Vol. XII No.

1234 By: Celeste Cortez Herrera March 17, 2024

Effects of
Impulsive
Shopping by
Social Media;
especially on
Generation Z

Oscar Wong—Getty Images

Have you ever been scrolling on TikTok or Instagram when suddenly you impulsively buy a $200 UV
light face mask? Probably not, but almost everyone can say they have once fallen victim to impulsive
shopping. How is it possible that we can make purchases without giving them a second thought and what
are the effects on both the consumers and companies?

According to the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services by Elmira Djafarova and Tamar Bowes,
social media apps like Instagram play a critical role in impulse purchasing. Scrolling on these apps puts
consumers in a state of relaxation where they “skip the evaluation phase for decision making” the article
stated.

These apps utilize visual features and cues like ‘Buy Now!!’, ‘Final Chance to get this at 50% off!!’, big
red signs, and more which serve as triggers and invoke a sense of urgency so that consumers make

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impulsive purchases. Falling for these techniques seems almost child-like, however, people fail to
understand that these companies are much smarter than we think.

The article gives us a psychological explanation for why full-grown adults are making the financial
choices of teenagers. The reason behind this is the stimulus-organism response(SOR), where
environmental factors that serve as stimuli, can affect a person's emotional state and elicit a response.

Stimuli including visual features, but most importantly user-generated content, are used to promote
products that contribute to impulse purchases. Consumers are especially more inclined to purchase
user-generated content that promotes products because they are perceived more positively and consumers
generally have trouble trusting bigger companies.

“The most influential factor on consumer behavior was recommendations and photographs
displaying purchases from other consumers”, the article stated.

Seeing familiar faces of our favorite influencers or people who look like us promoting products makes us
more inclined to purchase whatever they are promoting. This emotional response explained in the SOR
model is exactly what causes us to make impulse purchases. This explains how social media causes us to
impulsively buy products psychologically, but who does it affect the most and why is it so harmful to
consumers and companies?

Jessica Patel, a 27-year-old graphic designer from Los Angeles, Calif. shared her experience as a
recovering shopaholic. During her free time, she would browse the internet for new deals on
clothes, makeup, bags, and more until her habits spiraled and affected her ability to pay bills and
make payments.

“Until recently, I spent my money freely, and so I never had any. I think I was trying to fill the
voids in my life by acquiring things I would often forget about within a month.” Patel stated.

Eventually, she decided to come up with some solutions and rules for herself. For example, she
considered a $30 shirt and asked herself a variety of questions including; Will I be happy with
this purchase in a week? A month? A year? Will I use this 30 times (to ‘pay for itself’, I have to

2
use an item as many times as the dollar amount)? Considering my hourly salary, how many hours
will I have to work to pay for this shirt? She found that asking these questions before making a
purchase helped cut back on her spending habits.

“Holding onto my money and not wasting it became a source of excitement and ultimately
helped fill the voids... I started with the realization that the future would cease to seem bleak if I
strived for self-sufficiency” she concluded.

Jessica represents millions of Generation Z females who are the largest consumers of impulsive shopping.
The article by Djafarova and Bowes continued to explain that Generation Z is the first generation to grow
up with modern technology and the development of various social media platforms.

They stated that Gen Z are, “highly likely to be exposed to digital advertising on social media and
checking Instagram at least five times a day”.

The constant new trends, following their favorite celebrities and influencers, and more keep individuals,
especially Gen Z on social media constantly. Companies have to keep up with the high demand of Gen Z
for new and better products.

Women in particular use social media for new fashion trends set by celebrities while men use it for
general and sports-related news. This contrast in interest is what makes women more inclined to purchase
products. Women’s interest in a variety of products including skin care, hair care, makeup, clothing items,
and more is something that companies can capitalize on compared to men’s interest where it is more
difficult.

“Gender is an important demographic factor for determining the influence of Instagram marketing
strategies on impulse purchase behavior” the article continued.

Women and men use social media for slightly different reasons which is why brands must approach them
separately to satisfy their different needs. Ultimately, brands have mastered the tactics of impulsive
purchasing and which stimuli prove most effective in selling the most products. Despite these successes
from companies, they continue to face difficulties when consumers impulsively purchase products
without giving them a second thought.

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According to a separate article by Simplicity DX, “48% of consumers(who) made a recent online
impulse purchase, 56% regretted the purchase”.

Not only are people impulsively buying items, but they are regretting and returning them. This
creates a waste of the resources that were required to make and ship the product causing
devastating effects on the environment and contributing to global warming. The article also
found that 23% of shoppers are unsure who to contact to arrange a refund”. Not knowing where
to return the product limits the number of people who return the items and customers are left
dissatisfied with empty pockets.

Impulsive purchases ultimately negatively impact companies who aim to build, “a base of
customer fans that come back to buy again and again and tell their friends. This requires
delivering on the promise every time.” When products are sent back due to dissatisfaction
companies cannot obtain returning customers.

All of the issues surrounding impulsive shopping could be avoided if people gave a second
thought to what they were purchasing. Knowing which individuals of certain demographics are more
inclined to purchase impulsively and the tactics brands use can hopefully make us think twice before
purchasing an item, minimize consumerism, and limit its harmful effects on ourselves and the
environment. It seems impulsive shopping is causing problems for consumers, companies, and the
environment which is why being aware of these problems and the solutions is in the best interest of
everyone.

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Bibliography:

Djafarova, E., & Bowes, T. (2021). ‘Instagram made Me buy it’: Generation Z impulse
purchases in fashion industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 59, 102345.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102345

Petes, R. (Ed.). (2023, August 17). 48% shoppers regret impulse purchases: Learn why.

SimplicityDX.

https://www.simplicitydx.com/press/simplicitydx-research-shows-how-impulse-purchases-are

-bad-for-both-consumers-and-brands#:~:text=Of%20the%201%2C000%20US%20online,after

%20regretting%20their%20impulse%20purchase

Cortez Herrera, C. (2024, March 8). “How has online shopping affected you?” Personal

interview.

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The Reflective Essay

For this writing project, I translated an academic article into a New York Times article

while I examined several characteristics. I considered different writing conventions of both

genres and their stylistic choices. I carefully contemplated what to incorporate and exclude from

the original academic article while completing the translation. The academic article that I

decided to translate was titled, ‘Instagram Made Me Buy It’: Generation Z Impulse Purchases in

Fashion Industry’ and was written by Elmira Djafarova and Tamar Bowes. The article conducted

research that examined how social media apps utilize marketing tools to influence Generation Z

to shop impulsively. Since this article talks about several topics like Generation Z, the economy,

and social trends, a New York Times article would be the best fit for this translation because

news articles cover relevant stories and are up to date with new trends.

The original academic article includes several convections including the use of formal academic

language, long paragraphs, the inclusion of visual graphs explaining the research findings, the

structure which includes an introduction, methodology, findings and discussion, and a

conclusion. These are all common writing conventions found in academic articles, however, they

are not as commonly seen in news articles. In the reading, ‘Navigating Games’ by Kerry Dirk

they state that, “genres are tools that help people get things done…knowing what a genre is used

for can help people accomplish goals” (Dirk, 2010). In regards to academic articles, they

consider several factors including the targeted audience, how it will contribute to existing

arguments and findings around the subject, and more. For these reasons, they consider which

specific tools they will use to achieve their goals for their specific genre. Although it may seem

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difficult to see the similarities between an academic article and a newspaper article, they share

quite a bit which allowed me to successfully translate the article.

In the New York Times article, some of the writing conventions they consider are short

paragraphs, images, quotes from other sources, a non-academic writing style, and more; all of

which I decided to include in the genre translation. As noted some of the conventions I

considered were the visual elements such as the distinct font that the New York Times title uses,

the image and text placement, and the short broken-up paragraphs. The intended audience of

newspaper articles is the common public which includes a wide range of people of different ages,

educational backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and more. The newspaper article intends to

inform as many people as possible about the current events and new findings that are being

discovered. This is why the language is easily understandable while also captivating. The visual

elements help grab the reader's attention which is why the image chosen in the article is very

critical. The image is not only supposed to be engaging but also reflects the story and gives

insight into what the news article will be about. The image represents many of us who browse

the internet which is why I chose to include an image of a woman online shopping. Although the

language isn’t academic, it still exhibits professionalism in its tone and word choices to

emphasize its credibility. Since the intended audience is the general population making sure that

not only the writing is engaging but also easy to understand is very important and something I

considered when translating the academic article.

As for translating the main ideas from the original text, I made sure, to begin with a captivating

hook to engage readers. From there I was able to inform the audience about the background

information regarding this topic. By asking the audience if they have ever impulsively made a

purchase, readers can begin thinking about the possible connections they may have with this

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news article. Making sure to establish that connection between the audience and what I am

writing about is important to create as early as I can in the news article. In the genre of writing

for the New York Times article, it is very important that the main ideas of the original academic

article were translated in a detailed, clear, and simplified manner. In the reading titled, “Reading-

Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources” by Karen Rosenberg she talks about the

audience that academic articles consider. She states, “writers of scholarly source..don’t think

much about you at all when they sit down to write. Often, academics write primarily for other

academics.”( Rosenberg, 2011). This key difference in how academic articles consider the

audience is vastly different from how news articles consider the audience. New York Times

articles also consider the word count to a large extent because the article cannot be too long.

After all, the audience is only interested in reading the main points of the article, and including

excessive details will lose the reader's interest. This is why in the genre translation, I did not

include the long details explaining how the research was conducted in the academic article and

instead just included the main points that contributed to the news article translation.

In conclusion, I used several different writing conventions from the academic article and news

article to complete my genre translation. With the background and introduction of where I got

my information, I can establish my credibility and propose the problem with impulse purchasing

tactics that brands use. Credibility is another important factor because as a news source

information has to be verified and examined thoroughly so that people can access a reliable

source of information. I aimed to use a friendly, approachable, and semi-formal tone to appeal

more to the large audience. I did not use complex academic language because as a news article,

they intend to get as many people as possible to read it. The original article includes intricate

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details about the studies they conducted and their findings but I decided to leave some of the

excessive details they explained. Instead, I summarized their findings and translated them into

the article in an engaging way. Readers of news articles typically are interested in something

other than knowing the details about how studies were conducted and instead just want to know

the main findings. The original article also does not include images similar to what I included in

the New York Times article, instead, they have charts and diagrams to explain their research.

Including engaging visual images is critical for this article's engagement and helps imply who it

affects. Both articles include various quotes that support their arguments and main points. All

these conventions were considered when translating the original research article into a New York

Times article. This is how I was able to translate the main ideas into the translated article

effectively.