THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND THE ANTECEDANTS FOR THE IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOR OF US CITIZENS

In an analysis based on the theory of Fear, this study examines impulse purchase patterns during the COVID-19 Pandemic across major US urban centers. Data from 889 US consumers were collected from leading US cities to evaluate impulse buying behavior fluctuations using SEM-based multivariate approaches to examine the survey statistics. We used COVID-19 as a moderating variable of this impulse purchase behavior. The results confirmed that Fear of a complete lockdown, peers buying, scarcity of essential products on shelves, US stimulus checks, the limited supply of essential goods, and panic buying have had a compelling and affirmative influence on the sharp swings of impulse buying patterns. The findings further confirm that Fear Appeal and social media fake news have had a strong positive impact on impulse buying as mediating factors. Finally, it was concluded that COVID-19 is a significant moderating factor influencing the impulse buying behavior of US citizens. The practical implications suggest that marketers and brand managers should devise novel strategies to enhance their brand’s market share to attain a competitive advantage in COVID-19 or similar panic situations in the future. These research findings are essential to comprehend the sharp fluctuations of impulse buying patterns in the current cutthroat competition environment across the US and other parts of the world.


INTRODUCTION
In the first months of 2020, the COVID-19 virus was announced all over the world, with millions of people quarantined to maintain social and physical distancing by mid-March. Since then, lives have been disrupted due to precautions taken to alleviate the COVID-19 Pandemic (Addo et al., 2020). In response to the prolonged imposed isolation and Fears about the future because of the pandemic, consumers have been involved in panic buying for weeks (INSEAD, 2020). This has overloaded fragile supply chains and harmed consumers financially (Crabble, Governments in several US states have revised their guidelines for social distancing, as they anticipate the level of severity remaining in an upsurge as the lethal COVID-19 pandemic will further spread across the country (Iyer et al., 2020;Numerator Intelligence, 2020). To comprehend the real human behavior, this study examines beyond the normal behavioral, subconscious, and emotional prejudices that motivate social perceptions and behavior (Adam, 2020). According to Oberst et al. (2017), most behavioral biases start in the areas of the brain's fast thinking which is also responsible for human emotions. According to Crabble (2020) and Addo et al. (2020), the round-the-clock electronic and print media coverage, often featuring emergency news concerning fatalities of COVID-19 further spark the emotional state of Fear, and people have been placed into an endurance approach. Thus in this research we have employed the theory of Fear Appeal. We have laid down the foundations for this study on this almost forgotten theory. Nevertheless, we propose the contradictory of what has directed current literature; we concentrate on a purchase evaluation of essential items, such as buying out of utilitarian (necessity) and hedonism (fear) Abel et al., 2016). The undertaken study examines the antecedents and dynamics of impulse buying patterns in the rise of COVID-19 and assessed the impact of US citizen impulse purchasing behavior during this situation based on Fear (Iyer et al., 2020;Limaye et al., 2020). Using the theory of Fear Appeal, we evaluate how US citizens behave in supermarkets, and what are the rationales behind impulse buying behavior.
The remainder of the paper comprises a theoretical background and hypotheses formulation in section two, with the research objective, methodology and data provided in section three. Results and discussion are located in section four, with the conclusion in section five.

Impulse Buying Behavior
Scholars have been focusing on consumer impulse buying for several decades, providing a long history of definition formations. According to Rajan (2020), Liu et al. (2019), and Güler (2014), the term is associated with naive, immature, ignorant, and intellectual deficiencies. Parsad (2020) characterized an impulse purchase pattern, as impulse buying occurs when consumers experience an expected, intense, and continual impulse to buy something immediately. Nevertheless, it cannot be labeled as involving the substantial aspect of pioneering hedonism, which is a precursor to enacting purchases as impulses. Similarly, Suryaningsih (2020) and Zafar et al. (2019) found that impulse purchases involve an investment made through due to a given motivation in which the decision to purchase something does not depend on profound thought processes. Impulse buying can be induced by external stimuli. Still, according to Addo Addo et al. (2020), COVID-19 is more dangerous than the flu in terms of contagiousness, and the death rate is 20 to 30 times greater than the flu. Therefore, not only has the US government imposed a lockdown, but also people have put themselves in self-isolation. Thus the shortage of workers and managers who are normally heavily involved in stocking essential items have also triggered impulse buying patterns. The WHO has also recommended remaining in isolation, and several countries have taken the step of a partial or complete lockdown, including the US, Canada, Italy, China, Spain, France, and other European countries (Kim & Su, 2020;Crabble, 2020). Hence, the following hypothesis is framed based on the literature: H1: The fear of a complete lockdown has had a positive and significant impact on impulse buying behavior.

Peers Buying
Buying patterns greatly influence each other across populations. Human purchase behavior is the outcome of acquiring information, attitudes and behaviors from other individuals in peerto-peer social interaction in the form of trends and fashions (De Veirman et al., 2017). Since companies attempt to rise to these challenges, they ascertain these changes consumer attitudes and behavior (Kim, 2020). These challenges are conditioned by 1) the companies response to the problem, and 2) changing customer habits and attitudes that will drive others (Bergel & Brock, 2019). Similarly, the novel coronavirus has produced the same peer-buying pattern in Europe, Canada, and the United States (Suryaningsih, 2020). People were inclined towards impulse buying behavior due to the negative and positive word of mouth of peers, watching the buying of neighbors and peers (Addo et al., 2020;Matteo et al., 2020). In a condition where the incitement info desires to be mirrored upon, consumers' emotional state is also combined into the administering of the appeal that is hugely driven by the apparent inspiration of the individuals around them (Crabble, 2020;Zhang et al., 2019). According to Kim & Su (2020), consumers adapt to anticipations of peers about buying decisions and acquire product suitability by perceiving the buying behavior of other people. Similarly, in a situation like COVID-19, people follow the purchase pattern of peers in online and offline purchases. Hence, the following hypothesis is framed based on literature: H2: Peers buying has a positive and significant impact on impulse buying behavior.

Scarcity of Essential Products in Shelves
According to Crabble (2020) and Suryaningsih (2020), stepping into the superstore, and watching counter lines in early days of COVID-19, they were three times their usual queues and watched this condition, everybody realized that they should also stock up the essential items.
In the superstores, the buyers at the frozen food section, or pasta aisle, and then returning to the corner in shockwave to locate rows and rows of empty shelves (CNN, 2020). According to Crabble (2020), and Kim & Su (2020), as the news of COVID-19 has grasped the attention of the world, the supermarkets, usually overflowing with every essential item, but rapidly been gone by consumers panic purchase water, frozen food, bread, toilet papers, and other grocery items. The circulated images of empty shelves and long queues of consumers on mainstream and social media further tempted to the people for impulsive buying to purchase and stock up essential and non-essential items through online and offline stores (Iyer et al., 2020; Addo et al., 2020). Even in April, people were involved in intense impulse buying, which further aggravated the condition and dried up the shelves of supermarkets (CNN, 2020). Thus, the following hypothesis is framed based on literature: H3: The scarcity of essential products on shelves has a positive and significant impact on impulse buying behavior.

The Limited Supply of Essential Goods
The COVID-19 pandemic has spread quickly, creating unexpected panic buying, and people involved intensely in impulse buying purchases. The demand for essential items has increased several folds, and companies were unable to meet the sudden surge of consumer demand. Thus, this leads to the supply chain disruption and superstore-faced shortages of essential goods, leading to further panic in consumers (Kim & Su, 2020;Rajan, 2020). According to Addo et al. (2020), and Kim (2020), the outbreak of COVID-19 has created both supply and demand shocks rumbling across the United States and all over the world. According to Guitton (2020), and Crabble (2020), a misapprehension about the condition of the food and other essential items supply chain eached to its breaking point in terms of anxiousness. After the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the food items inventory split between superstores and restaurants. Due to panic buying, the demand for essential items further increased, which also disrupted the overall supply chain process of crucial goods (CNN, 2020). Therefore, in this situation, the anxiety of consumers aggravated, and they tilted more towards the impulse buying behavior (Kim 2020). Hence, the following hypothesis is framed based on literature: H4: The limited supply of essential goods has a positive and significant impact on impulse buying behavior.

Panic Buying
According to the report of Numerator Intelligence (2020), most of the department stores of US cities are described as a rapid run twisted into a nightmare, steering long queues of hundreds of buyers stocking up during the outbreak of COVID-19 when the US government declared the state of emergency after the death of first COVID-19 patient. "For the most part, people were understanding and relatively calm (Suryaningsih, 2020; CNN, 2020), but patience was starting to grow thin". Consumers have a long queue with loaded trolleys with toilet paper, sanitizers, bottled water, milk, and other grocery items that were observed across the United States due to the Fear of COVID-19 (Crabble, 2020). People were involved in panic buying across the USA because of Fear, and they were more indulging in impulse buying behavior (

The US Stimulus Checks
The US government has announced a financial stimulus package that vows to assist in easing the financial burden of millions of Americans. Thus, US citizens have been receiving stimulus checks since April 2020 (CNN, 2020). A survey was conducted by Numerator Intelligence (2020) and asked the consumers how they would spend this money. Most of the consumers have answered that they will pay their bills, buy groceries, and other essential items. However, some middle-class shoppers vowed to save this money for hard times (Numerator Intelligence, 2020). People were more tangled in impulse purchases because of the unexpected benefit of the US stimulus checks; the average family received $3,000 to $4,000 depending on the family members (Crabble, 2020). People have spent this money on food (grocery items), sanitary, beer, and lottery; thus, most of the purchases belong to the non-essential items because of impulse buying behavior (Addo et al., 2020). People have spent stimulus checks in two to three weeks, mostly in non-essential items, because easy money always is the right trigger for impulse buying behavior (CNN, 2020; Matteo et al., 2020). Hence, the following hypothesis is framed based on literature: H6: The US stimulus checks have a positive and significant impact on impulse buying behavior.

Fear Appeal
According to Addo et al. (2020), and Wegmann et al. (2017), the Fear grew as an instrument to safeguard from the situation in which life is endangered. Nothing is more important than survival; thus, the evolutionary supremacy of the human brain's circuitry of Fear activates. The brain's Fear circuitry is dominating than the brain's reasoning faculties ( H7A: Fear appeal mediates between Fear of complete lockdown and impulse buying behavior.
H7B: Fear appeal mediates between peers buying and impulse buying behavior.
H7C: Fear appeal mediates between scarcity of essential products in shelves and impulse buying behavior.
H7D: Fear appeal mediates between the limited supply of essential goods and impulse buying behavior.
H7E: Fear appeal mediates between panic buying and impulse buying behavior.
H7F: Fear appeal mediates between the US stimulus checks and impulse buying behavior.

Social Media Fake News
Due to the highly contagious range of COVID-19 and physical distancing, people have restricted to their homes. Therefore, they heavily relay on social media news. The use of smartphones has now become a necessity, and people are surfing different social media sites such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Twitter for entertainment and news purposes (Ahmed et al., 2020). Thus, social media has become the primary source of human interaction and information sharing regarding COVID-19 (Addo et al., 2020). Therefore, this misinformation damages the effective retorts to COVID-19, and people feel more anxiety and Fear during the deadly COVID-19 pandemic (Limaye et al., 2020). In this scenario, the credibility and acceptability of social media news have been undermined. Thus, different digital media channels have contributed significantly to misinformation (Zhang et al., 2019). When the first case of COVID-19 was reported, the traditional and social media have started to spread a broad range of misleading information. Hence, the WHO has termed it Infomedic, which means "an excessive amount of misinformation, disinformation, and rumors that make it difficult to identify the reliable sources of information" (Garrett, 2020). The miss-leading information also affected the general consumers and the buying patterns of US citizens and get panic. They tilted more towards the impulse buying for essential and non-essential goods (Crabble, 2020). We have framed the following hypotheses by taking social media fake news as a mediating variable: H8A: Social media fake news mediates between Fear of complete lockdown and impulse buying behavior.
H8B: Social media fake news mediates between peers buying and impulse buying behavior.
H8C: Social media fake news mediates between the scarcity of essential products in shelves and impulse buying behavior.
H8D: Social media fake news mediates between the limited supply of essential goods and impulse buying behavior.
H8E: Social media fake news mediates between panic buying and impulse buying behavior.
H8F: Social media fake news mediates between the US stimulus checks and impulse buying behavior.

COVID-19 Pandemic
Besides the epidemiology, the spread of deadly COVID-19 has broader consequences, not only on the fluctuations of the economy, but also it impacted the consumer purchase decision across the United States, and other parts of the World (Addo et al., 2020). The COVID-19 phenomenon altered US citizens' buying patterns due to the Fear and psychological factors that would have a long-lasting impact on the years (Crabbe, 2020). Among employed survey participants, spending more time at home seems to lead to impulsive buying behavior (Iyer et al., 2020; Crabbe, 2020). According to Iyer et al. (2020) and Kossman (2016), habitually, this unintended buying is not even for small products, as per the study of CreditCard.com, one out of five US citizens having consumed more than $1,000 in impulse buying. Coronavirus had impacted citizens consumers' shopping behavior in the United States, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers skewed towards impulse buying behavior (Addo et al., 2020). Thus, it is established that COV-ID-19 has impacted significantly, and people are more involved in impulse buying in the United States (Garrett, 2020). Hence, we have framed the following hypotheses by keeping in view the COVID-19 pandemic as a moderating variable: H9A: The COVID-19 pandemic moderates between Fear of complete lockdown and impulse buying behavior.
H9B: The COVID-19 pandemic moderates between peers buying and impulse buying behavior.
H9C: The COVID-19 pandemic moderates between the scarcity of essential products in shelves and impulse buying behavior.
H9D: The COVID-19 pandemic moderates between the limited supply of essential goods and impulse buying behavior.
H9E: The COVID-19 pandemic moderates between panic buying and impulse buying behavior.
H9F: The COVID-19 pandemic moderates between the US stimulus checks and impulse buying behavior.

Conceptual and Theoretical Model
The previous literature helps comprehend and integrate the theory of Fear with the antecedents of impulse buying, and construct a novel model with mediators and COVID-19 as a moderator to analyze the impulse buying behavior of the US citizens. The undertaken study examines the modified conceptual and theoretical framework that is developed based on previous literature. This research evaluates and substantiates the existing literature and augments the current knowledge by providing a novel model, as demonstrated by Figure 1.

Objective of this research
The undertaken study aims to examine the impulse purchase pattern during the COVID-19 Pandemic across the major US urban centers founded based on the theory of Fear. The undertaken study focuses on the imperative connotation amid the precursors such as Fear of complete lock- down, peers buying, scarcity of essential products in shelves, limited supply of essential goods, panic buying, and the US stimulus checks. We considered COVID-19 as a moderating variable and examines the impulse buying behavior pattern due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US citizens. Besides, the antecedents and moderating variable, we also incorporated two important mediating variables such as Fear appeal and social media fake news, and evaluate the impact of mediation between independent variables and impulse buying behavior. The undertaken study has significant theoretical and practical implications. The findings of this research provide necessary ingredients and directions to future researchers to replicate their studies in diverse paradigms to understand the dynamics of impulse buying behavior in natural catastrophes and crises.

Research Design and Measurement Scales
The undertaken study is quantitative and cross-sectional; we developed a modified questionnaire from previous studies. The modified items of impulse buying behavior have been taken from previous studies (Rajan,

Sampling Strategy and Data Collection
The overall sampling frame for this research is the population of US consumers from the major cities of the United States, for instance, the Washington DC, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, and Virginia. Since we covered major metropolitan cities in the US, therefore, the collected sample is the best representative for the US citizens. Since the population is unknown for the undertaken study, we used a purposive sampling technique for selecting a sample. We used both online and offline methods. The US consumers' responses were taken through the mall-intercept procedure through recording gadgets due to the timesaving and minimal physical exposure with the consumers. The self-administered questionnaire data of 580 consumers were collected from March 5, 2020 to April 3, 2020 when people were less sensitive, and they did not hesitate to talk. However, the rest of the 309 respondents have recorded their insight through online social media from April 4, 2020 to May 5, 2020. Initially, we received 950 responses from US consumers, both offline and online together. We received 889 questionnaires that were completely responded and fulfilled the undertaken study's requirements.

Data Analyses and Estimations Techniques
The undertaken study employed an SEM-based multivariate technique for the collected respons-es, for instance, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for the suitability and retention of adapted constructs and items. This research also employed the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate the items and constructs that have already been used in previous models (Ahmed et al., 2020;Hair et al., 2010). The CFA approach further confirms modified constructs and items, which also fit in the hypothesized structural and measurement models that are used for the current research (Hair et al., 2010;Byrne, 2009). This research also used descriptive statistics to examine the essential characteristics of constructs, such as standard deviation, mean, Kurtosis, and skewness. The values of standard deviation, skewness, and Kurtosis determined the normality of the data essential to employing the SEM-based multivariate approach (

Descriptive Statistics
This research also used descriptive statistics to examine the essential characteristics of constructs, for this purpose, the data were converted into z-scores, and execute the descriptive statistics, the findings of Table 1 demonstrated that all the constructs remained between ±1.5 in terms of standard deviation and skewness, which exhibited that the collected data has a normality pattern. Moreover, the values of Kurtosis for all the constructs range from ±3, which further substantiated that; the collected data exhibited the normality pattern, which is the pre-requisite for SEM-based multivariate techniques (Hair et al., 2010).

Reliabilities and Validities Analyses
The rotated component matrix provided the factor loadings of all the items and constructs. We have calculated the composite reliabilities and average variance extracted with the help of factor loadings. The findings of Table 2 demonstrated that Cronbach's alpha and composite reliabilities are more significant than 0.90, which meets the minimum threshold value of 0.60 (Huang et al., 2004). The findings of

Exploratory Factor Analysis -EFA
In SEM-based modeling, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is the most vital component in evaluating and validating the items and constructs. The EFA method also reduces unnecessary items and constructs. Thus, the EFA has a proficiency to condense a large amount of data, according to Emory & Cooper (1991); the EFA helps the researcher validate and retain constructs and items. The findings of the principal component rotated matrix substantiate the construct validities of items and constructs. In our hypothesized measurement model, the impulse buying behavior, Fear of Complete Lockdown, Peers Buying, Scarcity of Essential Products in Shelves, Limited Supply of Essential Goods, Panic Buying, and US Stimulus Checks, Fear Appeal, Social media fake news, and COVID-19 have comprised of three items each. The findings exhibited that the values of factor loadings for each item and variable are higher than 0.60, which validated the retention of items and constructs (Ahmed et al., 2020;Kaiser, 1974).

Kaiser Meyer Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's Analyses
The findings of Kaiser Meyer Olkin (KMO) analysis suggested that the value of KMO is 0.712, which is good as demonstrated by Kaiser (1974); the values ranging between 0.70-0.79 are considered to be good. However, the values ranging from 0.80-0.99 are considered to be being excellent. Finally, the outcomes of Bartlett's Sphericity technique showed p<0.05, which confirmed that the correlation between items and constructs is significant and satisfactory at the 5% level of significance (Kaiser, 1974).

Total Variance Explained
The findings of the cumulative variance percentage of the ten factors considered show a dispersion of variance of potential factors. The aggregate variance percentage value is 85.99%, which is deemed to be excellent because the minimum threshold value is 50%. The findings further demonstrated that the total of each factor's Eigenvalue is higher than 1. Hence, both cumulative variance dispersion and Eigenvalues established that our collected data is reliable, and now, we can employ further analyses.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis -CFA
The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is a direct and appropriate approach to scrutinize the measurement model. The CFA technique further established the fitness of data for the hypothesized measurement model (Hair et al., 2010;Ahmed et al., 2019). The hypothesized measurement model for this study considered the antecedents of impulse buying behavior such as FCL, PB, SES, LSE, PNB, and USC. Fear appeal and social media fake news are considered to be mediating variables. However, COVID-19 is taken as moderator, and impulse buying behavior as an outcome variable. In our hypothesized measurement model, we have taken thirty items of ten factors, and fix the sample data between unobserved and observed variables (Ahmed et al., 2020;Fornell & Larcker, 1981). The findings of Table 3 showed that the factor loadings between factors and items range from 0.85-0.95, which established that the overall measurement model is acceptable. The findings further substantiated the hypothesized measurement model's convergent validities through average variance extracted (AVE) in which all the factors have higher than 0.50 AVE values (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

Structural Equation Modeling -SEM
For the estimation of parameters of impulse buying behavior, we used structural equation modeling. Our structural model had six independent variables: FCL, PB, SES, LSE, PNB, and USC. Moreover, Fear appeal and social media fake news were considered as mediating variables. However, COVID-19 has been considered as a moderating variable, and impulse buying behavior as an outcome variable. The findings demonstrated that our hypothesized structural model is adequate in light of the threshold of fit-indices measures. The findings of Table 3  Note. TLI=Tucker-Lewis Index; χ 2 /d=Relative Chi-square; GFI=Goodness of Fit Index; RMSEA=Root mean squared error of approximation; CFI=Comparative fit index; NFI=Normed fixed index; IFI=Incremental fixed index; RNI= Relative Non-centrality Index; PNFI=Parsimony-adjusted normed fit index; PCFI=Parsimonious-adjusted fit index.

Hypothesized Direct Relationship
For the evaluation of the hypothesized direct relationship, we used standardized regression weights to infer the association between independent variables such as FCL, PB, SES, LSE, &USC, and impulse buying behavior from the perspective of US consumers. The findings of Table 4 exhibit that our framed direct hypotheses (H1-H6) are sustained, as T > 2 and p < 0.05 in all six hypotheses. Therefore, it is concluded that FCL, PB, SES, LSE, PNB, and USC have had a positive and significant impact on the impulse buying behavior of US citizens. However, the individual outcomes indicate that the PNB and FCL had the most potent influences, 0.8439 and 0.8225 correspondingly. Nevertheless, LSE has an impact of 0.7254, followed by the SES with 0.3332, and USC has an effect of 0.1198 on impulse buying behavior. These results are consistent with the previous literature (

Mediation Analysis
The findings of

Moderation Analysis
The findings of Table 6

Virtualization of Conditional Effect
According to Hayes & Rockwood (2020), and Ahmed et al. (2020), a graphical depiction is a basic form to establish the moderation, as it clearly shows the moderating variable between exogenous and endogenous variables. The results of Figure 2a to Figure 2f depict that the effect of the impulse buying behavior changes with the perpetual change of moderating variables such as the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the exogenous variables remained constant. Hence, it is confirmed that COVID-19 has had a significant impact between exogenous variables such as FCL, PB, SES, LSE, PNB, and USC, and impulse buying behavior of US citizens. In Figures 2a to 2f, light gray exhibits the exogenous factors, dark gray indicates the moderator COVID-19, and the black color shows the influence of impulse buying behavior.

CONCLUSION
The undertaken study examines the antecedents of impulse buying behavior and its influence on US citizens' buying patterns. The findings demonstrate that fear of a complete lockdown and panic buying are the essential influencers on the US population's purchase behavior. Other factors such as peers buying, scarcity of essential items on superstore shelves, disruption of the supply chain, and the US stimulus package also play a vital role in the impulse buying behavior of US citizens. We used the two mediating factors of Fear Appeal and social media fake news, and evaluated the mediation between exogenous and impulse purchase patterns. Our findings confirm that misuse and uncontrolled spread of fake news transmitted through social media further aggravated the situation, and people indulge in abnormal purchase patterns. Similarly, Fear Appeal also has a vital influence as a mediating factor on impulse buying behavior. Finally, we employed COVID-19 as a moderator in the undertaken study and the analysis of the moderation between the exogenous and outcome variable. Using an evaluation of the US population, our findings demonstrate that COVID-19 is a factor that influenced life and thought patterns. Moderation of COVID-19 b/w US Stimulus checks and Impulse buying behavior U.S. Stimulus Checks COVID-19 Impulse Buying Behavior COVID-19 is the strongest variable affecting consumer purchasing behavior. The US citizens tilted towards impulse buying behavior analyzed essential and non-essential goods across the United States. The findings of the undertaken research should suggest practical implications, mainly for government agencies, policymakers, marketers, and other practitioners in terms of how to create and institute distinct strategies to deal with unpredictable situations during the COVID-19 phenomenon. Marketers and brand managers can devise novel strategies to enhance their brand's market share to attain a competitive advantage in COVID-19 or similar panic situations in the future.
The constructs that are used in this research are not comprehensive and conclusive to a sufficient degree; future studies can incorporate new dimensions for more generalized and robust outcomes. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was abrupt. The collected data has limitations; for instance, the duration and timing of the undertaken study. Future research studies can further substantiate and establish the study's findings. Another limitation of this study is the specificity of the data collection, since the data was collected from US citizens that were severely hit by the coronavirus measures. Thus, the results cannot be generalized to other populations of the world. Therefore, it is suggested that future researchers carry out similar studies on a larger scale, including other countries, to confirm the dimensions of impulse buying behavior.