The Role of Live Shopping and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in Impulsive Buying Behavior: A Qualitative Study among Young TikTok Shop Users in Medan City
Keywords:
live shopping, fear of missing out, impulsive buying, TikTok Shop, qualitative researchAbstract
The emergence of live shopping features on TikTok Shop has reshaped how young Indonesians shop online. Countdown timers, dwindling-stock alerts, and the steady stream of other buyers' comments are believed to stir up a fear of being left behind, commonly known as Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), which in turn pushes viewers toward hasty purchase decisions. This article sets out to trace how these features give rise to FOMO and how far FOMO actually shapes impulsive buying among young TikTok Shop users in Medan City, a question that remains rarely examined qualitatively given that most existing literature leans on large-scale surveys. The study was carried out qualitatively through semi-structured interviews with 17 informants aged 17 to 27, recruited through purposive sampling and analyzed via open, axial, and selective coding guided by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework. The findings reveal that an interactive, trustworthy host is the strongest pull of live shopping, while scarcity cues such as countdowns and stock limits are the most common trigger of FOMO; 13 of the 17 informants fell into either a dominant-FOMO or a mixed pattern when making purchase decisions. The article concludes that FOMO's influence on impulsive buying is far from uniform, shifting instead with a person's age and depth of online shopping experience, so that sellers need to temper scarcity tactics with clearer product information.
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