We recently did a blog on the five stages of consumer buying. Called You’ve Got It, But Do They Know About It?, the blog talks about the five stages in a marketing/sales life cycle. Only one type of buying sidesteps this cycle and that is the impulse buy. Approximately forty percent of consumer spending is impulse buying. Good retailers understand the power of the impulse buy. Everything from the apple pie conveniently placed next to the loaf of bread at the grocery store to the 50%-off-car-wash-coupon-with-a-gas-purchase is geared towards the impulse buy.
Statistics are interesting:
– The single most motivating factor for an impulse buy (88%) is a sale price
– Younger consumers with higher incomes have a greater percentage of impulse purchases
– 90% of people make occasional impulsive purchases
– Statistics state that 20% of what shoppers buy at the grocery store is bought on impulse
– A study in 2011 showed that 60% of females made an impulse buy within the last year
Also interesting is that according to a British company called Npower, men spend more money on impulse buys than women: men spend approximately $41 per impulse buy versus $31 for women.
The main reason is that women spend more time bargain hunting, going to sales, and researching before they buy something. Men are more likely to grab something off the shelf or buy something online.
Men are also more likely to go out impulsively to eat or drink while women plan their meals and nights out more carefully.
The study found that the average person spends $114,293 in their lifetime on impulse buys. According to the study, the top ten most common impulse buys are food, clothing, magazines, wine, books, DVDs, shoes, trips, beer, and toiletries.
The next 10 most common are home furnishings, music, clothes for the kids, jewelry, accessories, gadgets, garden accessories, flowers, toys, and day trips.
What do you think? Who spends the most on impulse buying in your household and what are the most common types of things bought?
Mediascope, Inc. 
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Well, I would say this article really helped me to devise guidelines for marketing strategists while devising marketing strategy, to consider impulse buying why and how.