The power of other consumers: herd behaviour, customer experience, impulse buying urge and continuance intentions in fashion online group buying

This study examines herd behaviour's influence on consumer responses in fashion online group buying (OGB), using the S-O-R framework and PLS-SEM. Survey data from 320 OGB shoppers reveal that herd behaviour (stimulus) shapes customer experience (CX) from four dimensions (organism): informativeness, entertainment, social presence, and sensory appeal. CX, in turn, influences continuance intention (response), acting as a partial mediator; however, no direct path to impulse buying urge was found for general fashion products. Product segment as the control variable impacts the effect: unlike apparel, herd behaviour-triggered CX slightly stimulates cosmetics consumers' urge to buy impulsively. Parasocial interaction was an insignificant moderator, suggesting influencer marketing is less effective in this context. The findings suggest that fashion retailers should designate product-specific marketing strategies and facilitate their customers to gain more experiences from herd behaviours, particularly the informativeness dimension.