Convenience or Impulse? Hedonic and Utilitarian Motivations Driving Purchase Intention and Basket Expansion in Q-Commerce

Sushil Punwatkar; Jayashree Badal; Sourabh Guha; Manoj Verghese

doi:10.63363/aijfr.2026.v07i02.3928

Convenience or Impulse? Hedonic and Utilitarian Motivations Driving Purchase Intention and Basket Expansion in Q-Commerce

Author(s)	Dr. Sushil Punwatkar, Dr. Jayashree Badal, Dr. Sourabh Guha, Dr. Manoj Verghese
Country	India
Abstract	Quick commerce (Q commerce) has transformed urban retail by promising near instant delivery, thereby reshaping consumers’ motivational drivers and purchase behaviour compared with traditional e-commerce formats. Existing research highlights that hedonic and utilitarian shopping motives, platform convenience, and promotion intensity jointly stimulate impulsive decisions and larger shopping baskets in digital environments. Yet, evidence in ultra-fast delivery settings remains nascent. Grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework, this study examines how hedonic and utilitarian motivations, ease of ordering, and flash discounts (stimuli) shape impulse buying tendency and instant gratification (organismic states), which in turn influence purchase intention and basket expansion on Q commerce platforms. Using a cross-sectional online survey of 518 active Q commerce users from six Tier 2 Indian cities, the study employs partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS SEM) via SmartPLS to estimate a prediction-oriented model and test mediation and moderation links. The results show that both hedonic and utilitarian motivations, along with ease of ordering and flash discounts, significantly enhance impulse buying tendency and instant gratification, which subsequently elevate purchase intention and basket size; income level does not exhibit significant moderating effects on these relationships. The model demonstrates strong explanatory power for purchase intention and basket expansion, and exhibits satisfactory reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and good model fit indices. Theoretically, the study extends S O R logic to the Q commerce context by integrating motivational, platform, and impulsive mechanisms, while managerially, it offers guidance for designing interface features and promotional tactics that responsibly leverage instant delivery and impulse triggers.
Keywords	Q commerce, hedonic motivation, utilitarian motivation, impulse buying tendency, instant gratification, purchase intention, basket expansion, PLS SEM.
Field	Business Administration
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 2, March-April 2026
Published On	2026-03-10
DOI	https://doi.org/10.63363/aijfr.2026.v07i02.3928

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Convenience or Impulse? Hedonic and Utilitarian Motivations Driving Purchase Intention and Basket Expansion in Q-Commerce

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