E-Commerce Platforms' Attributes to Determine Consumers' Impulsive Buying Behaviour: A Review

Abstract

The rapid proliferation of e-commerce has fundamentally reshaped consumer purchase decision-making, making impulsive buying behaviour (IBB) one of the most commercially and academically significant phenomena in digital retail. Drawing on a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature published between 1987 and 2024, this conceptual paper synthesises empirical evidence, theoretical frameworks, and emerging trends to map the multidimensional relationship between e-commerce platform attributes and consumer IBB. The paper identifies ten principal platform attributes-website design, ease of use, promotional stimuli, scarcity and urgency cues, personalised recommendations, customer reviews, trust signals, hedonic motivation, mobile optimisation, and social proof-and traces their theoretical underpinnings across the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Flow Theory, and the Dual-Process Theory. A conceptual model integrating these constructs is proposed. The review concludes that promotional cues and social proof are the most potent IBB drivers, that mobile-first design has become an independent antecedent of impulse purchases, and that algorithmic personalisation represents the frontier of research and practice. Practical implications for platform architects and digital marketers are discussed alongside directions for future empirical inquiry.