Research in Impulse Buying 1/3

 Hello everyone,

 

I am Aadit and I am studying the Textile value chain management program. As a part of the field study, I decided to carry out a research, under the research group, ‘Impulse buying in fashion’, mentored by Jenny Balkow. The current pandemic also played a catalyst in my decision to embark on a research project. 

So, for the project, I am going to specifically study Indian consumers and their idea of impulsive purchase. This research also aims to understand at what level are the consumers aware of their own impulse and if aware, is there any resistance from their side. During the first week of the research, I read some previous literature in the field of impulse buying, to gather some understanding and getting a sense of direction for the task. As this is the second week of the project, I decided to keep the research question open, until I conduct more interviews. As this research aims to study the phenomenon of ‘impulse buying’, phenomenological interviews are going to be conducted. I have already conduced five interviews and I am in the process of transcribing them. One of the major hurdles while conducting the interview, was the digital medium, as it was difficult to immerse in the topic due to technical disturbances, though it was an interesting experience as several of our communication mediums are going to change in coming years. I can safely say at this moment that the interviews which I have conducted are aligned with the research question and I may not have to change it. I don’t wish to freeze it right now, but I will do so in coming two weeks after having talked to more people. 

The most difficult part about the interviews was to talk about emotions revolving around the activity of impulsive purchase and how they make one feel. We all might have experienced an impulse while purchasing at different stages of our lives, but consciously thinking about it, will open up several layers of our own understanding. This was one of the observations by few respondents, that it made them realise how often they buy impulsively which is essentially operated without our conscious thought process. I felt like sharing this observation, but will keep the rest for future entries, where I will explain in a concrete manner. 

I hope that you all are doing well and keeping yourselves safe wherever you are.

 

Warm regards.