Festivals are an invitation to jump onto the shopping bandwagon in order to fulfill the desires of the heart and buy gifts for loved ones. Moreover, the mushrooming of e-commerce sites and social media platforms are taking shopping into a different league altogether. The possibility of enjoying a global shopping experience from the comforts of home is too good to ignore.
Offers galore
Marketing is the art of finding out what consumers want and providing it to them. Smart marketing strategies actually create a need for a product by bombarding the customers with offers and feel-good messages. They capitalize on deep human fears, such as apprehensions about obesity to drive the sales of fitness equipment, offer money-back guarantees to keep away a potential buyer’s remorse, announce exchange offers to seduce buyers to replace their existing wares, or lay down installment payment schedules that facilitate product experience ahead of the final payment. And before we know it, we end up getting drawn into the shopping vortex.
Say good-bye to Impulsive Shopping
Many people today have a habit of making impulsive purchases and it is as damaging as any other addictive behavior. An impulse buying action is determined by diverse factors like maintaining social image or succumbing to emotions, which shun the voice of reason. Many impulse buyers approach the shopping experience as a mood-alleviating exercise.
There are umpteen ways of overcoming the impulsive syndrome and some of these are listed below:
Stick to cash payments: If you are on a shopping spree, try to use as much cash purchases, than leaving the whole deal to credit cards. Not shedding money from your pocket may lure you to buy more, taking granted for the credit period it offers. The adding up points on your card and EMI facility also can drive shoppers fancy. Hence it is always better to make purchases through cash to curb your spending tendency.
Plan a festive budget: A bit of procrastination is indeed good when it comes to making buying decisions. Make a festive shopping budget before hand prioritizing the most required buys. Ensure that you stick to that limit as much as possible and stay away from attractive combo offers which make unnecessary additions to your budget.
Know thyself:It is important to keep a close watch on one’s urges and ask relevant questions before making a buying decision. A heightened awareness of underlying motives would ensure that sub-conscious desires and impulses do not determine the buying behavior. Asking frank questions regarding the relevance of the proposed purchase and its connection with overall life goals would help in evaluating the value and logic of the purchase.
Avoid unwanted window shopping: Many people love to do window shopping at malls and e-commerce sites to see what’s up in the festive season. But this habit often ends up with unwanted buys. This is because, the attractive discount sale banners at all retail outlets would tempt you to opt it without seeing value in it.
Beware of these:
Festive discounts
It is common for retail stores to announce discounts during festive times. But remember, companies use such occasions to offload their surplus inventories and boost sales volumes.
Limited Period Offers
The sales stores may create the impression of limited stock/inventories to compel customers to purchase the product at the earliest or risk losing out on the same, although this is obviously not the case. The advertisements on travel booking and online retail sites to the effect that only a limited number of seats are left on a particular flight or sector are a good example of such marketing tactics.
Combo offers
It is a common practice for products to be combined together in the form of combo offers. The add-on product may tempt the shopper to buy a product that was never sought in the first place. Besides, it is often a chore to track down the second item ‘of equal or lesser value’ in the buy-one-get-one segment, leading one to purchase more than what was originally intended.
Bargains may not actually be bargains
Bargains are carefully engineered illusions in most cases, as companies hike the prices in the first place and then offer discounts to create the false impression of a customer-friendly product. For example, a suitcase whose intrinsic value is Rs 2000 may carry an inflated price tag of Rs 3000. The same suitcase will eventually be sold for Rs 2000 and the buyer is left with the false illusion that he/she has got a good deal after all.
Psychological Pricing
Marketers design the price tags to give a feeling of consolation and well-being to the shopper community. For example, a product actually costing Rs 600 may be priced at Rs 599 to give the buyer the impression that he/she bought the product for Rs 500 as buyers tend to usually square off the prices at the lower denominator.
Exchange Offers
With smart devices such as smart phones and tabs becoming a fad, there are people who think nothing of spending to be the first to buy it. Marketers usually capitalize on this mindset by giving a discount for the first 100 buyers, for example, or offering exchange offers to entice people to go for an updated version of an existing laptop or as mobile, among other things. It is a fact that most exchange offers are taking used products at lesser costs than the usual second hand markets.