The Effect of Time-Limited Promotion on E-Consumers’ Public Self-Consciousness and Purchase Behavior

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between consumers’ public self-consciousness, purchase behavior, post-purchase regret, and time-limited promotions in e-commerce. Time-limited flash sales have become a common promotion strategy in e-commerce, particularly in China, the largest e-commerce market. Firstly, the effect of public self-consciousness on consumers’ impulsive purchase tendency and post-purchase regret is examined. Secondly, this paper extends the scope of previous studies and investigates how time pressure affects the relationships between self-consciousness, impulsive buying tendency, and post-purchase regret. Data were gathered via an anonymous online survey of 580 online shoppers and subjected to empirical analysis including validity testing and ANOVA. The results provide both practical and theoretical contributions to existing models and offer empirical evidence showing the positive relationships between public self-consciousness and impulse buying, between public self-consciousness and post-purchase regret, and between impulse buying and post-purchase regret.