91桃色

Both in-person and online stores use various tricks to encourage impulsive shopping, and the holiday season is very favorable for this, says Dr. Indr臈 Radavi膷ien臈 of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of 91桃色 (VU FEBA) during the Mokslas Be Pamoksl懦 podcast. However, consumers are becoming more rational and more aware of unfair offers, and there are ways to combat reckless buying.

Blue color at the stores is soothing

According to Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈, the visual representation of price has a significant impact on consumer decisions. Researchers have proven that when the price ends with a nine, consumers treat it as lower, which creates an incentive to buy a product that supposedly saves money, even though it is just one cent.

According to the researcher, the consumer is also encouraged to buy when instead of the full amount the price indicates the monthly or hourly equivalent, e.g., how much a single day of 30-day subscription costs.

Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈 says that the incentives to buy are transferred to both in-person and electronic stores.

鈥淭hose incentives can include placement on shelves or floor layout: customers have to walk a certain route to reach the item they are looking for and on their way to the said item, exposed to impulsive incentives, they add various completely hedonistic, pleasant goods in their carts,鈥� the VU FEBA researcher said.

According to Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈, our mood influences the purchase. 鈥淚f we get paid that day and have a lot of money in our wallet, we鈥檙e in a good emotional mood, and we鈥檙e likely to be inclined to spend more. Stores, on the other hand, have a lot of incentives, such as footprints on the floor that everyone follows, and it works like navigation to reach a certain place,鈥� she said.

According to the researcher, it has been proven that the blue color of the interior of the store is soothing, the environment becomes more acceptable. Furthermore, there has been an increasing focus on scent marketing recently.

鈥淭here was an experiment: when large queues formed at the check-out, stores played faster- and slower-pace music. The experiment proved that faster music implied that employees at checkouts work faster,鈥� Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈 said.
According to the  VU FEBAlecturer, the purchase is also encouraged with the help of inexpensive items at the check-out aimed at pleasures.

Online shoppers are discount hunters

According to Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈, the Internet often follows the dynamic pricing principle, i.e., constantly changing valuable offers. When shopping online, consumers can be like discount hunters - they can spend more time comparing goods while sitting warm and comfortable at home.
However, there are various tricks to encourage consumers to buy online, such as 鈥淐lick here and now鈥� or 鈥淗urry up,鈥� giving a very short time to buy a product.

鈥淗owever, consumers realize that after closing the e-shop, after a while, they receive the same or even better offer,鈥� the researcher said.

According to Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈, stores also use the anchor effect, it鈥檚 when the area next to the price also indicates how many buyers have already bought this product, how many are satisfied: 鈥淚 always say one should be skeptical. Has anyone really measured how satisfied those people are?鈥�
Discounts are a pleasure

The VU FEBA lecturer says that the consumers aim to buy a useful product or service while the stores aim to encourage purchase, to make us fill up our carts and buy more at once.

鈥淥n the other hand, both parties want the purchase to be beneficial, the consumer to return and thus build loyalty,鈥� she adds.
According to the researcher, discounts give pleasure, we are happy to buy cheaper.

鈥淧leasure is caused by the winning phenomenon, or the win-win behavior. It鈥檚 when a person has the opportunity to not only buy one product but at the same time get another product 50% cheaper or try the product for free. It鈥檚 a massive winning phenomenon,鈥� Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈 said.
According to her, discounts can also have a dominance effect when the consumer is no longer the one who decides.

鈥淚f the discount is very high and it comes with another free offer, like two items for the price of one, we are no longer deciding. The decision-maker is the discount, it controls our emotions, us as buyers. We can see this during the biggest sales, when, for example, consumers are pushing each other, trying to get around each other to buy the goods they don鈥檛 necessarily need,鈥� the researcher says.

According to Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈, although we may just be happy to buy, we don鈥檛 necessarily buy exclusively the items we don鈥檛 need: 鈥淲e may be attached to a certain brand and very loyal to it, we will always feel a great pleasure if the brand offers a product for cheaper. Then, we are not only the winners but also feel thrilled and get the pleasure of buying our favorite item cheaper.鈥�

The researcher notices that when buying various items, people diversify their everyday life, trying to compensate for the routine, boredom, and perhaps even existing complexes and shortcomings. 鈥淚n this case, shopping is like a way out, rehabilitation, things become a means to live more fun, sometimes more meaningful life,鈥� she says.

Marketing is more than manipulation

Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈 assures that the science of marketing does not analyze consumer manipulation, instead, it looks at ways to create the best value and communicate it.

According to her, marketing aims to build a relationship with the consumer, encourage his or her loyalty, get feedback: more successful companies are mostly those that promote not only impulsive but also deliberate purchases and encourage the consumer to return.

鈥淩esearch shows that even a small discount causes the consumer an emotional pleasure and a greater perception of price fairness. Consumers always think that the seller wants to profit from them or that the profit earned from the product is high enough. If the seller gives even a small discount, the trader is considered to be acting in good faith in giving the opportunity to buy the product cheaper, reducing his profit margin,鈥� the researcher said.
The VU EVAF lecturer notices that humanity is accustomed to buying goods at a discount, which leads to the waiting period: consumers don鈥檛 buy the product at the usual price because they expect a discount.

鈥淭here are companies that treat discounts as a marketing, communication trick. But this is not the real discount a trader applies to reward and provide the opportunity to buy a product cheaper. This becomes a manipulative trick,鈥� she said.
Holiday period is a good time for tricks

Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈 states that sellers use the holiday season to use tricks that encourage consumers to act even more recklessly. As early as November the sellers remind that Christmas is coming, decorating showcases, launching email marketing and holiday contests, sending greetings to customers.
鈥淒uring the holiday season, we are more relaxed and therefore tend to spend more money. Discounts, promotions and sales work best, everyone is looking for good deals at that time because they need to buy presents for their loved ones,鈥� she said.

According to the researcher, although sellers announce promotions for a limited holiday period, this is not necessarily true, discounts may continue after the holiday season. Sellers use emotional tricks, e.g., they offer to pack a product as a present.

鈥淲e begin to feel slight tension in November and it continuously increases. By the second week of December, we feel a great deal of tension if we don鈥檛 yet have all the presents wrapped and hidden in the closet. We then become completely spontaneous because there is a high probability that we will no longer be able to order goods online and get them before Christmas. We then buy everything we see,鈥� she said.

Not everyone is equally susceptible to discounts

The researcher says a lot of research is being done to try to prove that women are more impulsive than men or that men are more affected by the red discount color than women. However, according to her, impulsivity is hardly determined by gender. It mostly depends on environmental factors, the mood.

鈥淚n general, a person may be more impulsive due to personal characteristics. Some may be more price-sensitive because their income is lower, those people tend to wait for discounts. A person can be a great hedonist, loving to relax and feel pleasure. People like that feel the need to reward themselves, it鈥檚 their way of achieving diversity. In addition, the more skeptical a consumer is, the more reluctant he is to buy at a discount,鈥� says the researcher.
According to some people value social responsibility: they are more motivated not by an individual discount but by the fact that part of it will go to charity.
Dr. I. Radavi膷ien臈 notices that consumers are becoming more rational, they are beginning to identify dishonorable incentives, unfair prices: 鈥淲hen people notice this, they take more control of themselves and say to themselves: calm down, maybe I don't need it today, I can come back to the same e-store tomorrow. Maybe, for example, I can determine the amount I want and can spend that day.鈥�

The researcher discussed an experiment where participants鈥� credit cards were frozen in ice.

鈥淎 person is presented with a very attractive offer and is told that he has time to calm down and will definitely be able to buy the item when the ice melts. Most of the participants in the experiment decided they no longer needed that item. Therefore, I suggest cooling down and waiting a while. Then, you will be able to control your emotions, not be so impulsive and spontaneous,鈥� says VU FEBA lecturer.