Padang — Attractive product displays and consumer behavioral characteristics are significantly associated with impulse buying of fashion products through the Lazada application. The finding comes from a study by Della Sonia Putri and Yunia Wardi of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Padang State University. Published in the International Journal of Scientific Multidisciplinary Research (IJSMR) in 2026, the study involved 384 consumers in Padang who had purchased fashion products through Lazada. The results show that consumer behavior and visual merchandising significantly influence self-control and impulse buying, while self-control also functions as a mechanism linking these factors to impulsive purchasing.
The growth of e-commerce has changed how consumers make purchasing decisions. Shoppers no longer depend only on physical product displays. Instead, they are continuously exposed to digital stimuli through their smartphones, including product photographs, application interfaces, personalized recommendations, vouchers, limited-time promotions, and sales notifications. These conditions can encourage consumers to make spontaneous purchases without prior planning.
Fashion products are particularly relevant to this behavior. Purchasing decisions in fashion are influenced not only by functional benefits but also by aesthetics, lifestyle, emotions, and self-expression. As a result, the visual presentation of fashion products on e-commerce platforms can become a powerful stimulus that attracts attention and encourages consumers to make quick purchasing decisions.
Lazada was selected as the research context because it remains one of Indonesia’s major e-commerce platforms with a substantial consumer base. Its wide range of fashion products and strong reliance on visual online presentation make the platform relevant for examining the factors behind impulse buying. The researchers also identified limited empirical research focusing specifically on Lazada users in regional markets such as Padang City.
In the study, consumer behavior refers to the psychological, social, and behavioral characteristics that influence how individuals process information, evaluate products, and make purchasing decisions. Visual merchandising refers to the way products are presented through photographs, application interface design, page layouts, color combinations, product videos, and promotional information. Self-control refers to consumers’ ability to regulate immediate impulses, resist temptation, and consider the consequences of a decision before making a purchase.
The researchers employed a quantitative approach with a causal research design to examine the relationships between consumer behavior, visual merchandising, self-control, and impulse buying. The target population consisted of consumers in Padang who had purchased fashion products through the Lazada application. Because the population size could not be determined with certainty, the researchers used the Cochran formula to calculate the sample size, resulting in 384 required respondents.
Participants were selected through purposive sampling. They had to be at least 17 years old, have purchased fashion products through Lazada in Padang, have experienced or made an unplanned purchase through Lazada, and be willing to participate. Primary data were collected through a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire. The data were then analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, or SEM-PLS, with SmartPLS software.
Before testing the relationships among the variables, the researchers evaluated whether the measurement instruments adequately represented the research constructs. The results showed that all constructs met the required reliability and convergent validity criteria. Cronbach’s Alpha values ranged from 0.974 to 0.981, Composite Reliability values ranged from 0.976 to 0.983, and Average Variance Extracted values ranged from 0.730 to 0.790. Outer loading values ranged from 0.827 to 0.906. All indicators were therefore considered valid, and none needed to be removed.
The hypothesis testing produced a consistent result: all hypotheses proposed in the study were supported. Consumer behavior had a positive and significant effect on self-control, with a coefficient of 0.639. Visual merchandising also had a positive and significant effect on self-control, with a coefficient of 0.580. At the same time, consumer behavior had a positive effect on impulse buying with a coefficient of 0.194, while visual merchandising had a positive effect on impulse buying with a coefficient of 0.259.
Another important finding concerned the relationship between self-control and impulse buying. In the statistical results reported by the study, self-control had a positive and significant relationship with impulse buying, with a coefficient of 0.587. This finding indicates that consumers’ psychological mechanisms are closely connected with spontaneous purchasing decisions in the context examined by the researchers.
The mediation analysis further showed that self-control significantly mediated the relationship between consumer behavior and impulse buying. The indirect effect of consumer behavior on impulse buying through self-control had a coefficient of 0.375. Self-control also mediated the relationship between visual merchandising and impulse buying, with a coefficient of 0.340. Both mediation relationships were statistically significant.
These findings indicate that impulse buying in e-commerce is not determined solely by how attractive a product looks. Consumers’ ways of processing information, evaluating products, responding to promotions, and managing purchasing impulses are also important parts of the decision-making process. Della Sonia Putri and Yunia Wardi show that consumer behavior and visual stimuli operate together with psychological mechanisms in shaping purchasing decisions.
According to the study’s discussion, consumers who shop rationally, consider product benefits, and evaluate alternatives before purchasing tend to display different self-control patterns from consumers who are more strongly oriented toward pleasure and immediate gratification. On Lazada, consumers are repeatedly exposed to flash sales, vouchers, product recommendations, and time-limited promotions. These conditions make the ability to regulate purchasing decisions an important part of digital shopping behavior.
Visual merchandising also serves a purpose beyond making a product page attractive. High-quality photographs, interface design, color combinations, page layouts, and promotional information can influence consumers’ psychological evaluation before they make a purchasing decision. From the Stimulus–Organism–Response perspective, visual elements function as external stimuli that influence consumers’ internal states before generating behavioral responses.
For fashion businesses, the findings indicate that visual quality in e-commerce plays an important role in attracting consumer attention. High-quality product photographs, informative page designs, product videos, and strategically placed promotional banners can increase the likelihood of spontaneous purchases. However, the researchers also emphasize the importance of balancing visual marketing strategies with clear and transparent product information so that consumers can still make more informed decisions.
For consumers, the study provides a reminder that digital shopping environments are designed with multiple stimuli capable of influencing purchasing decisions. Promotions, personalized recommendations, product images, and application interfaces can attract consumers before they have fully considered their actual needs or financial circumstances. The researchers therefore recommend strengthening self-control so that purchasing decisions are not driven solely by promotional stimuli or visual displays.
From a theoretical perspective, the study strengthens the relevance of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Stimulus–Organism–Response Theory in explaining impulse buying in digital commerce. It also integrates the perspective of Self-Regulation Theory by demonstrating that consumers’ psychological mechanisms are important in explaining how marketing stimuli can be connected with spontaneous purchasing behavior.
The study has several limitations. It focuses only on fashion consumers using Lazada in Padang City, which limits the direct generalization of the findings to other regions and e-commerce platforms. The research also uses a cross-sectional design, meaning it cannot fully capture changes in consumer behavior over time. Future studies are encouraged to expand the geographical scope and examine other e-commerce platforms while incorporating additional factors such as hedonic shopping motivation, fear of missing out, electronic word of mouth, perceived value, trust, positive emotions, and personalization.
Overall, the study by Della Sonia Putri and Yunia Wardi demonstrates that impulse buying on e-commerce platforms emerges through the interaction of consumer behavior, product presentation, and psychological mechanisms. For fashion businesses, understanding these three dimensions can support more effective digital marketing strategies. For consumers, greater awareness of digital purchasing stimuli may help them make more measured and informed shopping decisions.
Authors
Della Sonia Putri — Padang State University.
Yunia Wardi — Padang State University.
Research Source
Article Title: The Influence of Consumer Behavior and Visual Merchandising on Consumers' Impulse Buying: The Mediating Role of Self-Control in Fashion Products Purchased through the Lazada Application in Padang
Journal: International Journal of Scientific Multidisciplinary Research (IJSMR), Vol. 4, No. 8, 2026, pp. 1899–1914.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/ijsmr.v4i8.146
Journal Link: https://journalijsmr.my.id/index.php/ijsmr
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