We used to treat shopping as a simple process. We need to buy something, we go to a standard store or buy online. Sometimes the process is complicated by finding additional information about the product, reading reviews or calling a friend for advice.
But in fact, everything is not so simple at all. At least for 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 better, to whose possessions you are going, so that they cannot do a trick with the miraculous disappearance of money from your wallet. And on the eve of the upcoming holidays, this article may be very useful.
When you are going to go shopping in shopping malls or any other offline stores, sellers can affect not only your visual perception.
Have you noticed: 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 fragrances, which is successfully used in marketing.
You see, all these smells of freshly baked cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants, sweet bagels or fresh bread — all this works to cheer you up. According to the study The Sweet Smell of… Helping: Effects of Pleasant Ambient Fragrance on Prosocial Behavior in Shopping Malls about the influence of ambient odors on human behavior, conducted in 1997, people voluntarily undertake boring work.
But, of course, it's not just that. Smell is also very closely related to emotions and memories. That is why the scent of aftershave (or perfume) used by your ex-lover or sweetheart, or from a random passenger on the bus standing next to you, can cause you an unpleasant feeling of aggression. The smell of tobacco or fresh wood shavings vividly brings back to your memory the moments when you made something out of wood together with your grandfather.
Sellers have found that pleasant smells, including muffins, not only make you stay in stores longer (because it's nice), they also tempt us to spend a rounder amount. According to Mark Gatti, executive director of the National Retail Federation, many retail companies use scent marketing, the goal of which is really to keep customers in stores as long as possible. This helps people feel more comfortable in the buying process and in many cases leads to spending a larger amount.
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.
The second equally important aspect of the effect of the smell of fresh pastries is the effect it has on our stomachs. And even if you are not really hungry, when you smell a fresh bun, you may find yourself in a baking queue.
And you are unlikely to be able to walk 10 meters without bumping into places where you can have a snack. This is a tactic on the part of the mall. And if you have the opportunity not to rush home for lunch or to calm a screaming child with something sweet, the probability that you will linger in the shops becomes much higher. And if you spend more time there, you will most likely spend more.
Many shopping malls 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 pass 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 children's clothes. Add the same sweet bun that you already bought on the way.
Moreover, large shopping centers themselves decide which brands and in what order will be placed in their premises. Which also has a certain influence on deciding which store you decide to go to.
Here you are unlikely to be delayed by the smell of a sweet bun or the opportunity to have a snack during a tedious shopping. But marketers have found a way out of this situation.
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 for free.
In its French branch, Amazon decided to launch a special program: 1 franc in the cost of delivery was equal to 20 US 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 free shipping actually costs 50 cents, you will already think before putting another little thing marked "Free Shipping" in the basket.
Every caring seller gives you the opportunity to use the option of storing your data so that you do not have to go for a wallet every time to enter a credit card number.
Of course, after all, the time that you would have spent getting up and going for 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 facilitating this process so much that you do not even hesitate to click on "Buy".Online sellers use the advantages of speed in different ways: they can either facilitate the purchase process so much that only one click will separate you from what you want, or provide a certain product or the same free delivery in a limited time. And in both cases, you will have quite a little time to think about how necessary this purchase is.
Even reducing the page loading time plays into the hands of sellers. Studies have shown that reducing the download speed from 6-9 seconds to 2 seconds can increase your income by 5-12 percent.
The trick of limiting purchases in time is often used by sites such as 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 not able to think rationally, driven by the ticking of a clock.
And online stores want you not to think, but to react.
