11 Ways Retailers Try to convince You to Overspend

Believe it or not, when it comes to spending, your subconscious may be the biggest enemy of your budget! It is scientifically proven that our brain is fundamentally lazy, mostly because it consumes a lot of our body’s energy. Besides that, our brain is also constantly searching for more efficient ways of making decisions.

We all know that a huge amount of our decision-making processes is actually non-conscious. We want you to implement that knowledge on shopping!

Just think about it for a moment-the more time you spend in a store, you leave it with a bigger bill, right? Retailers know this very well and that is exactly why they use some tricky rules to make your brain work differently.

Want to know how to keep more money in your pocket and don’t fall to their tricks? Continue reading!

Lingering scents. Did you smell a freshly baked bread? What can you connect it with? A feeling of security? Yes, we can relate. Yet, you must know how retailers are using this smell to make you buy more and make you feel like you are home there.

Displays. Displays are always used to invite shoppers to get handsy with the merchandise. You know how that goes-if you touch a product, there is more chance that you will buy it. Stay rational. Ask yourself is that stuff worth the money you will pay for it.

That music… Have you realized how every store has good music playing in the background? The truth is how the music they choose actually depends on their targeted audience. If their targeted audience are teenagers, they will play some popular music for example. In this case, they are trying ”to become friends with the shoppers”, or at least, to ”like similar things” as the targeted audience to be closer to ”each other”.

The store. There are definitely some tips you should use while shopping. The first thing would definitely be not going to a grocery shop hungry. The second thing would be to create a list of the things that you really need. And the third thing would definitely be limiting the time you will spend in a store. This is very important because they put all the things people need at the end of the store so people need to walk there. In that case, many shoppers buy a lot of things they don’t need, but they have seen them while searching for the essentials.

*Example-expensive cheese will be placed at the beginning of the store, while for the cheapest one you will have to go to the opposite part of the store.

24-hour rule. We have already talked about creating a list of the things you need to buy. Yet, there is one more plus advice you should implement. If you see something and want to buy that impulsively, the best would be to wait for 24 hours before buying that product. Why? Because people buy a lot of things impulsively and regret later. Waiting for 24 hours, scientifically proven, reduces impulsive shopping. You can also download the app for some special deals and coupons (of course, for the things you need to buy).

Tempting touches. This is definitely one of the most powerful techniques retailers use. Why? Because no one notices it works! If you want to buy a shirt, for example, you will probably see a lot of comfy and soft sweaters which are ”calling you to touch them”. We have already said above that if you touch a thing, you will more likely buy it.

Easy payments. Okay, we got to online shopping finally. It is becoming more and more popular lately because of the Internet’s popularity. People don’t feel like they are paying for something while ”just surfing online”. They do it easily and often even forget what they have ordered before it arrives!

Just a click… We want to connect this one with the fact above. It is also related to online shopping. There are some sites (Amazon, for example) which offer the consumers just one click to buy something (or 2-3 clicks). Can you imagine how ridiculous that is? Nevertheless, many people fall on this trick. They realize it as easy shopping, without any stress, and retailers know that very well.

Famous people. Many stores use famous people while advertising their products. Maybe you have seen some model which claims to use exactly that face cream. Don’t fall on such tricks. We all know how famous people get so many beauty treatments, and no, that face cream is not worth that amount of money.

Sale. It is good to buy on sales, but not the things you don’t need. Also, retailers sometimes make very small changes in the price of the product. Be sure that you check it before you save $1! Yes, that happens because many people don’t even check the price of the product it had ”before sale”.

Emotions. We have already talked about the smell of bread and music retailers use to make you closer to them. Yet, there are more ways in which they try to interfere with your emotions. For example, they will always use cute babies to tell you how ‘that product’ helps humanity or you name it. The point is, their mission is to make you buy something while playing with your emotions.

All in all, playing with your emotions is definitely their biggest strategy.

Do you think that retailers have their team of psychologists which work on these tricks?

Have you heard of these strategies or are those new to you?