Triggering the Digital Rush: An S‑O‑R Examination of Product Features, AI Personalization, And Hedonic Motives in Manado’s Online Marketplace

Abstract

Indonesia’s booming e-commerce sector increasingly relies on artificial-intelligence (AI) tools-personalised recommendations, flash-sale alerts and chatbots—to engage shoppers, yet empirical insight into how these stimuli trigger unplanned purchases outside major cities remains limited. Anchored in the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework, this study tests whether e-commerce product attributes and AI-driven digital promotions foster digital impulsive buying through the mediation of hedonic shopping motives among consumers in Manado. A cross-sectional survey yielded 230 valid responses from online shoppers aged 17 years and above. Using SmartPLS 4.1.1.2, twenty-three reflective indicators demonstrated strong psychometric quality (loadings = 0.726–0.843; composite reliability = 0.841–0.897; AVE = 0.571–0.635), while HTMT ratios and Fornell–Larcker criteria confirmed discriminant validity. Structural modelling showed that product appeal (β = 0.529, p < 0.001) and AI promotions (β = 0.308, p < 0.05) significantly elevated hedonic motives, which in turn exerted the strongest direct effect on impulsive buying (β = 0.763, p < 0.001). Both stimuli also retained direct paths to impulsive purchasing (β = 0.295 and 0.375, respectively), yielding substantial explanatory power (R² = 0.634 for hedonic motives; R² = 0.512 for impulsive buying) and acceptable global fit (SRMR = 0.071; NFI = 0.711). Mediation tests confirmed that hedonic motives partially transmit the influence of products and promotions to impulse buying. The findings extend impulse-buying theory into AI-enabled retail, emphasising that curating varied, visually appealing catalogues and transparent, real-time personalised offers can strategically heighten shopping enjoyment and, consequently, spontaneous purchases in secondary-city markets.