Consumer Attitudes towards Push Notifications : As a Marketing Tool to Trigger Impulse Buying Behaviour in Smartphone Users

Abstract: This thesis takes the reader on an exploratory journey into the development of impulse purchasing behaviour stemming from the increased usage of web-connected smartphones. At an unprecedented rate, consumers are able to access businesses online, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, at their own convenience, without restrictions other than a connection to the World Wide Web. This mobile phenomenon has effectively pushed the commercial market to new boundaries and simultaneously created new possibilities for retailers to reach out to consumers by providing seamless and innovative marketing solutions on portable devices to a fast-growing market segment. This emergent technology and the trends it brings with it, demands special attention to the analysis of consumer behaviourism. As of date, academia has put relatively little emphasis on the evolution of impulse purchasing behaviour as a product of smartphone usage. In this paper, the authors investigate the attitude of local consumers towards so-called ‘push notifications’, whose purpose is to stimulate an impulsive behaviour in the smartphone user. The results of this study show that multiple factors in relation to push notifications on smartphones play an important part in shaping the attitude of consumers and furthermore can elicit impulse buying behaviour. These factors often bridge each other and are at times mutually dependent.