Is social media the new drug that generates impulse buying? : A quantitative study on social media´s effect on impulse buying regarding fashion products and if it differs between men and women in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Social media is a phenomenon that is successively developing, and the usage is rising each day, which in turn has an impact on consumer behaviour. Hence, the new attributes that social media provides, both for businesses and individuals, are affecting the way people are acting when making a purchase. Due to these circumstances the purpose of this thesis was to investigate and understand how social media are affecting consumers impulse buying behaviour when purchasing fashion products, and to establish if there were any gender differences.  From previous research about impulse buying and the online environment, seven hypotheses were created. The empirical findings were conducted using a quantitative method through an online survey with standardized and mainly closed-ended questions. The data were collected from 375 respondents, whereby there were at least 100 of each gender. Following, all the hypotheses were tested through the statical software SPSS.  In the conclusion of the thesis, it is established that two triggers, market stimuli and individual traits, had a moderate effect on consumers impulse buying tendency while the other categories did not at all. However, it was confirmed that all triggers had a correlation to impulse buying on social media. Additionally, it was determined that there were a gender differences in all the tested hypotheses, proving that there is a difference between men and women regarding impulse buying on social media. Although, the research is providing space and opportunity to include other aspects and develop the research field further in future research.