E-mpulse Buying

While e-commerce is changing the way people impulse buy, the integration of mobile devices into the shopping experience has opened up possibilities for real-time marketing that encourages people to make split-second emotional buying decisions in a new way.

About This Trend:

While phones leave us less vulnerable to in-store marketing, self-checkout kiosks, online shopping and online pre-ordering for store pick-ups have led many to believe that impulse shopping is dead. Not so fast.

Confections Brands like Hershey’s, Mars and Wrigley are investing serious money and effort into reimagining impulse buy in the digital world, testing different ways to capture consumer interest and sync their marketing with digital platforms like Facebook. Apps are making it possible to offer personalized, tailored services to people based on their location and identity data, and payment is now easier than ever thanks to online payment platforms and “scan-to-buy” QR codes.

Technological innovation hasn’t necessarily ruined anything about what was fun about shopping — it just changed it. Now, shoppers expect technology to be seamlessly integrated into their shopping trips, and brands are now pursuing “Omnichannel” marketing strategies that reach shoppers wherever they happen to be and use real-time engagement to entice one-click shopping.