Exploring the Significant Role of Credit Card Use for Online Compulsive Buying: An Updated and More Robust Version of Impulsive Buying

Saudi Vision 2030 is a national transformation initiative designed to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy and reduce its oil reliance. E-commerce is a pivotal sector that the Saudi government is focusing on for expansion within the Vision 2030 framework. In 2021, e-commerce sales in Saudi Arabia amounted to $24.8 billion, with projections indicating a surge to $56.6 billion by 2025. The advancement of online platforms has significantly increased the number of consumers participating in e-commerce transactions. There has been an impressive increase in the tendency of customers to buy online products without any prior intention, and there is a strong need for those products. These instant purchases have become attractive for online firms, and they desperately need to boost this tendency. In the previous literature, this customer activity of buying unplanned and instantaneous items is called impulse buying. Meanwhile, a higher degree of this phenomenon is reported as compulsive buying behaviour. The current study aims to investigate the impact of website quality on online impulsive/compulsive behaviour. Besides this objective, the current study also tries to understand the factors which boost the perception of a better online website. Information and service quality of the website were taken as an antecedent for better website quality. The study’s final objective was to investigate the moderating role of credit card use in the relationship between website quality and online impulsive/compulsive buying behaviour. Data was collected from 500 Saudi customers, and 465 questionnaires were used for the final analysis. The study’s results confirm the significant impact of information and service quality on website quality. In contrast, the quality of the website significantly boosts the tendency to engage in impulsive and compulsive online buying behaviour. Additionally, using credit cards enhances website quality’s impact on online buying behaviour. These results recommend that online firms develop better websites for customer purchasing needs. These websites fulfil the desired needs of the customers during their purchase journey.