Credit Card Use, Hedonic Motivations, and Impulse Buying Behavior in Fast Fashion Physical Stores during COVID-19: The Sustainability Paradox

Barbara Gawior, Michal Polasik and Josep Lluís del Olmo
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Barbara Gawior: CEU International School of Doctoral Studies, Universitat Abat Oliba CEU, 08-022 Barcelona, Spain
Michal Polasik: Department of Digital Economy and Finance, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 87-100 Torun, Poland
Josep Lluís del Olmo: Faculty of Law and Business, Universitat Abat Oliba CEU, 08-022 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-16

Abstract: The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has affected consumption and payment patterns worldwide. Consumers have had to change their habits and deal with new sanitation guidelines and have often struggled with lengthy infrastructure closures. These factors significantly influenced both the choice of payment methods and purchase decisions made by consumers. Still, consumption patterns during the pandemic as a new social situation have not yet been thoroughly investigated. As the unsustainable consumption of resources is an important issue, this paper aims to analyze the relationship between credit card use, hedonic motivations, and its impact on the impulsive buying behavior in physical fast fashion stores during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted on a sample of 300 regular fast fashion buyers in physical stores. Structural equation modelling was used for the data analysis. The results show that there is a significant relationship between credit card use and impulse buying behavior for fast fashion in physical stores, as well as between credit card use and social shopping. It is also observed that hedonic motivations such as gratification shopping, value shopping, novelty-seeking shopping, and adventure-seeking shopping are related to impulse buying behavior. Therefore, this evidences the unsustainable overconsumption, thereby having a higher negative environmental and social impact. With the increased popularity of cashless payment methods, including credit cards relaxing tighter budgets during the pandemic, fast fashion impulse buying should be considered an important issue in individual, social and environmental well-being. Consequently, the need for more responsible consumption and sustainability-focused value orientation arises so as to mitigate the environmental impact of the fast fashion industry.

Keywords: credit cards; fast fashion; hedonic motivations; impulsive buying; physical stores; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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