What Percentage of Your Book Purchases Are Impulse Buys?

I read a study that claims 40% of purchases made by consumers fall in the impulse buy category. In other words, they see a product for sale and, on the spot, make the snap decision to pop for it. That figure seems a little high to me. I don't see that many things flying off store shelves and landing in buyers' shopping carts or baskets. Speaking for myself, I don't think I make that many type of purchases. Of course, I might be wrong on both counts. I do like bright, shiny new things as much as the next shopper does. Which brings me to the topic of book purchases considered in this blog post.

As a fiction author peddling his wares (13 books and counting), I'd love nothing more than to go with the 40% impulse buys statistic. But I have to wonder if books don't fall in a different categoy. I buy my books as I get to reading them, sort of a pay-as-you-go approach. A bunch of unread ebooks wait on my Kindle for me. If I know a new book has hit the streets that I really want to read, then I'll go ahead and pop for it. But that isn't really an impulse buy where I see any book, and I want it right then. In other words, I make an unplanned buy.

Publishers Weekly published an article a while back focusing on the impulse book purchaser. The point made said that impulse buys done in the brick-and-mortar bookstores are higher than the impulse buys made online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Of course, the numerous freebie book gaveaways done online everyday might skew that figure.

Here's the link to the interesting PW article: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/47383-acting-on-impulse.html