Implications of Online Shopping and Flash Sale Attitudes on Impulsive Buying: Financial Literacy as a Moderation Variable
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53276/eligible.v5i1.139Keywords:
Online Shopping Attitude, Flash Sale, Financial Literacy, Impulsive Buying, Stimulus–Organism–ResponseAbstract
This study aims to analyze the influence of online shopping attitudes and flash sales on impulsive buying and test the role of financial literacy as a moderation variable in the millennial generation in Bandung. The Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework is used as a theoretical lens to explain how digital promotion stimulus and consumer evaluation of online shopping are related to impulsive purchase responses, while financial literacy is positioned as a cognitive resource that can act as a boundary condition. Data were collected through an online survey of 220 respondents using purposive sampling techniques and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares. The results showed that online shopping attitudes had a positive and significant effect on impulsive buying (β = 0.182; p < 0.001) and flash sales also had a positive and significant effect (β = 0.305; p < 0.001). Financial literacy significantly weakened the relationship between online shopping attitudes and impulsive buying (β = −0.237; p = 0.007), but did not moderate the relationship between flash sales and impulsive buying (β = 0.258; p = 0.092). The main finding of the study was an asymmetrical moderation pattern: financial literacy appeared to be more relevant as a cognitive buffer to general online shopping tendencies, while flash sales stimuli containing scarcity and urgency likely involved affective mechanisms that were less responsive to financial knowledge alone. The latter interpretation is theoretical because affective mechanisms are not directly measured in the model. These findings expand the understanding of the limits of the effectiveness of financial literacy in the context of digital consumer behavior.
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