features to allow transactions

and advertisements, (2) traditional E-commerce based sites that add social tools

to facilitate social interaction and sharing” (Abdelsalam et al., 2020) Therefore, in this research we study the TikTok application as a kind of S-commerce

Given the unique nature of S-commerce, this phenomenon has led to a significant increase in online IBB, and most of the sales revenue from S-commerce also come from IB Thus, businesses need to clearly identify the factors that affect IBB consumers in an interactive environment as S-commerce (Abdelsalam et al., 2020)

4 Research model and hypothesis:

The S-O-R model with the foundation of stimulus-response theory is one of the most typical theories for studying human behavior It consists of three main parts and analyzes humans' affective and cognitive states influenced

by environmental stimuli

In this model, the stimulus (S) is environmental factors which cause two types of behavioral responses (R)—approach or avoidance These behaviors are

a result of humans' affective and cognitive intermediate states (O) to different cues in the environment

Our research applies the SOR model to analyze environmental stimulus (visual appeal, product feasible), organism (perceived enjoyment, perceived usefulness), and response (urge to purchase impulsively) Based on these explanations, figure 1 summarizes the research model of this study

Table 1: S-O-R model

H4

H3 H2

H1a H1b

Impulse buying behavior

Perceived usefullness

Perceived enjoyment

Oganism

Product

feasibility

Visual appeal

Stimulus

IV RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

1 Product-related cognitive stimulation and emotional responses (perceived speciality, perceived enjoyment)

To analyze the potential influence of atmospheric qualities of an online store, Eroglu (2001) divided the environmental characteristics into two categories: high task-relevant environment and low task-relevant environment (Eroglu et al., 2001, p 179) The site's environmental characteristics can cause users' cognitive and affective responses (ie, perceived speciality and perceived enjoyment) (Chen et al., 2020)

High task-relevant features are reflected through visual appeal Visual appeal refers to the presentation of product information through multiple visual elements and hedonistic characteristics (Chen et al., 2020, p 218) They create vivid images and visually present information to attract customers' affective responses more easily As a result, users become more interested in browsing web information So we have:

H1a: The visual appeal of the product is positively associated with the perceived enjoyment.

When users enjoy the process of finding information on e-commerce, they will find it easier to buy merchandise online and realize the usefulness of these s-commerce platforms “The more visual elements users perceive from social commerce, the more likely they are to see social commerce as a shopping platform.” (Chen et al., 2020, p 218)

H1b: The visual appeal of the TikTok application is positively associated with the perceived usefulness of the recommended.

Information feasibility is the level of accuracy, professionalism, and relevance to the current task of information presented on the s-commerce

website (Ting-Peng Liang, 2011) Therefore, the higher the feasibility of the

recommended product, the stronger the customers' sense of pleasure when surfing on the websites (Chen et al., 2020, p 218)

H2: The feasibility of the recommended product is positively associated with the perceived enjoyment.

The relationship between cognitive and affective states has been extensively studied and it has been found that cognition has a positive impact

on emotion (Chen et al., 2020, p 218) When users find the usefulness of s-commerce applications, they will tend to use them with fun If online shopping applications can solve related-purchased tasks, users may form emotional relationships

H3: Perceived usefulness positively affects perceived enjoyment.

2 Perception of enjoyment, confidence and emotional impulse buying impulse:

With the increase of satisfaction when shopping online, customers' exploration behavior may be stimulated In virtual environments, if online consumers enjoy their shopping experience, they may conduct more exploratory browsing on the network, leading to more unplanned buying

H4: Perceived enjoyment positively affects the urge to buy impulsively.

The study analyzed both primary and secondary data to provide an overview of the effect of TikTok on young people's online impulse purchasing behavior Secondary information is gathered, drawn from reports of businesses and departments engaged in e-commerce and marketing as well as study conducted by earlier researchers Primary data are gathered using survey techniques in accordance with consumer survey questions

The respondents who are between the ages of 18 and 35 and have experience visiting TikTok and e-commerce websites were chosen for the survey sample in accordance with the practical sampling approach The research team selected the observed variables suitable to the survey reality of the research paper through the process of researching and reviewing previous related research articles, and from there, designed a scale for the model The scale used in this study includes: the stimulus S (2 observed variables), organism O (2 observed variables) The impact of the observed variables that the research team develops will be measured using a Likert scale with a scale of 1-5 (with 1 being the weakest impact and 5 being the strongest)

While there are a variety of techniques to conduct factor analysis like Principal Component Analysis or Independent Component Analysis, we decided to adopt the 3 following types:

1 Cronbach’s alpha:

Cronbach’s alpha was developed by Lee Cronbach in 1951, measures reliability, or internal consistency Cronbach’s alpha tests are to see if multiple-question Likert scale surveys are reliable These multiple-questions measure variables which are hidden or unobservable like: a person’s preference, or openness These are very challenging to measure in real life Cronbach’s alpha will show you how closely related a set of test items are as a group

2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA):

EFA, invented by Bartholomew (1995), is a statistical technique that is used

to reduce data to a smaller set of summary variables and to explore the underlying

theoretical structure of the phenomena It is used to identify the relationship between the variable and the respondent EFA is often recommended when researchers have no hypotheses about the nature of the underlying factor structure

in their study

3 Pearson analysis:

The Pearson coefficient, developed by Karl Pearson, is a type of correlation coefficient that represents the relationship between two variables that are measured

on the same ratio scale The Pearson coefficient is a measure of the strength of the association between two continuous variables

About determining sample size and collecting the data, according to Hair et

al (2010), the sample size for the EFA exploratory factor analysis method analysis must be at least 5 times greater than the total number of observed variables The main scale of this article includes 4 observed variables, so the group's minimum sample size is 20 The minimum sample size required for multivariable regression analysis is n=50+8*m (m: number of independent variables) (Tabachnick and Fidell, 1996) So there must be at least 66 samples As a result, when deciding on the number of samples, the above two formulas must be met, and the principle of excess is preferable to a lack of samples must be followed Because this study employs both methods, the sample size should be at least 20

Rating scale: Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient, an exploratory factor analysis method (EFA), Pearson analysis and corrections (if any) were used by the research team to test the reliability and reasonableness of the variables in the scale and provide the results official scale appropriate for the research topic Data from Stata

Analyze and evaluate data: EFA exploratory factor analysis and Pearson analysis are combined to examine correlation analysis, the linear relationship between independent variables and dependent variables, and to make judgments about the impact of the independent variables on the research problem

Hypothesis testing: Perform regression analysis with Stata software to measure the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable and thus prove the research hypothesis that the research team set about the correlation between variables is correct

The research team collected samples via an online survey with a three-part questionnaire (specifically, the first part of the questionnaire included questions related to personal information such as gender, university, major of study, and tendency to purchase online; the second part is designed to measure the impact of factors on the young people's impulsive online purchasing behavior; and the third part is analyzing young people's perceptions of online impulsive buying behavior) The survey was created on the Google Forms platform and sent to the respondents via Internet channels including email and social media (Gmail, MailChimp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Zalo)