The Impact of Personalized Recommendations on Consumer Purchase Decisions: An Analysis of Douyin from the Perspective of Impulse Buying

Abstract

This study investigates how Douyin's personalized recommendation system shapes consumer purchase decisions through the lens of impulse buying behavior. Rather than conceptualizing the recommendation algorithm as a deterministic force that directly dictates purchasing outcomes, this paper examines how recommendation feeds reorganize the conditions under which products are noticed, evaluated, and ultimately acted upon by consumers. Drawing on Rook's impulse-buying theory and the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, the study interprets recommended short videos, livestreams, scarcity messages, product cards, and payment links as platform stimuli that facilitate the transition of users from casual browsing to active purchase consideration. Within this digital environment, product relevance is not merely sought out by consumers through deliberate search; instead, it is repeatedly surfaced through entertainment-oriented content. The analysis demonstrates that recommendation-driven exposure can significantly heighten perceived product fit, emotional arousal, immersive engagement, platform trust, and fear of missing out, while simultaneously reducing the temporal and cognitive effort required to convert a transient desire into a completed transaction. Nevertheless, consumer agency remains a critical moderating factor. Budget constraints, self-regulatory capacity, price sensitivity, product category characteristics, platform trust, and normative judgments continue to influence whether an initial buying impulse translates into an actual purchase. Consequently, Douyin's recommendation system is best understood as an infrastructure that accelerates and amplifies impulse-oriented decision-making processes, rather than as a mechanism that exerts complete control over consumer behavior.