2.1.7 Categories of Impulse Purchase
There are four main types of impulse purchase in the decision making process which
has been categorized according to the level of planning and exposure to marketing
stimuli (Stern, 1962). The first type of impulse purchase behavior is the pure impulse
buying whereby shoppers have no preplanning prior to purchase. At the pure impulse
buying shoppers tends to disrupt their usual buying behavior and patterns in order to
fulfill the sudden urge and need to purchase something. The pure impulse buying as
the word describes shows that shoppers engage in an unplanned purchase behavior
without being influence by any factors such as external marketing stimuli or needs
satisfaction. An illustration of the pure impulse buying may be when a shopper visits
a department store to purchase a suit and finds collection of shirts. The shopper
would purchase the suit which was planned along with the shirt as the pure impulse
since they were not exposed to any marketing stimuli or an advertisement and there
was not any urgent need of buying the shirts.
The second type of impulse purchase behavior is the reminder impulse buying
whereby a shopper recalls a marketing communication activity or other information
and is reminded about the needs to be fulfilled by conducting the purchase. Like the
other types of impulse purchase, this category is also not preplanned however th
difference between the reminder impulse purchase and the pure impulse purchase is
that shoppers that engage in reminder impulse purchase are exposed to several
marketing stimuli such as advertisements and the goal of this impulse purchase is to
satisfy a need by purchasing the product. An illustration of the reminder impulse
purchase is when a shopper visits a department store and sees a dress or recalls an
advertisement of the new collection of dresses offered by a particular brand. The
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