Opinion: This holiday shopping season will be tough. Here are 4 ways to avoid overspending
Most of us don’t realize it, but our brains are inherently lazy. Due to resource availability and functional properties, neurons (aka brain cells) feel fatigued when used. To prevent its own fatigue, the brain will take shortcuts and try to make quick, “intuitive” judgments rather than lengthy, lengthy considerations. These quick assessments of the world can be incredibly helpful as we make thousands of decisions every day, but they can also often lead to errors in judgment.
Retailers and marketers know this. The essence of decision-making often lies in the limbic system, the system that regulates emotions, memories, and habits. This means that nostalgia and tradition drive many of our holiday shopping, making it easy for retailers to trick your brain into enticing your heart.
To make sure you make the right decision among the shortfalls this holiday season, there are a few things you can do to teach your brain to slow down and think through every purchase.
It sounds silly, but lists can prevent emotions from dominating a shopping trip. By thinking slowly in advance of each item you might need, you’ll remove the burden of decision making and increase your intention to shop. Writing quickly a previous list doesn’t count, as it opens the door for you to distrust what you’ve written and makes it easy to stray off the list and fall prey to further tactics. market of retailers. By having a list that you know you’ve thought through, you can train your brain to trust that you won’t make the extra purchases that retailers want you to make. presently.
Minimize discomfort
Just as you can curate a favorite podcast and wear certain shoes for practice on the court, you can prepare yourself to shop. Anger leads to urgency in decision-making, leading to purchases that satisfy an immediate need rather than a purchase with a solid strategy. When you walk into a store, it is often difficult to find a place to sit down or a restroom, which encourages you to rush to shop and make convenient purchases. Even a few minutes to take a deep breath, have a snack, have a drink, go to the bathroom, and sit for a while to review your list before shopping can reshape the physical stress signals that we don’t have. your body is sending and slowing down your processing to make better choices. This short-term investment can yield great returns in time and money over a single shopping trip (in person or online).
Manage your biases
To influence your purchase, retailers take advantage of cognitive biases in advertising, space layout, display techniques and more. They often display expensive items closer to moderately priced items, knowing that most customers will buy in the mid-range. Those expensive items distort the customer’s perception of value, and they end up buying an item a little more expensive than intended, buying more items, or both. To further take advantage of this effect, retailers display the original price of an item on sale.
Every Black Friday, shoppers are ramped up. The current global supply chain shortage means we can expect record-breaking battles throughout the holiday season over the last pumpkin pie spice jar and the last Baby Yoda toy on the shelves. Retailers are counting on this. Instead of replacing items that will be out of stock for a long time due to supply chain issues, they will leave tags with a hole in the shelf, while ensuring more alternatives and options. Select nearby. They’ll want you to see the void and panic when something is missing. This is a clear signal that what they intend is right: Everything in the store is available only “while supplies run out.”
Many people have saved money during the pandemic and have a surplus of savings. Even more so than in previous years, retailers will take advantage of this to get them to spend. And in times of supply uncertainty and inflation, the fear centers in our brains are poised to protect us from pain and loss, setting up an ideal landscape for efforts. marketing force.
Test your feelings
After a holiday hiatus last year, our brains are looking for additional pleasure to add to that memory network. We’ll be especially sensitive to messages reminding us of the bygone holidays, and we’ll most likely want to buy more gifts and food to try to recreate and perhaps pass on the joy we feel. can remember. Holiday ads often feature traditional family gatherings and interactions to remind you of the past. This year will feature many details such as music, fashion and games from previous eras to take advantage of the main markets.
We are also likely to be more easily triggered by environmental cues, especially odors that are associated with positive holiday experiences. Retailers are also likely to use these to increase sales.
If you’re shopping and miss someone, send them a message and let them know you’re thinking of them rather than buying too much. If an item reminds you of someone or an old story, snap a quick photo or screenshot and spend time reminiscing later, no purchase required.
Being aware of holiday marketing tricks often helps you combat them. This is the value of metacognition, or thinking about thinking. When we let our brains analyze themselves, we begin to observe and shape our own behavior accordingly. That’s how we can use these strategies to make informed purchasing decisions.
