The impact of scarcity marketing on impulse buying behavior among gen z consumers in the hype fashion industry

Tham, Jing Wei (2025) The impact of scarcity marketing on impulse buying behavior among gen z consumers in the hype fashion industry. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

Scarcity-based marketing strategies such as limited-edition releases, exclusive collaborations, and time-restricted product drops are widely used in the hype fashion industry to stimulate consumer demand. However, the psychological and emotional factors triggered by these strategies, including Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and influencer influence, make it difficult to determine how strongly they affect impulse buying behavior among Generation Z consumers. This presents a significant research problem, as excessive reliance on urgency and exclusivity may influence consumers to make unplanned and emotionally driven purchases. Therefore, this research investigates the impact of scarcity marketing, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and influencer impact on impulse buying behavior among Generation Z consumers in the hype fashion industry. This study adopts a quantitative research approach and data were collected through an online questionnaire survey. A total of 225 valid responses were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive analysis, reliability testing, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to examine the proposed hypotheses. The findings indicate that scarcity marketing, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and influencer impact all have a statistically significant positive relationship with impulse buying behavior. Among these variables, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) was found to have the strongest influence on impulse buying behavior. Therefore, H1, H2, and H3 are supported. The results provide valuable insights for hype fashion brands and marketers in understanding how emotional and social factors drive Gen Z’s purchasing decisions. Finally, this study recommends future research to adopt larger and more diverse samples, include other age groups or countries, and explore additional psychological or behavioral variables to further enrich understanding of impulse buying behavior. Keywords: scarcity marketing, impulse buying behavior, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), influencer impact, Generation Z, hype fashion

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