How sellers force us to buy more than we need

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It's good that offline and online stores cannot make you quack like a duck. But they can do something worse - convince you to spend money on goods that you don't really need. This debunking article talks about the tricks sellers go to to get you to throw money down the drain.

We are used to treating shopping as a simple process. We need to purchase something, we go to a standard store or buy online. Sometimes the process is complicated by looking for more product information, reading reviews, or calling a friend for advice.

But in reality, everything is not at all that simple. At least for the sellers.

You see, sellers don't just offer a wide range of products, they have a stronger influence on us. Both offline and online stores have their own dirty tricks with which they manipulate our behavior.

Therefore, before you go shopping, you should get to know the owners, in whose possession you are going, so that they cannot do the trick with the miraculous disappearance of money from your wallet. And on the eve of the upcoming holidays, this article can be very useful.

Shopping centers

When you go shopping in malls or any other offline store, sellers can influence more than just your visual perception.

Cinnamon effect

Have you noticed that in some shopping centers it seems that at each entrance there are small counters with muffins and other bakery products? For this, you can thank the science of fragrance, which is successfully applied in marketing.

You see, all those smells of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants, rich bagels, or fresh bread all work to lift your spirits. According to a 1997 study by The Sweet Smell of… Helping: Effects of Pleasant Ambient Fragrance on Prosocial Behavior in Shopping Malls, people voluntarily take on boring jobs.

But, of course, this is not the only point. Smell is also very closely related to emotions and memories. This is why the scent of aftershave (or perfume) used by your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend, or from the accidental passenger on the bus next to you, can make you feel uncomfortable aggression. The smell of tobacco or fresh wood shavings vividly evokes in your memory the moments when you made something from wood with your grandfather.

Vendors have found that pleasant smells, including muffins, not only make you stay in stores longer (because it's nice), they also tempt us into spending more money. According to Mark Gatti, chief executive of the National Retail Federation, many retailers are using scent marketing, which really aims to keep shoppers in stores for as long as possible. This helps people feel more comfortable with the shopping process and, in many cases, results in higher spending.

As a result, it turns out that the most effective way out of this situation is to pinch your nose as much as possible while shopping.

Places with cafes and eateries

The second equally important aspect of the influence of the smell of fresh baked goods is the effect it has on our stomachs. And even if you are not really hungry, the smell of a fresh bun may lead you to find yourself queuing up for baked goods.

And you can hardly walk 10 meters without bumping into places to eat. This is a tactic from the side of the mall. And if you have the option of not rushing home for lunch or comforting a screaming child with something sweet, the likelihood that you will be late in the stores becomes much higher. And if you spend more time there, you will most likely spend more.

Merchandising policy

Many shopping centers are designed in such a way that in order to get to a certain section of goods, you will have to go from one end to the other, and at the same time, your path will go through other departments. And this is not an accident. If all the stores or departments you need were grouped together, how would you suddenly realize that you just need a new umbrella or calendar? While the main purpose of your trip was to buy baby clothes. Add in the same sweet bun that you bought along the way.

Moreover, large shopping centers decide for themselves which brands and in what order will be placed on their premises. Which also has a certain influence on deciding which store you decide to go to.

Online Stores

Here you are unlikely to be delayed by the smell of a sweet bun or the opportunity to grab a bite to eat during a tiring shopping trip. But marketers have found a way out of this situation as well.

Free shipping

Honestly, how often do you buy something from an online store just because it's free shipping? Or how often there were goods in your basket that you don't really need, but they just have a special offer today - free shipping! And in the end, you spend 1,000 rubles on unnecessary things in order to save 150 rubles on delivery.

Online sellers have taken advantage of the fact that the word "free" causes a short circuit in our brains. And we are ready to buy anything, as long as there is at least something there for free.

In its French branch, Amazon decided to launch a special program: 1 franc in shipping cost was equal to 20 American cents. As a result, the French did not part with their money as willingly as expected. Then Amazon changed the terms again and made standard free shipping. And France joined the other "lucky ones".

If you imagine that in fact free shipping costs 50 cents, you will already think before you put another trifle marked "Free Shipping" in the basket.

You don't need to take out your wallet

Each caring seller provides you with the opportunity to use the option to remember your data so that you do not have to go to your wallet to enter your credit card number every time.

Of course, after all, the time that you would have spent getting up and going to get your wallet, you could have spent even more usefully in their store.

Even more sophisticated sellers offer you the opportunity to make a purchase in one click, thereby making the process so easy that you don't even hesitate to click on “Buy”.

Purchase speed

Online sellers take advantage of speed in different ways: they can either make the buying process so easy that you are just one click away from what you want, or they can provide a specific product or the same free shipping within a limited time frame. And in both cases, you will have quite a bit of time to think about how necessary this purchase is.

Even the reduction in page load times plays into the hands of sellers. Research has shown that reducing your download speed from 6-9 seconds to 2 seconds can increase your income by 5-12 percent.

The time-limited gimmick is often used by sites like Groupon, which offer discounts on a new group of products every day. That is, you know that tomorrow there will be no discount on this product, and if you do not buy it now (even if there is no special need for it), then you will have to pay the full amount for it. People are unable to think rationally, driven by the ticking of a watch.

And online stores want you not to think, but to react.