THE ROLE OF WEB STORE STIMULI ON CUSTOMERS' IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOUR THROUGH BRAND PERCEPTION

In light of prevailing technological advancements, online shopping has become increasingly prevalent. A well-designed webpage interface, particularly in terms of visual appeal, has the potential to evoke customer emotions such as pleasure and arousal, thereby stimulating impulse buying among consumers. In contrast to global brands, local web stores have faced challenges in devising strategies to cultivate an environment conducive to enhancing brand perception and encouraging impulsive buying behavior, specifically in the realm of online local brand retailing. Previous studies have primarily focused on customers’ cognitive perspectives, including privacy concerns, content sharing, and websites credibility. However, existing research has yet to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding customers’ online impulse buying behavior. Addressing these gaps, this study aims to investigate the effect of different web store stimuli on creating consumers’ brand perception of online web stores and its impact on customers’ impulsive buying behavior. Data was collected through purposive sampling, involving 423 users of different online local web stores. The results showed interesting findings with implications for both theory and practice. Specifically, environmental stimuli, such as ambience (lighting), assortment, forum fnac and helping staff, were found to significantly enhance the brand perception of local web store outlets, consequently boosting customers’ impulse buying behavior.