How Shops Lure You to Buy Things You Don’t Need

Tricky Psychology Behind Buying Decisions

You go to buy food and clothes in your near store. You enter the store, you get distracted, you pick your favorite things, and the next thing you realize your cart is full of things that you didn’t need in the first place.

We all experience this scenario all the time.

You may think that you know what to buy and you only buy when you needed it.

In reality, whether you are shopping for either food, clothes, or tech gadgets, shops use the trick of psychological persuasion to influence your decision.

If you just rewind the time in your mind and think about it that when you entered the shop you only wanted one shirt or top but later you ended up with a basket full of 2 3 shirts, bags, and cool glasses.

Well, that is the thing I am talking about.

You are the consumer, and the shops know you very well. Consumer behavior is influenced by many factors, For example, environmental, marketing factors, situation, time, culture, personal or psychological factors.

Shops try to influence your behavior with the things that they can control. Like the price of the product, store layout, catchy advertisements, and the availability of products in-store.

Let me ask you some questions.

Have you ever been lost in a departmental store and couldn't find a way out? or Have you ever struggled to find your favorite pasta or snacks on the shelf where you expected them to be?

You are not the only one who gets lost in the store and it is not your mistake. The marketing professionals keep the store’s layout and design in mind when they are designing the blocks or shelves in the store.

It is pretty simple. They want you to spend more time wandering around. Because the more you look around shelves, the more you spend.

There is an ALDI grocery store near my house. I buy most of the groceries from ALDI.

I have noticed one strange thing about the store. The bread and milk products are placed at the opposite end of the store.

It is because people often need both products and in order to get both, they have to walk around the store which is filled with other products, if people see they might purchase as well.

Now let’s answer the second question.

Sometimes you don’t find your favorite product on shelves because shops like to move around. Changing the location of items — means you have more items to look around while searching for the product you need.

This will increase the chances of unplanned spending, and we end up filling the basket. Impulsive buying and more time spending in-store is the reason behind it.

Impulsive Buying

You love shirts or shoes, you see them at the store.

Your brain triggers tons of desire and urges to buy it.

The desires are activated by the external environment like the color of the shirt, the design of the shirt, the quality of shoes, etc.

You buy the shirt/shoes without even thinking.

According to a study, 87% of US shoppers make impulsive purchases, and above 50% of all groceries are sold because of impulsive buying.

The impulsive purchase is a quirky thing. The feeling of doing something you shouldn’t do but you do it anyway.

It happens to you in the spur of the moment, Impulsive purchases are hard to control, it is affected by many factors, like joy, anger, or lack of self-control.

Discounts and deals are the major components here. When you see an appealing offer on a skirt or shirt, it leads to a temporary excitement which makes it harder to make a rational decision.

“Buy 1 get 1 free loop”

You might have noticed such deals quite often where 2 or 3 products are packed together as one product. It is a bundling technique — that shops use to trigger an impulsive purchase.

Shopping addiction

Impulsive buying leads you to excessive shopping. especially when you don’t have money to spend.

The birth of internet shopping makes it easier to buy anything while sitting on your couch.

Online shopping gives your brain a dopamine boost. You feel a sort of excitement while waiting for your parcel to arrive.

If you buy things in control then it is good. But sometimes this pleasure leads you to a shopping addiction.

It happens when you fall into the trap of buying more and more products to get a dopamine hit.

To avoid this compulsive shopping behavior you need to shift this wave of excitement to a new behavior like working out.

The best way to not buy things you don’t need is to make a shopping list and try less browsing. To make rational decisions — ask yourself, and try to buy things only that are necessary. This way you will not fall into the trap and enjoy the shopping.

Rabinder Kumar

April 2022