Does online retail coupons and memberships create favourable psychological disposition?

This study aims to examine the impact of coupons, portal membership and peer-influence on consumer purchase and psychological actions, which is built on the theory of impulsiveness and the theory of dissonance. The study uses 2 × 2 × 2 (i.e. coupons, peer influence, complimentary coupons) factorial experimental design to investigate the proposed hypothetical model. The experiment was conducted with 364 participants. The study used a two-step structural equation modelling analysis to validate the proposed hypothetical model. The findings suggest that an increase in coupons can positively enhance the purchase actions and impulsiveness, which can later influence cognitive post purchase dissonance (CPPD) and affective post-purchase dissonance (APPD), as well as customers repurchase intention. It was also found that providing additional complimentary coupons reduces the effect of CPPD but not of the APPD. This study contributes to dissonance theory by adding APPD into the framework; moreover, the results on the coupons, memberships and peer influence will offer further insights to practitioners.