Tag: shopping

THE BUYING DECISIONS

Buying and shopping is something, which if preferred my everyone, belonging to all age groups. The buying decisions of men and woman depend on their habit and lifestyle. Habits and lifestyle drive most decisions and it is important for companies to study these habits for understanding the buying decisions of the purchasers. Companies try to focus and study the initial buying decision to gain advantage of them before their decision is overruled by their habit. This ensures that their products and things that they are selling is the beneficiary of the habits of the consumers.

Consumer Buying Process

There is particular buying process through which a customer has to go before purchasing anything. This process is called as Customer Buying Process (also called a buying decision process). This process shows the journey of a customer before buying anything. And it is important to understand this journey to align the products and strategize the entire process of product advertising selling accordingly.

Following things are focused while understanding a buyers mind:

  • Initial Stimulation of a Need : Companies spend millions of dollars each year to motivate the buyers for purchasing their products and for motivating them to buy the products which are healthier, wealthier, attractive and safer. That’s why, coupons, discounts and sales are also provided. These mainly attract the purchasers. Many purchasers tend to change their habits and lifestyles which further change and shift their shopping habits.
  • Influence of Third Parties: Third parties are mainly friends, peers or authority who have influence on the habits and lifestyles of people. This further affect the selection of products. Word of mouth marketing is considered more because it provides honest reviews about different products. It is considered to be more trustworthy than individual advertising. That’s why companies try to seek and attract customer endorsements and enlist celebrities as product spokespeople to help gain the attraction and purchasers.
  • Personal Evaluation : Decisions for buying one product as compared to other similar products is influenced by a number of factors and it includes packaging appeal and the convenience of payment. This process of choosing one product over another helps in making better decisions and better choices.

Hence, consumers should be aware of their habits which are the major deciding factors while purchasing anything. Evaluating and objectively determining every purchase is considered to be impractical and not preferable. Sometimes the outcomes are more critical and there can be significant differences in their price, quantity, quality, durability and utility etc. And for a successful result it is important to make rational purchasing decision.

Shopping always makes us feel good. Even after buying something, the excitement of trying them immediately after getting home excites a lot and in my case, I always have a feeling of achievement after buying a product that I like. We all know that sense of pleasure and joy when be go through different stores and buy something that we want…. It can be a new shade of lipstick, or a hardware or furniture or electronic item or pair shoes or anything else. This is called a retail therapy and it has also been studies scientifically. Scientific studies of retail therapy have shown the effectiveness of buying and shopping something which we need or want.

HOW SHOPPING CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY ?

Many people find happiness, excitement and pleasure while doing their favorite activity. Some people find happiness while shopping. It might be clothing, books or dresses, hardware’s, machines etc. and the point is not what is being [purchased but the fact that shopping brings happiness and pleasure to them. Shopping can be seen as a kind of therapy for many people ( as long as they don’t waste their money in buying unnecessary things which can bring problems in future). Shopping can help in many ways.

According to a study, which was conducted in 2014, it was found that retail therapy not only brings happiness and joy but it can also fight sadness in a lot of different ways. According to studies, sadness is generally associated with a sense where it can control someone’s life goals and outcomes and bring discouragement and embarrassment. But while shopping, the control over your own choices, necessities and needs can be brought back. By shopping one can restore the feeling of personal control and autonomy. Purchasing the things that you like and personally enjoy help in being more effective (up to 40 times) in giving the sense of pleasure and joy.

There are different ways by which shopping can bring you happiness:

DE-STRESS

While having stressful lives, people often try to find some leisure period and some activities which will make them feel lively and stress free. Stress can cause many mental illness such as depression or anxiety etc. and can also have harsh impact on physical health as well. But when people shop, they get an opportunity to forget everything all stressful things and focus on a particular task. Shopping is not an mindless activity because it required concentration for selecting good products and bargains. While buying something we need to compare them with other similar products and find out which product best suits our interest and needs. The stressors in life have less impact on you when you don’t think about them and thus it you get the opportunity to heal. Shopping will provide you a break from all stresses and worrying and will even help you to come with some solution.

IT TAKES MIND OFF THINGS

Online and offline shopping require concentration and taken time to decide the bet product and most suitable product and when you think about what you want or need and try to find the most appropriate item for meeting your requirements, your mind gets diverted from the stresses in your life.

BOOSTS CONFIDENCE

Perfect pair of shoes for your outfit can make you feel amazing because you feel complete and confident about what you’re wearing. The same goes with everything which is around your and which you use. It gives you the compliment: Yes, you’re amazing ! Its not just the wearing or thing being used which helps you, but it’ll also give a big confidence boost when you feel satisfied about what you’re wearing and using.

CONTROLLED

While shopping, the purchaser is the one who will make all the decisions. If you feel that everything is out of your control, then you can go for shopping and this will help you in relieving your stress. Shopping provides complete control which doesn’t happen to be in every aspects of your life. So, when you get the opportunity then you should grab it. Once again, this will boost your confidence level and a day of shopping or retail therapy will remind you that we can make things right. Researches have found that, shopping decisions help us to have the sense of personal control over our environment and help to overcome sadness.

#5 GET TO SPEND SOME TIME WITH FRIENDS

In today’s busy world it is very difficult to meet and hang out with your loved ones and favorite persons and a shopping trip is the perfect opportunity to get everyone together and have fun. Shopping is something which gives more happiness and joy when done with friends or people you love. Time spent with our favorite people will make you feel more happy and good.

Following tips can be included in you shopping trip to make it more exciting and enjoyable:

  • Include lunch or dinner in the plan (or even breakfast if you’re shopping in the morning)
  • Include movie or some cocktails to relax if you get tired
  • Hangout in your friend’s house and try out the things that you’ve purchased.
  • Spending time with your friends and people you love is a great therapy and when this is done with shopping, then it will make the life more good.

#6 GRATIFYING

In shopping, Gratification comes in two forms:

  • Instant Gratification, which means seeing something that you need or want and then buying it.
  • Delayed Gratification, which means seeing something that you want and not buying it right away and saving up money for buying it and returning home and expecting to buy it some other time.

#7 IMPROVE SELF IMAGE

The way you present yourself to the world is one of the important factors which determine the image which will formed about you in others mind. Effectively creating the image that you want will make you feel good and you can shop according to your own style and image that you want to show to the world. You can buy something wither in online or offline mode to add on or perpetuate your image.

Every time you’re buying something, you are adding to your image and this will make you feel more confident about yourselves.

#8 REFRESHING

Everyone wants to have something and new things now and again. You can shop to enhance your look and image or new look to your room or wardrobe. Shopping always incorporates some thing new into your life and always feels refreshing.

#9 IT BRINGS CHANGE

We do shopping when we want to change anything in our life or want to add something new into our life. This may be because of some life event or we want people to see us differently etc. There are numerous reasons to do shopping and can change their life and outlook towards life.

So there you go and next time when you’ll be feeling down or sad, then boost your mind and spirit by shopping your favorite things with your favorite people.

Tell me your experiences from your last purchase in the comments…

WHY MEN ARE BUYERS AND WOMEN ARE SHOPPERS ?

Men and women differ from each other in many aspects…. They have different perspectives, motives, actions, thinking and rationales etc. and like everything has certain exceptions, similarly women and men also have exceptions in them. Based on such differences and similarities, the companies try to appeal their customers for buying their products and they design everything accordingly, like product design, advertisement, store design and layout etc. Everything id designed in such a way that the consumers are attracted to them. As per studies, it has been concluded that women only make more than 85% of the consumers and influence over 95% of total goods and services purchased. Women are considered to be more sophisticated when it comes to shopping and take longer time while purchasing anything.

MALE BUYERS

  • While purchasing anything, men try to analyze the use of products first. They try to understand how the products will be used, who will use it, time period of usage for products, which features are necessary and what is offered with different price ranges.
  • With the growth of e-commerce and technological advancements, it has been seen that in current days men’s are preferring to buy things online than in offline mode. It was also concluded through various researches that, men’s are more likely to compare and research about product online more than women.
  • Women generally shop considering the future needs but men tend to purchase things when the need is immediate and it has also been seen that men’s are less likely to compare or take advantage of discounts, deals and offers.

WOMEN SHOPPERS

Women shoppers can be categorized into 4 types:

  • Influencers: One third of the women try to influence by the society by highlighting different trends, varying fashion senses and ways of fashion. They tend to be planners, organizers and mostly spend money on quality products and products that belong to latest trends.
  • Equilibrium or Balanced: One-third of the total women consumers belong to this category and are the group of stable and balanced women’s who are in continual state of equilibrium. They know that everything has time and and amount to be spent. They tend to purchase classic things that are long lasting and may or may not be trendy.
  • Shopping as errand : Women belonging to this category mainly treat shopping as errand or chores, rather than fun experience or adventure. They tend to trustworthy and lifelong customers because of their loyalty. They like hassle free shopping experiences and like men, they are more practical, responsible and loyal customers.
  • Super Shoppers: Women belonging to this category are super shoppers, who constantly try different things, trends and fashion styles. These are the customers who are wanted by companies more while producing any new product.
  • Cultural Artists. Representing slightly more than 1 in 10, women in this group are considered the “super shoppers,” constantly trying different things and starting new trends. They are the group companies actively seek for new products.

Women are considered to be better shopper than men and they are more willing to invest their energy and time in necessary research and comparing products.

Advertisement & Consumer Buying Behavior

Image Source: google.com

Advertisement has today become one of the most important aspects of all business and to imagine life without it is almost impossible. Advertising is all over all places, on TV and radio, in newspapers and magazines, on billboards and even plastered across the side of the buses. If an advertisement can really persuade us to buy a product, surely it can be just as effective in persuading us to think in a certain way. Advertising has a great influence on our daily lives whether we are aware or oblivious of it.

Consumer is someone who buys and makes use of a product. Therefore, consumer maintain the production cycle moving in addition to play a crucial position in the economic position of any country, as a result, any country will face crisis if consumers don’t have the effective call for items produced. Consumers call for special commodities is primarily based totally on their taste and choice for them. Consciousness of good affects consumer purchase of that good. Other elements that have an effect on one’s taste and choice for a good are psychological and environmental. Taste and choice for a product change overtime. Thus, advertisements play a role in influencing taste and choice of consumers choice.

Consumer behavior includes what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it, where they buy it, how often they buy it, how often they use it and how they dispose of it. In other words, consumer behavior is a behavior of individuals in regard to acquiring, using, and disposing of products, services, ideas or experiences.

Advertising has big stimulating impact on shopping behavior of the consumers. Mostly, marketing and marketing is greater powerful on merchandise which have intrinsic features. Qualities aren’t acknowledged on the time of buy and it takes one to find out the features upon the use of the product. And, whilst there may be a full-size danger of differentiating a product, it pleasant fits to put it on the market on that product.

Types Of Consumer Buying Behavior

There are four types of consumers buying behaviour namely, dissonance reducing, habitual, variety seeking and complex buying behaviour.

Dissonance reducing behaviour occurs when the customer finds it difficult to differentiate among the brands. So, consumers may respond primarily to a relatively better price. After the purchase, consumer might experience post purchase dissonance. This is the consumer behaviour displayed mostly by uninformed consumers.

Habitual buying behaviour is a consumer purchase decision whereby the consumers level of involvement is low. So, consumers don’t search much information among the available brands, and they don’t find important differences among the brands and buy the product without a high level of involvement. If the consumer keeps buying the same brand repeatedly, it becomes their habit.

In case of variety seeking buying behaviour the level of consumer involvement is low, but consumer perceive significant differences among the brands. In variety seeking buying behaviour, consumers very often switch from one brand to another. This type of decision is common among consumers who want to stay ahead of the latest fashion trends.

Complex buying behavior can be defined when consumers are highly involved in making a purchase decision. It calls for a high level of involvement on the part of the consumer. In the case of high involvement, consumers distinguish salient differences among the competing brands. Consumers are involved in case of expensive and highly self-expressive products.

Being a shopaholic

It is one of the most interested, as well as overlooked, talk points of the modern century, particularly teenagers. We live in a community where we pretend to be down-to-earth by supporting the poor and vulnerable, while at the same time make them believe like they are not equal to the one who helped them. Society has greater confidence in the line “The first impression is the last impression” than “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Here what we call shopping addiction comes into the picture. So is it fair enough to link being a shopaholic and being materialistic?

Materialism, also referred to as physicalism, is, in theory, the belief that all facts (including facts concerning the human will and the course of human history) are causally or even reducible to real processes. For Marx and Engels, materialism meant that the natural universe, perceptible to the senses, had an empirical truth independent of mind or spirit. They did not deny the reality of mental or spiritual processes but affirmed that ideas could arise only as products and reflections of material conditions.

A shopaholic is a person who buys items not because he needs them, but because he likes them. And there’s a difference here. I’m not saying that buying things, and human desires are any sort of compulsion, but buying stuff simply for the sake of showing off is not a positive thing. Often it’s cool to buy the stuff you want, but to do so all the time and expose it to everyone is materialism.

Types of Shopaholics

1-Shop when they’re angry or upset: it’s not bad to be in this category until a frequent practice is practiced. Unless you’ve started to shop now and then. So this custom is putting you in debt. So you’re not just unpracticing this because you don’t have enough resources, because having to do so will lead to more anger.

2-Trophy shopaholics who just seek to find the right piece: these people purchase items because they consider them appealing and they think it’s nice to get the particular item regardless of how much it’s needless for them. Usually, they don’t look at money when they like something and want it at any cost.

3 – Shopaholics who like the reputation of being a big spender: they are someone who wants to show off at a far greater degree than most because their picture of culture is more important than everything else. They have an obsession with their status in society, and they judge everything from that perspective alone.

4-Bargain-seekers who buy when the item is on sale: they do not need any other excuse than because there is a discount on this particular item and they will need it in the future, or even someone else wants it. I’m not suggesting that buying anything for future use is not worth it, so at least you can know when you’re going to need it in the future.

Many people develop shopping addictions because they are addicted to how their brain feels when it comes to shopping. When they buy, their brains produce endorphins and dopamine, and over time, they become addicted. A professor of behavioral health sciences, Engs argues that 10 to 15 percent of the population could be predisposed to these emotions.

In certain situations, it can be impossible to predict whether you are a shopaholic or a loved one. A lot of people enjoy shopping, and a lot of people always waste so much money on this operation. It’s important to remember that going out once in a while doesn’t mean you ‘re a shopper. However, there are several signs and symptoms of shopping addicts that you might want to look for.

The short-term effects of a shopping addiction may be positive. In many cases, after a shopping trip, you may feel happy. However, such emotions are often combined with fear or remorse, and in most situations, remorse or fear may send you back to the store for even more shopping.

The long-term consequences of shopping addiction can vary in severity and duration. Most shoppers face financial difficulties, so they may be overburdened with debt. In some cases, they may max out their credit cards, but in some situations, they may take out a second mortgage on their house or make transactions on their company credit card. If you are addicted to shopping, your relationships can suffer as well. You that end up getting divorced or distancing yourself from your friends, children, or other loved ones.