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Sales
How website quality affects promotion and
online impulse buying credit card use

Moderating effects of sales promotion and

credit card use 235
Umair Akram, Peng Hui, Muhammad Kaleem Khan and Received 20 April 2017
Yasir Tanveer Revised 9 May 2017
6 June 2017
School of Economics and Management, 18 August 2017
Accepted 1 September 2017
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China
Khalid Mehmood
School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing, China, and
Wasim Ahmad
Business School, University of International Business and Economics,
Beijing, China

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of website quality on online impulse buying
behavior (OIBB) in China, and assess the moderating roles of sales promotion and credit card use.
Design/methodology/approach – An online and personal survey from 1,161 online shoppers belonging to
three big cities of China – Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing – was conducted. A random sampling technique
was utilized for data collection. Data were analyzed using validity and reliability tests, confirmatory factor
analysis, and structural equation modeling.
Findings – Three major findings discovered are: first, the website quality positively affects the OIBB;
second, the sales promotion significantly influences OIBB and acts as a strong moderator on the relationship
between website quality and online impulse buying; and third, the online impulse purchases are positively
influenced by use of credit card, and the use of credit card enhances the relationship between website quality
and online impulse buying.
Research limitations/implications – First, the website quality positively affects the OIBB; second, the sales
promotion significantly influences OIBB and acts as a strong moderator in the relationship between website
quality and online impulse buying; and third, online impulse purchases are positively influenced by credit card
use. Moreover, credit card use enhances the relationship between website quality and online impulse buying.
Originality/value – This research is the first to investigate the relationship between website quality and
OIBB in China, with sales promotion and credit card use as moderators.
Keywords China, Sales promotion, Credit card use, Online impulse buying behaviour, Website quality
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The internet plays a vital role in our daily life. In China, majority of the population makes
purchases online to conserve time and efforts, and to espouse the individuality culture.
According to the 2016 China online shopping report published by the National Bureau of
Statistics, China’s gross merchandise volume amounted to 4.8 trillion Yuan in 2015, jumping
up by 64.4 percent on a year-over-year basis. This growth was more than four times faster
than the total retail sales of consumer goods. Moreover, the internet penetration rate in total
Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing
The authors want to extend their gratitude toward the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their and Logistics
Vol. 30 No. 1, 2018
indispensable and valuable suggestions and comments that improved the quality of the paper pp. 235-256
significantly. Furthermore, the authors thank Professor Song QingQing in helping the translation of © Emerald Publishing Limited
1355-5855
the survey questionnaire and Dr Hassan Rasool for his valuable suggestions. DOI 10.1108/APJML-04-2017-0073
APJML retail sales of consumer goods exceeded 10 percent for the first time in the Chinese history,
30,1 which serves a healthy opportunity for online retailers to focus on online shoppers. A recent
study by Floh and Madlberger (2013) indicates that a huge sum of shoppers purchased
products spontaneously in the modern world. This portrays the growing significance of online
shopping, and thereby highlighting the necessity of in-depth understanding of online impulse
buying. As cited by Liu et al. (2013), User Interface Engineering, a leading research company
236 specializing in website and product quality, reports that almost 40 percent of online shopping
transactions are considered as impulse purchases (Verhagen and van Dolen, 2011). Hausman
(2000) argues that 30-50 percent of all retail sales are triggered by impulse purchases, while
90 percent consumers buy goods impulsively on occasions. Recently, Wu et al. (2016) have
shown that 82 percent respondents engaged in impulse shopping. A growing number of
online retailers are implementing impulse buying strategies to attract and retain consumers.
The China Internet Network Information Center’s (CNNIC) December 2016 report discloses
that with an annual increase of 42.99 million internet users China’s internet user population
has reached 731 million, with a penetration rate of 53.2 percent, up 2.9 percentage points from
the end of 2015. China has now become the largest internet market in the world. Millions of
netizens are surfing the internet to acquire information about products and services, and are
often even spending more time on online purchases than their genuine requirements.
Impulse buying behavior is very common among consumers worldwide. Dawson and
Kim (2010) argue that 50 percent consumers buy goods impulsively. To boost impulse
buying, retailers readily focus on product displays, store designs, and package designs to
attract and hold shoppers’ attention (Lee and Kacen, 2008). Existing research shows that
almost any items might be purchased on impulse (Rook and Fisher, 1995; Kacen and
Lee, 2002). Although the impulse buying phenomenon is most likely to hold for inexpensive
items, it may be observed for expensive items as well (Rook and Fisher, 1995).
In principle, impulse shoppers may usually not control their inherent behaviors to visit
online stores (Wells et al., 2011). Online shoppers are rather involved in discrete
psychological states of unplanned and sudden behaviors toward a buying-decision process,
which makes it difficult to for retailers to predict (Floh and Madlberger, 2013). From the
internet user perspective, online shoppers/consumers are website users who execute all
functions of purchase decision making, from searching for the information of a related
product to tracking product delivery and complete payment system. Therefore, the usage of
website technology and belief/trust on e-stores are two significant factors for online impulse
buying shoppers (Wu et al., 2011; Wu, 2013).
To date, the existing research on impulse buying has focused on different factors
(Stern, 1962; Piron, 1991), such as external factors (Karbasivar and Yarahmadi, 2011;
Mehta and Chugan, 2013), store atmosphere (Akram et al., 2016), intrinsic factors
(Badgaiyan and Verma, 2014; Foroughi et al., 2013; Flight et al., 2012), in-store lighting
(Summers and Hebert, 2001), in-store music (Dubé and Morin, 2001), in-store fragrance
(Mattila and Wirtz, 2001), the mood and emotions of buyers (Foroughi et al., 2013;
Solomon et al., 2012), website design, web skills, trust and flow experience (Wu et al., 2016),
hedonic and utilitarian motivations (Akram, Hui, Khan, Saduzai, Akram, and Bhati, 2017),
and situational factors such as scarcity and serendipity (Chung et al., 2017), among others.
The growth of online shopping has motivated the need to study online impulse buying
behavior (OIBB) under recent trends (Floh and Madlberger, 2013). Previous research studies
have recommended several perspectives to better understand OIBB. Some studies suggest the
shopping enjoyment effect as a mediator to direct the OIBB from websites’ interaction
experience (affective) and websites’ usefulness for shopping task (cognitive) (Koufaris, 2002;
Parboteeah et al., 2009). Other studies focus on the importance of electronic store
characteristics (design, content, and navigation) as the antecedents of repelling OIBB through
the mediation of shopping enjoyment and effective perception (Floh and Madlberger, 2013).
 A number of studies have been conducted to examine the factors affecting the impulse Sales
purchase decision-making process of consumers in online environments. For instance, a few promotion and
studies utilize environmental psychology to investigate how website attributes, such as ease credit card use
of use, visual appeal, and information fit-to-task, affect consumers’ personality and emotions
causing online impulse shopping decisions (Parboteeah et al., 2009; Verhagen and van
Dolen, 2011; Wells et al., 2011). These studies recommend that information systems (IS),
wisdom, and integration of marketing would increase the knowledge on online impulse 237
buying (Verhagen and van Dolen, 2011; Wells et al., 2011). Earlier IS studies have
investigated how three perceived website attributes, namely, product availability, ease of
use, and visual appeal, interact with consumers’ personalities to motivate impulse buying.
From a technical perspective, previous studies have mainly emphasized website attributes
such as the navigation ability, pleasantness, visual attraction, and security (Luo et al., 2012;
Floh and Madlberger, 2013). Shen and Khalifa (2012) argue that a website’s perceived
usefulness shows the degree to which online consumers believe that shopping productivity
can be increased by using a specific website.
The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of factors of website
quality with two moderators, namely, sales promotion and credit card use, which determine
B2C OIBB adoption in China. Traditional Chinese retailers are paying increasing attention
to online transactions. Many traditional retailers are developing e-commerce platforms that
are driving B2C online retailing market growth and attracting more consumer interest in
purchasing products online (Su, 2009). Given the rapid trends of e-commerce in China,
retailers need recommendations to cater to future endeavors and business expansion. This
very need is expected to be met by the current study, which analyzes the relationship
between OIBB and website quality by incorporating the moderating effects of sales
promotion and credit card use. Specifically, researchers who wish to conduct research on
China’s B2C internet market from the perspective of online impulse buying by analyzing
website attributes may be the direct beneficiaries of this study.
There is a growing body of research exploring consumers’ online shopping behavior
in the Western context; far less is known in other parts of the world (Stafford et al., 2004).
Therefore, whether these research studies and associated theories are generalizable to
other cultural contexts, such as China, remains largely unknown. To date, relatively few
empirical studies have been conducted in the Chinese context. Considering the fact that
China has currently become the largest internet market worldwide, an in-depth
understanding of the primary motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of Chinese online
shoppers is needed if online marketers, brand strategists, advertising managers, and
website developers are to influence consumers’ online buying decisions. The current
seminal work of Clemes et al., 2014 is unique in this aspect because it addressed the online
shopping trend in China. However, the findings of the study are debatable because it
gathered data from only one city, Beijing, which is the largest metropolitan city of China.
Thus, this may raise concerns over the generalizability of the findings. In addition, this
study has led to an urge to discover the pivotal factors in the adoption of online shopping.
The present study attempts to fill this gap by empirically investigating the OIBB of
Chinese consumers, and to extend the existing research on online impulse buying,
specifically in the Chinese context.
Numerous Chinese consumers buy online products from popular sites, including Jd.com,
taobao.com, amazon.com, tmal.com, vip.com, bj.jumei.com, dangdang.com, gome.com, and
suning.com. Therefore, the findings of this study are also relevant to these as well as other
Chinese online retailers. Although voluminous research can be found on impulse buying
behavior, these studies do not embrace the emerging face of impulse buying, that is, OIBB.
Moreover, all of these studies have been conducted on developed economies, leaving behind
the need to investigate this issue in an emerging economy like China, which houses the
APJML largest number of netizens ever. Accordingly, this study is poised to examine the following
30,1 research questions:
RQ1. Does website quality ignite Chinese consumers’ OIBB?
RQ2. How does sales promotion influence consumers’ OIBB?
RQ3. How does credit card use impact consumers’ OIBB?
238 RQ4. Does sales promotion moderate the relationship between website quality and OIBB?
RQ5. Does credit card use moderate the relationship between website quality and OIBB?
In accordance with the aforementioned objectives, the remainder of this paper is structured
as follows. Section 2 presents a literature review on OIBB. Section 3 discusses hypotheses
development. Section 4 presents the research methodology adopted for this study. Section 5
presents the key findings of the study. Finally, Section 6 concludes the study and provides
important implications and future research directions.

2. Background and literature review

2.1 OIBB
Impulse purchase occurs when a consumer experiences a sudden, habitually powerful,
and insistent urge to buy something (Liu et al., 2013; Akram, Hui, Khan, Saduzai, Akram, and
Bhati, 2017). Online impulse buying, as an unplanned purchasing decision, is influenced by
several factors such as hedonic motivations, utilitarian motivations, social shopping, adventure
shopping, idea shopping, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, visual appeal information
fit-to-task, and urge to buy impulsively (Ozen and Engizek, 2013; Xiang et al., 2016; Akram, Hui,
Khan, Saduzai, Akram, and Bhati, 2017). Sharma et al. (2010) argue that online shopping is
driven by consumers’ emotions, spontaneous behavior, or low cognitive control, and that
impulsive behavior is driven by appealing objects, which trigger impulse buying among
shoppers without considering financial and other aspects of online shopping. From this
perspective, few scholars argue that online buyers are more impulsive compared to offline store
buyers (Park et al., 2012; Verhagen and van Dolen, 2011). Wu et al. (2015) argue that online
marketing stimuli permit online buyers to be less risk averse toward their initial search and
make it easy to buy impulsively (Madhavaram and Laverie, 2004). Impulse buying occurs
during shopping from a particular stimulus (Floh and Medlberger, 2013). The stimulus can be
an extrinsic characteristic of the product or the actual product itself, such as searching for
information about the product. Yu and Bastin (2010) mentioned that several factors, including
personality, time pressure, location, cultural factors, and variety of economic positions,
influence impulse buying behavior. From a psychological perspective, consumers’ impulse
buying behavior is occasionally irresistible because the inception of impulse buying often
occurs not just spontaneously but also suddenly (Sharma et al., 2010). Usually, a high tendency
among impulse consumers to probably exhibit spontaneous buying behavior and their
shopping lists have space for unexpected buying intention (Park et al., 2012).
When consumers make a decision to buy online, they often act impulsively and are
triggered by easy purchase and access to product in the form of click ordering, painless
delivery, and absence of social pressures ( Jeffrey and Hodge, 2007). In particular, few
research studies have focused on the role of impulsive buying in online shopping (Floh and
Medlberger, 2013; Liu et al., 2013). Liu et al. (2013) investigated how website characteristics
(ease of use, product availability, and visual appeal, among others) affect consumers’
individual traits, including instant gratification, normative evaluation, and impulsiveness
as a mediator to fulfill the urge for online impulse buying. According to Floh and
Medlberger (2013), e-store attributes (navigation, design, and content) affect online impulse
shopping through the mediation of impulsiveness and shopping enjoyment.
 Madhavaram and Laverie (2004) differentiate between four kinds of impulse buying Sales
behavior. First, pure impulse buying is a unique or escape buying behavior that breaks a promotion and
routine purchase pattern. Second in line is the reminder impulse buying, which occurs credit card use
when a consumer sees a product and recalls that there is little of it at home, or is
introduced with enhanced information about the product, or recalls an advertisement
relating to a product in view. Third, suggestive impulse buying frequently occurs when
any consumer sees a product for the first time and envisions a need for it. The fourth and 239
final type of impulse buying is observed when a consumer makes a particular buying
decision about a product or service driven by a discounted price; such kind of conduct is
called planned impulse buying behavior.
In the online context, innovations and improvements in the field of e-commerce are causing
a surge in online shopping. According to Dittmar et al. (2004), the reason why many shoppers
tend to overspend in online transactions is that the virtual procedure does not demonstrate
high spending. Online transactions are vital for online retailers as well as organizations
because they build strategies to motivate consumers to buy more products ( Jeffrey and
Hodge, 2007). Park et al. (2012) typically investigate impulse purchase for clothing products in
the internet context. Verhagen and Van Dolen (2011) examine the influence of online store
beliefs on consumer’s OIBB. Bressolles et al. (2007) analyze the effects of e-service quality
dimensions on impulse purchases and customer satisfaction. Parboteeah et al. (2009) study the
importance of organic variables and perceived visual appeals in urging shoppers to purchase
impulsively. Adelaar et al. (2003) examine the impact of media format of music CD on OIBB.
Verhagen and van Dolen (2011) study the effects of representational delight and website
functional convenience on online impulse purchase accomplishments. Some other studies have
examined other factors influencing OIBB ( Jeffrey and Hodge, 2007) and effects of website
attributes on personality traits (Liu et al., 2013), among others.

3. Determinants of OIBB and hypotheses development

Many scholars worked on the primary determinants, including visual appeal, quantity and
quality of information, interactivity, and personalization (Wells et al., 2011), as well as secondary
determinants, including task relevant cue, mood relevant cue (Parboteeah et al., 2009), of OIBB.
However, this study specifically focuses on three comprehensive determinants of OIBB: website
quality, sales promotion, and credit card use. These determinants and their subsequent
hypotheses are discussed as follows.

3.1 Website quality

Websites are primary store houses of information that can help consumers when they explore
for information. B2C websites are sites that enable consumers to make shopping through the
World Wide Web (Ranganathan and Ganapathy, 2002). The design characteristics of a web
page may also affect consumers’ online buying decision (Shergill and Chen, 2005).
The existing literature suggests various attributes of a website, which may enhance its
quality. For example, Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003) highlight the significance of website
design and contents that may enhance a website’s quality to attract more online customers.
Contents present the services offered and design demonstrates how to present that content
in an attractive way to customers (Huizingh, 2000). A website’s characteristics such as
visual appeal, transaction safety, and navigation are all special signs that can directly
influence consumers’ impulse purchases (Wells et al., 2011). Childers et al. (2001) suggest a
term called “web atmospherics” in online setting, which includes website design features as
graphics, frames, pop-up windows, search engine configuration, text, hypertext links, “one
click” purchase procedures or check-out, site layout dimensions, and media dimensions.
These attributes of web design may trigger online impulse buying at a different level.
Loiacono et al. (2007) present four distinct features of website quality: usefulness, ease of
APJML use, entertainment, and complementary relationship. Ranganathan and Ganapathy (2002)
30,1 contemplated design, privacy, information content, and security of website as four
important dimensions of B2C website. Likewise, Elliott and Speck (2005) show that
consumer’s attitudes toward retail website is significantly affected by five website elements:
product information, ease of use, currency, trust, and entertainment.
Several studies demonstrate that website quality attributes affect consumers’ OIBB
240 significantly. For instance, Turkyilmaz et al. (2015) reveal that the three dimensions of website
quality, including entertainment, ease of use, and usefulness, have positive effects on
consumers’ online impulse purchase, whereas complementary relations have no significant
impact. A well-designed interface enhances the probability of consumers’ impulse buying
(Hoffman and Novak, 1996; Wolfinbarger and Gilly, 2003; Shergill and Chen, 2005).
Turkyilmaz et al. (2015) suggest that online retailers willing to strengthen and retain their
customer base must emphasize and improve the quality of website, failure of which may lead
to loss of customers. Clemes et al. (2014) investigate the behavior of Chinese consumers and
find that well-designed website features significantly influence online shopping adoption.
The aforementioned discussion leads us to formulate the following hypothesis:
H1. Website quality positively affects OIBB

3.2 Sales promotion

Sales promotion, as a collection of various motivational tools, is designed to stimulate
consumers to purchase numerous products or services within short periods of time
(Kotler, 2012). The aim is to exert direct and immediate effects on consumers’ buying
behavior (Blattberg and Neslin, 1990). Sales promotion intends to stimulate consumers’
needs and urge customers to buy a product immediately of a specific brand. Blattberg and
Neslin (1990) emphasized the following four significant promotion objectives: enhancing
store image; generating store traffic; creating price image; and moving excess inventory.
Sales promotion plays a very important role in an online shopping environment and in
advertising strategy. The immediate reward implied in sales promotions is alike to the idea
of impulsive buying when “only an immediate buying could complete the marketplace
exorcism (Rook and Hoch, 1985, p. 25). The consumer benefits of sales promotions can be
divided into hedonic benefits (e.g. entertainment, value, and exploration) and utilitarian
benefits (e.g. convenience and money saving). These benefits trigger consumers’ impulse
buying (Chandon et al., 2000). Thus, an impulsive buying situation should involve a sales
promotion stimulus that can create maximum utility (Chandon et al., 2000).
Many studies have identified sales promotion as a means to increase customer base
gradually. For instance, in the USA, the number of homes that use online coupons for
shopping online has been increasing abruptly (Forrester, 2014). Additionally, studies have
recommended that internet connectivity has provided a means for mass customization of sales
promotion by targeting individual buyers on sellers’ website (Kannan and Kopalle 2001).
Sales promotion stimuli and online store design features are very important antecedents of
consumers’ online impulse purchase. Sales promotion stimuli such as sales (e.g. markdown,
clearance), promotions (e.g. cash rebates, buy-one get-one free, gift certificates), suggestions
(e.g. bundling), and purchase ideas (e.g. purchase of newly arrived products and one-stop
shopping) can persuade consumers to buy impulsively (Dawson and Kim, 2010). Dawson and
Kim (2010) also suggest that consumers’ online impulse buying is related with e-retailers’ sales
promotion stimuli. Sales promotion can, thus, influence consumers’ OIBB positively
(Badgaiyan and Verma, 2015; Etzel et al., 2001).
According to Palazon and Ballester (2011), well-planned and effective sales promotion also
provoke consumers’ buying intentions. Badgaiyan and Verma (2015) also suggest that sales
promotion remains one of the oldest and most preferred mode of increasing sales. Numerous
study results have confirmed that consumers are more likely to be impulsive when they see Sales
discount on products or sale (Liao et al., 2009; Tinne, 2011; Virvalaite et al., 2009). Lo et al. (2016) promotion and
summarize 38 design features or sales promotion stimuli that are frequently employed by credit card use
online stores to motivate impulse buying.
Contrary to the well-established positive relationship of OIBB with sales promotion,
Blattberg et al. (1981) find that sales promotion, particularly price discount, has a negative
effect on sales due to purchase acceleration and stockpiling, as well as a negative impact on 241
brand image and reference price (Grewal et al., 1998). Nevertheless, if customers of the
product under sales promotion are resellers instead of end consumers, such negative effect
could be slightly decreased.
Studies that analyze the impact of sales promotion on impulse buying in an online setting
have been scarce. Therefore, the present study extends the literature by analyzing this
impact in an online setting. All of the existing studies suggest the direct effect of website
quality and sales promotion on online impulse buying. However, to the best of our
knowledge, no study has attempted to explore the use of sales promotion as a moderator
variable between website quality and online impulse buying. Filling this gap, this study
formulates an additional hypothesis (H3).
According to the above studies, we proposed two hypotheses considering sales promotion
as having a direct effect and a moderation effect between website quality and OIBB:
H2. Sales promotion positively affects OIBB.
H3. Sales promotion positively moderates the relationship between website quality and
OIBB. The higher (lower) the sales promotion, the stronger (weaker) the relationship.

3.3 Credit card use

There are many features of online shopping that make it favorable and pleasant from
consumers’ point of view. Among others, the most prominent feature is the comfort that
makes the consumer free from visiting a brick-and-mortar store. Second is the pleasant
feeling of being free from keeping paper currency in one’s pocket (Chakraborty et al., 2016).
The emergence of plastic money like credit cards and digital currency has made online
shopping more attractive. Since impulsive behavior may be accelerated by credit card use,
a need arises to examine the association between credit card use and impulse buying
behavior. Shoppers feel more convenient and relatively painless when spending by credit
cards. Furthermore, the use of credit card lowers the perceived cost and payment through
credit cards is expected to increase in the future (Roberts and Jones, 2001).
Credit card is a kind of plastic money which is rapidly used among consumers. From a
psychological perspective, credit card is a trigger of spending behavior. Feinberg (1986)
provides evidence that college students who use credit cards, purchase more compared to
those who use cash. The use of credit card stimulates consumer spending compared
to cash transactions. For instance, credit cards increase the sales of fast-food restaurants,
and the transactions are 50 to 100 percent larger than cash dealings in the USA.
Hayhoe et al. (2005), focusing on college students in the southern states of the USA, concludes
that credit card is very important for young shoppers; they prefer to buy through this medium
than their non-user counterparts and accord more importance to money as a symbol of power.
Extensive use of credit cards reflects the shoppers’ preferences for pre-arranged lines of credit.
Furthermore, technological advancement makes it easier for creditors to offer revolving credit
(Durkin, 2000). Soman and Gourville (2001) argue that consumers who usually use credit card
always spend extra on purchase. Credit card possession is associated with such
kind of consumers who purchase high-priced products (Deshpande and Krishnan, 1980).
From this perspective, George and Schor (1998) reports that easy access to credit cards
APJML reduces the immediate urge to buy something, cause shoppers to overspend, and is likely to
30,1 increase impulsive buying.
Credit card use is also one of the major contributors in online shopping; however, only
sparse studies have taken it into their consideration. Furthermore, there is a need to analyze
its role in OIBB. Credit card use plays a vital role in impulsive buying. Badgaiyan and
Verma (2015) assert that credit card use has a positive influence on impulsive purchase.
242 Importantly, credit card use results in impulsive online buying (Roberts and Jones, 2001;
Kim et al., 2006). Karbasivar and Yarahmadi (2011) find that credit card use positively
relates with consumers’ impulse buying in the setting of apparel products. Easily accessible
credits cards eradicate the abrupt need for money to purchase something, leading to
overspending by consumers (George and Schor, 1998), and enhance the advancement of
impulse purchase (Roberts and Jones, 2001).
A number of studies have been conducted on the determinants of online shopping in the
Chinese context (Clemes et al., 2014; Zheng et al., 2017; Akram, Hui, Khan, Hashim,
Qiu, and Zhang, 2017), but no study has analyzed the effect of credit card use on online impulse
buying. Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap by deeply examining the relationship
between credit card use and online impulse buying. First, the study analyzes the direct effect of
credit card use on OIBB; thereafter, it explores the moderating behavior of credit card use, to
analyze whether or not the presence of credit card also influences the OIBB along with website
quality. As Tokunaga (1993) has mentioned, credit cards lead to greater imprudence. For this
reason, less price conscious consumers are always heavy users of credit card.
In the light of the above arguments, we propose two hypotheses on the effect of credit
card use on OIBB. H4 checks the direct effect, whereas H5 tests the moderating role of
credit card use:
H4. Credit card use positively affects OIBB.
H5. Credit card use positively moderates the relationship between website quality
and OIBB. The higher (lower) the use of credit card, the stronger (weaker)
the relationship.
Mathematical model:

OI BB ¼ b0 þb1 ðW QÞþb2 ðU SFN Þþb3 ðEOU Þ

þb4 ðEN T Þ þb5 ðCRÞþb6 ðSP Þ þb7 ðU CC Þþe

4. Research design and methodology

4.1 Procedure
This study intends to investigate how website quality affects consumers’ OIBB with
moderator variables such as sales promotion and credit card use. To identify the qualified
respondents in this environment, we used a questionnaire that was originally developed in
English, but converted into Chinese and then back-translated into English to cross check the
validity of translation; subsequently International Chinese Training Center (ICTC), Beijing
University of Posts and Telecommunications compared it with the original questionnaire.
The ICTC selected ten students at the master’s and PhD levels, for pretesting and to ensure
the accuracy of the translation. Thereafter, these students discussed the interpretation and
clarity with two Chinese teachers (who taught Chinese language to international students)
and with the research team to discuss and suggest improvement.
Since this study aims to assess consumer behavior with respect to online impulse buying, an
experienced sample would be preferable in this situation. Therefore, respondents were asked to
reflect on a recent online impulse shopping in an online store within the last four months.
The main aim for this manipulation is to explain a memory or clear picture for the participants Sales
to serve as the basis for completion of the survey. This manipulation would assure that all promotion and
participants are consistent in reflecting their perceived experience across the defined constructs credit card use
in the study model. Without this manipulation, participants might be mislaid their focus for
trying to reflect perceived experience from various distinct impulsive buying environment in a
mixed approach. This effort could minimize the bias in the process of data collection.
Questionnaires are filled by individuals who used one or more of the online shopping web portal 243
operating in China ( jd.com, taobao.com, amazon.com, tmal.com, vip.com, bj.jumei.com,
and so on) in the last four months.
Data were collected using two methods; first, online survey, and second, paper
questionnaire. Online survey is the appropriate method to collect the experience of online
impulse buyers. However, in an online survey, problems related to random sampling survey
always exist, because many studies have used the self-selected sampling procedure for
non-probability sampling, e.g., the convenience-sampling technique. This study tries to
mitigate this problem by selecting the participants randomly from many online community
sources and selecting different time slots for every community. Online survey was conducted
for various bigger online communities at the same time, including WeChat, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Sina Weibo, and QQ, as all Chinese consumers use one or more of these social
network applications. In total, 12 distinct time slots were used in this study in terms of a two
hours’ interval on daily basis for each community. We haphazardly selected time slots on daily
basis from each community for the sample. The online survey was conducted between
November and December 2016. The process covers a larger and wider range of data sources to
make the sample truly representative of its population. In order to motivate the online shoppers
to participate in the survey, a reward system was offered. We randomly selected
60 participants from the sample size and gave a reward of 10 RMB to each participant after the
survey. The participants were paid in terms of the identification of their WeChat ID, which was
obtained during the survey. Red envelope (红包) was used as a medium to transfer money.
Online survey has some drawbacks, including data errors, questions complexity issues,
limited respondents, and technical issues. Considering all these issues, we also collected data
through paper questionnaire. Three metropolitan and demographically diversified cities of
China – Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing – were targeted for data collection. Most of the
respondents of this study comprised university students. In order to motivate the online
shoppers to participate in the survey, after collecting the data from each respondent,
we gave one packet of chocolate costing 10 RMB as a reward.
In total, 1,500 questionnaires were distributed among shoppers; we received 1,350 back
from both online and offline sources, out of which 189 were not valid, which further reduced
our sample size to 1,161. We tested the difference of respondents’ features including age,
gender, and online shopping experience for paper and online questionnaires to eliminate the
sample problem of assuring average web users. χ2 statistic was used for testing their
difference. Test statistics reported that there is no significant difference between the online
and paper questionnaire samples at the 0.05 level ( χ2 ¼ 1.80, 196, and 2.04), and this problem
does not occur in the online samples.

4.2 Measurement of variables

The scale used in this study first finds out the demographic trends of respondents.
Demographic information includes the basic information about the shoppers’ personal
features in online impulse buying, such as age, gender, education, and impulse experience.
This study used existing authenticated scales; a survey method was used to collect the data
and test the hypotheses. This study’s instrumentation comprised two scales: nominal scale
and five-point Likert scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree; 5 ¼ strongly agree). All items were adopted
from previous studies: impulse buying behavior (Rook and Fisher, 1995) contains nine items;
APJML website quality comprises 36 items (Loiacono et al., 2007); and four major parts, including
30,1 usefulness, ease of use, entertainment, and complementary relation. Sales promotion
(Badgaiyan and Verma, 2015; Karbasivar and Yarahmadi, 2011; Youn and Faber, 2000)
contains three items. Finally, credit card use (Badgaiyan and Verma, 2015; Karbasivar and
Yarahmadi, 2011) contains three items. A total number of 51 items were yielded.

244 5. Data analysis and results

The current study obtained significant results analyzed by different tools to explore how
website quality affects OIBB with two moderators: sales promotion and credit card use.
First, a pretest was piloted for the validation of scale. The study scale was carefully assessed
by elected academicians and practitioners, and included wording, contents, translation,
and structure. Unrotated factor analysis was used to identify the common method bias,
convergent validity, discriminant validity. The reliability was measured by Cronbach’s α.
Furthermore, minimum to maximum item loading, average variance extracted (AVE) and
minimum item to total correlations were examined before employing CFA analysis for
authenticating the measurement values (Tables II and III). Moderation hypotheses were
tested using a three-step moderation regression analysis (Tables IV and V ).
Demographic characteristics include gender, age, education, occupation, and online
impulse buying experiences. All participants contributed voluntarily in the survey. Results
demonstrated that majority of respondents were female (78 percent), and most of the
respondents are younger consumers aged 20-25 (40.9 percent). Almost all participants were
students (79.7 percent) belonging to bachelors and masters level. Approximately 93 percent
respondents declared that they have experienced online impulse buying.
Table I showed the common method bias from unrotated factor analysis. In a data set,
which may encounter the issue of common method bias, we do identify a single factor that
explains majority of the variance (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The current study used
subjective measures for many structural relationships, such as antecedents of website
quality (exogenous variables) and OIBB (endogenous variable). Several scholars have
addressed the common method variance issue by using Harman’s single factor test
technique (Podsakoff et al., 2003). We included all items from all of the constructs in the
relationship structure for an unrotated factor analysis to determine whether the majority
of the variance cannot be accounted for by one general factor (i.e. more than 50 percent
variance accounted for). The unrotated factor analysis can extract many factors (variables)
from all measured items and suggest the variance explained by each of these factors.
The results of unrotated factors analysis show that the dependent and independent variables
extracted dissimilar factors from the results of this analysis. Table I showed no single factor
having variance more than 50 percent. The first factor is impulse buying behavior with
29.2 percent of variance explained. Therefore, the results showed that there is no issue
regarding common method bias. Confirmatory factor analysis was utilized to assess
the measurement model. The findings show outstanding measurement model fit

Factor Eigenvalue % of variance Cumulative %

IBB 2.42 29.2 29.2

SP 2.1 19.5 48.7
Table I. UCC 1.81 15.8 64.5
Outcomes of common USFN 1.67 12.3 76.8
methods bias from EOU 1.19 9.2 86.0
unrotated factor ENT 1.11 8.4 94.4
analysis CR 0.70 5.6 100
indices: CMIN/df: 2.244, p ¼ 0.01, CFI ¼ 0.951, GFI ¼ 0.966, AGFI ¼ 0.972, NFI ¼ 0.944, Sales
RMSEA ¼ 0.051, RMR ¼ 0.06. All values of the CFA analysis meet the threshold value and promotion and
show satisfactory properties. credit card use
Multicollinearities were examined in this study by using variance inflation factor (VIF)
analyzed by an SPSS. The values of VIFs are 3.40 (impulse buying behavior),
2.34 (sales promotion), 2.12 (credit card use), 3.35, 2.54, 4.53, and 3.60 (usefulness, ease of
use, entertainment, and complementary relation for website quality, respectively); 245
all values are below the threshold value of 10 (Diamantopoulos and Siguaw, 2006).
Another way to verify the model fit is to assess the difference between the estimated and
observed correlation/covariance matrix with χ2 statistics (Hair et al., 2010). The implied
null hypotheses are that the estimated and the observed covariance matrices are equal,
which means the model fits the data absolutely. Further, validity and reliability were
calculated in the measurement model. Cronbach’s α and composite reliability were used
for examining the reliability. According to Chin (1998), the acceptable values for both
should be W 0.80. Convergent validity and discriminant validity were used to assess the
validity of scales. Convergent validity is evaluated using three criteria: item loading (λ)
higher than 0.70 and it should be significant; composite reliability for every construct and
it should be higher than 0.80 and explain the same as Cronbach’s α reliability; and AVE
should be larger than 0.50 (Hair et al., 2010). Finally, discriminant validity is evaluated by
using the comparison between square root of average (AVE) for each construct and its
squared correlations with all constructs. The value of AVE should be larger than
its correlations (Hair et al., 2010).
Table II shows the values of reliability (α) and convergent validity. The values of item
loadings of all constructs are higher than 0.70, the value of composite reliability is higher
than 0.8 and it ranges from 0.81 to 0.9, the value of Cronbach’s α is larger than 0.80 and it
ranges from 0.80 to 0.90, and all values of AVE are larger than 0.50 and ranges from
0.72 to 0.88. Overall, the results of Table II report high level of reliability and outstanding
convergent validity AVE W 0.05, CR W 0.80, α W 0.80. For the assessment of sampling
adequacy, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test was utilized. The value of KMO ranges from
0.689 to 0.871; thus, it is valid with threshold value W 0.5 for KMO test (Hair et al., 2010).
For discriminant validity, Table III reports that the square root of AVE for construct is
greater than its cross constructs’ square correlations.

5.1 Hypotheses testing results

A structural relationship model was built to assess the associative relationships among all
the constructs in the current study model. CFA and structure equation modeling (SEM) were
used to evaluate the structure model. The estimated coefficient of determination collected
from the SEM analysis was similar to that found in the regression analysis. Figure 1 depicts

Item Composite
Constructs Items Mean SD loading reliability AVE Cronbach’sα

Impulse buying behavior (IBB) 9 3.7282 0.62760 0.80-0.91 0.80 0.88 0.90
Store promotion (SP) 3 3.5446 1.03508 0.81-0.94 0.91 0.83 0.86
Use of credit card (UCC) 3 3.5487 0.86688 0.78-0.88 0.81 0.81 0.84
Usefulness (USFN) 12 3.5136 0.92397 0.78-0.91 0.87 0.80 0.81
Ease of use (EOU) 6 3.4301 1.00340 0.81-0.91 0.88 0.72 0.88 Table II.
Entertainment (ENT) 9 3.5675 0.83409 0.88-0.95 0.92 0.72 0.80 Descriptive statistics,
Complimentary relation (CR) 9 3.6270 0.79801 0.76-0.88 0.92 0.69 0.89 reliability and
Note: n ¼ 1,161 convergent validity
APJML Constructs KMO IBB SP UCC UFLN EOU ENT CR
30,1
IBB 0.789 (0.93)
SP 0.871 0.511 (0.91)
UCC 0.689 0.481 0.590 (0.90)
USFN 0.811 0.427 0.486 0.314 (0.89)
EOU 0.743 0.569 0.522 0.552 0.499 (0.84)
246 ENT 0.719 0.322 0.403 0.611 0.362 0.507 (0.84)
CR 0.819 0.431 0.505 0.535 0.464 0.421 0.583 (0.83)
Table III. Notes: n ¼ 1,161. The parentheses scores diagonal are the square root of AVEs of the individual constructs.
Discriminant validity Non-diagonal values are cross construct squared correlations

0.316**
Usefullness Sales Promotions H2

0.165***
0.430***

Ease of Use 0.214*** H3

0.718***
Website Quality H1
Online Impulse
0.153** Buying Behavior
Entertainement H5
0.360**
0.566***

Complementary 0.119***
Use of Credit Card H4
Relationship
Figure 1. Notes: Model fit indices: CMIN/df: 2.323; p = 0.001; CFI = 0.98; GFI = 0.99; AGFI = 0.98;
Conceptual framework
with results NFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.031; RMR = 0.04. Value on path: standardized coefficients ()
“R2: coefficient of determination. *p< 0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.000”

the results of the structural model. The findings show outstanding structural model fit
indices: CMIN/df: 2.323, p ¼ 0.001, CFI ¼ 0.98, GFI ¼ 0.99, AGFI ¼ 0.98, NFI ¼ 0.96,
RMSEA ¼ 0.031, RMR ¼ 0.04.
This study demonstrates some interesting results while testing the hypotheses. Usefulness
( β ¼ 0.165, po0.000), Ease of Use ( β ¼ 0.214, po0.000), Entertainment ( β ¼ 0.153, po0.05),
and Complementary Relations ( β ¼ 0.360, po0.05) were indicated as important antecedents of
website quality. H1-H5 were all substantiated. First, we elucidate the hypotheses testing
the direct effects with OIBB. Website quality with the four combined antecedents has a
significant positive impact on online impulse buying (R2 ¼ 0.490 with β ¼ 0.718, po0.001;
t-value ¼ 13.221), which means 49 percent of variance in the dependent variable OIBB is
explained by website quality, H1 is, thus, supported. Before using sales promotion and credit
card use as moderators, the study checked their direct effect on OIBB. Sales promotion showed
a significant effect on online impulse buying R2 ¼ 0.510 ( β ¼ 0.316; po0.05; t-value ¼ 4.568).
H2 is also supported. H4 was also supported as credit card use was found to have positive and
significant impact on OIBB (R2 ¼ 0.525 ( β ¼ 0.119; po0.000; t-value ¼ 7.870)).
The results of the moderation effect are showed in Tables IV and V. Three steps were
utilized during the hierarchical moderation analysis. In the first step, the endogenous variable
OIBB is regressed on the website quality as the exogenous variable. This is followed by the
second regression step of OIBB with the moderator variable, sales promotion. In the last step,
an interaction term obtained by multiplying exogenous variable with moderator variable
is also entered. In order to avoid the issue of multicollinearity stemming from correlation, these Sales
variables have their data mean centered (Aiken et al., 1991). The value of R2 of website quality promotion and
was 0.490. The coefficient value of sales promotion is 0.316, which means sales promotion has credit card use
a significant and positive relationship with OIBB. In third step, ΔR2 identified from the
integration term (website quality × sales promotion) was 0.003. This implies website quality
and sales promotion explained additional 3 percent of variance in OIBB. The total effect of the
interaction term was R2 ¼ 0.513, which means both variables jointly explained 51.3 percent 247
variance in OIBB ( β ¼ 0.430; po0.000, t-value ¼ 2.261). The increase in R2 value from
0.510 to 0.513 depicts that there is a direct and significant moderating effect of sales promotion
(F ¼ 405.61, po0.000). H3 is accepted (see Table IV). Table V reports the moderation effects
of credit card use. Credit card use is an important variable that affects OIBB ( β ¼ 0.119).
A significant interaction effect between website quality and credit card use ( β ¼ 0.566;
po0.000, t-value ¼ 3.894) on OIBB was found. The interaction term, (website quality × credit
card use) ΔR2 ¼ 0.006, was found which means website quality and credit card use both
explained additional 6 percent of variance in OIBB; thus, the total effects of the interaction
term and website quality jointly explained 53.2 percent of variance in the dependent variable
OIBB (R2 ¼ 0.532 and β ¼ 0.566). Similarly, the improved R2 from 0.526 to 0.532 also shows
that there is a significant and direct moderation effect of credit card use (F ¼ 438.69,
po0.000). H5 is also supported (see Table V ). The above discussion and statistics indicate the
strong moderating roles of sales promotion and credit card use in the relationship between
website quality and OIBB.

5.2 Robustness check using respondents’ demographics as control variables

A common exercise in empirical studies is a “robustness check,” where the researcher
examines how certain “core” regression coefficient estimates behave when the regression
specification is modified by adding or removing regressors (Lu and White, 2014). We used
respondents’ demographics to check the robustness of our results. For this analysis, all
variables are regressed in the model on age, gender, education, and online impulse buying
experience. The inclusion of demographics as control variables confirms the previous results.
All hypotheses of this study remain significant.

β t-value F R2 Adjusted R2 ΔR2

WQ 0.718*** 13.221 1114.38** 0.490 0.490 0.490***

SP 0.316** 4.568 603.72*** 0.510 0.514 0.020***
WQ × SP 0.430*** 2.261 405.61*** 0.513 0.522 0.003*** Table IV.
Notes: WQ, website quality; SP, sales promotion; dependent variable, online impulse buying behavior. The moderation
F-statistics are for overall models. Control variables are age, gender, education, and occupation. **p o0.001; analysis of
***po 0.0001 sales promotion

β t-value F R2 Adjusted R2 ΔR2

WQ 0.718*** 13.221 1114.38** 0.490 0.490 0.490***

UCC 0.119*** 7.870 642.94** 0.526 0.525 0.036**
WQ × UCC 0.566*** 3.894 438.69*** 0.532 0.531 0.006*** Table V.
Notes: WQ, website quality; UCC, use of credit card; dependent variable, online impulse buying. F-statistics The moderation of
are for overall models. Control variables are age, gender, education, and occupation. **p o0.001; analysis use of
***po 0.0001 credit card
APJML 6. Discussions, implications, and limitations
30,1 6.1 Major findings
This section discusses the findings obtained by empirically analyzing the data along with
their alignment with previously conducted studies in other countries. This study intended to
examine the effect of website quality on OIBB along with the moderating effect of sales
promotion and credit card use on the relationship between website quality and OIBB.
248 The results of our study found that website quality positively and significantly influenced
OIBB. The results of this study are in line with the previous literature (Wells et al., 2011;
Turkyilmaz et al., 2015; Verhagen and Van Dolen, 2011; Liu et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2016,
among others). The findings suggest that website quality is an important and critical
element for determining OIBB, in addition to the conventional shopping setting.
This study also revealed that sales promotion is an important factor to enhance OIBB as
consumers buy goods spontaneously ad immediately owing to sales promotion. The results
disclose that sales promotion has a positive and significant relationship with OIBB. Similar
findings were demonstrated by Badgaiyan and Verma (2015), Hultén and Vanyushyn (2014),
Lo et al. (2016), among others. Sales promotion was examined to analyze the moderating effect.
The interaction term between sales promotion and website quality was significant.
Furthermore, sales promotion, as an active moderator, strongly influenced the relationship
between website quality and OIBB. The coefficient value of interaction term between website
quality and OIBB was positive. This result demonstrated that sales promotion strengthened
the positive effect of website quality on online impulse buying (see Figure 2). Developing
influential online sales promotion is highly advisable for e-retailers in China.
On the other hand, credit card use facilitates immediate purchase for consumers.
This study reported that credit card use positively and significantly influences online
impulse buying. Our findings are also supported by previously conducted studies
(e.g. Badgaiyan and Verma, 2015; Roberts and Jones, 2001; Karbasivar and Yarahmadi, 2011,
among others). In China, customers are encouraged to buy products through credit card and
third-party payments over cash. The interaction term between credit card use and website
quality is also significant, resulting in a significant and positive moderating role of credit card
use in the relationship between website quality and OIBB. The coefficient value of the
interaction term is positive. This result indicates that credit card use increases the positive
effect of website quality on OIBB (see Figure 3).

5
Low SP High SP
4.464
4.5

4
Online Impulse Buying

3.5

3
2.972

2.5
2.396
2.168
2

Figure 2. 1.5
Moderation plot of
sales promotion 1
Low Website Quality High Website Quality
 5 Sales
Low UCC High UCC
4.403 promotion and
4.5
credit card use
4
Online Impulse Buying

3.5 249
3
3.033
2.729
2.5

2
1.835
1.5
Figure 3.
Moderation plot of
1 credit card use
Low Website Quality High Website Quality

6.2 Implications
The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically,
the study has strengthened the existing knowledge in the fields of e-commerce, e-marketing,
e-retailing and related literature, by identifying and covering the gap between previous
studies. Moreover, the study has used an integrated approach by considering many related
factors like sales promotion, website quality, and credit card use simultaneously. The study
reveals that these factors positively and significantly influence online impulse buying in the
Chinese online retail market. Specifically, the finding that credit card use and sales
promotion play a critical and moderating role in the relationship between website quality
and online impulse shopping is unique. Although some previously established studies have
analyzed the direct effect of sales promotion and credit card use in offline impulse buying
settings, none of them have identified their role as moderators.
Some practical implications are also found from the results. First, the current study
states that quality of website is positively and strongly linked to online impulse buying.
Online shoppers possess the dual nature of consumers and the users of website; thus,
the design and quality of website should consider the characteristics of navigational
structure, product information, and user interface for shoppers to discover appropriate and
suitable products for their needs. These characteristics present an understandable logic of
usefulness by shoppers with regard to efficiency and effectiveness of their online buying
process. As website quality is a major determinant of online impulse shopping, online
retailers should consider it vigorously. They should focus more in improving the quality and
design more effective web stores (e.g. designing user friendly, ease of use, and visually
appealing website and enhancing product category with attractive, rich information about
products, minimum response time, and trust) in order to enhance impulse buying.
Furthermore, flexible and traceable navigational structure along with highly productive
search engine is recommended. This will also help to enhance customers’ self-efficacy of
using or surfing shopping websites.
Last but not the least, webstores should present rich content of products needed by
customers, including product category, product specifications and information,
substitutes, upcoming products of the same brands, upcoming new brands for the same
product, technical and descriptive comparison of products, and users’ reviews. This will
APJML help retailers in triggering impulse buying as well as help customers in their purchase
30,1 decisions. A huge responsibility also lies on the shoulders of web developers.
Website developers could improve and add visual appeals, emotional appeal, and
innovative features for online web users to feel pleasing, creative, and cheerful to
stimulate online impulse shopping.
Moreover, sales promotion helps online retailers in devising marketing strategies
250 accordingly and influencing consumers’ purchase decision-making process. Specifically,
while designing online promotional strategy aimed at creating online sales, e-marketers
should analyze the potential shoppers’ behavior and devise strategies with respect
to the frequency with which they return to the web portal to shop. Chinese online sellers
should consider the use of online monetary sales promotions absolutely for novice
users and non-monetary promotions for expert web users to enhance online impulse
shoppers. In order to encourage online impulse buying, e-marketers may use
strategies like cross-selling (stimulate online shoppers to purchase complementary and
related products) and up-selling (motivating online shoppers to buy a comparable
higher-end product).
In the same vein, the moderating effect of credit card use influences the relation
between website quality and OIBB. Major obstacles in promoting credit card use for
online shopping are privacy and security concerns. E-retailers should be considerate in
ensuring the safety of users. E-retailers may introduce new schemes such as discounts on
buying through credit card or on large shopping. In this regard, the role of financial
institutions is crucial to develop the habit of credit card use widely. This will be a win-win
situation for banks and e-retailers. Adopting most of the recommendations suggested by
this study may help online businesses to get competitive advantages. A point to be noted
is that the findings of this study are not limited to Chinese e-retailers only. These are
equally beneficial to all online businesses operating worldwide. The crux is to increase
the catchability of websites, developing ease of use websites for e-shoppers, and
facilitating easy mode of payment. Search engine optimization is also important.
From the perspective of search engine optimization, web developers may include the
cross links. For instance, it provides the visibility of maximum links of important pages,
which may motivate the online shopper to indulge in online impulse buying. Moreover,
the writing content of keywords and phrases that are frequently searched also play a
vital role in stimulating online purchase.

6.3 Limitations and opportunities

This study has identified some significant understanding about online impulse buying;
nevertheless, there are some limitations. Random sampling was used for this study; other
sampling techniques like quota and convenient sampling may produce some more valuable
insights. The current study focused on three big cities of China; future research may be
conducted in smaller cities and may include more cities to facilitate comparison of results.
Respondents of our study were mainly females (78 percent). This may raise concerns about
evenly gender distribution bias in the study’s finding. However, women are more likely to
shop online and this fact validates our findings.
This research can be extended using situational factors such as scarcity, serendipity, and
personal traits, cultural factors, and motivational and emotional factors to understand
OIBB. Some technology-based conceptions, such as a success model and flow experience
(Wu et al., 2016), can be used as alternatives to extend the present study. Finally, different
results can be obtained if the study is conducted exclusively on large-scale online shopping
during Chinese festivals (e.g. 6.18 mean 6 June, Double Eleven and Double Twelve).
Social commerce platforms can also be targeted for future research because they have
different features compared to shopping websites (Xiang et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2016).
7. Concluding remarks Sales
Realizing the steep increase in online buying trend, the present study has explored the role promotion and
of website quality in triggering OIBB. The main aim was to analyze the above-stated credit card use
relationship after augmenting the roles of sales promotion and credit card use as
moderators in the model. The study was conducted in China, the world’s leading emerging
economy, having largest number of netizens and online shoppers. Previously conducted
studies on this topic have not examined the roles of sales promotion and credit card 251
use as moderators for OIBB from the defined drivers. The current research has
employed a well-established SEM after conducting reliability and validity tests to
validate the scale.
The proposed theoretical model was well supported empirically in terms of the major
driver, website quality, and the role of the moderators, sales promotion and credit card
use. First, the study presented a higher proportion (more than 90 percent) of online
impulse shoppers from this survey in China. The major findings of this study are as
follows: OIBB is influenced by website quality at large; sales promotions and credit card
use are found to be efficient triggering elements to enhance OIBB. The empirical analysis
leads us to conclude that the effect of website quality becomes robust when it is
supplemented with sales promotion and credit card use as moderators. Further, the
present study clearly concludes that online shopping portals can influence credit card
holders’ consciousness to buy impulsively when websites exhibit higher quality features
accompanied by sales promotion strategies.
Importantly, the integration approach of these issues in the current study provides
a useful and complete guide for impulsive shopping in Chinese online retailing. From a
theoretical perspective, this is the major contribution of the study. For practically triggering
the stimuli of OIBB among consumers, e-retailers should focus on three major issues:
website quality, sales promotion, and credit card use. Attributes of website designing would
motivate OIBB of shoppers in both affective and cognitive manner, or in both the external
operational environment and individuals’ internal psychological state, as discussed earlier.

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Corresponding author
Umair Akram can be contacted at: leo_umairinfo@yahoo.com

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