Why Did I Buy All of This Stuff?

Have you ever returned home from a retail store and wondered why you bought so much stuff?  I went shopping with full intentions of getting HP printer ink cartridges, and I came home with a whole lot more than intended.  Did I really need to get the cartridges plus 10 bags of Starbucks coffee, a basketball, microwave, and a new pair of Jordans?  Of course, the cartridges are located in an aisle at the back of the store too.  If you’ve made similar decisions when shopping, then you are not alone.  “The majority of items you buy were chosen after nothing more than a fleeting moment of awareness” (Dijksterhuis, Smith, Van Baaren & Wigboldus, 2005). 

The combination of scarcity and having to buy one item out of necessity could stimulate behaviors from the past that are actually deeply rooted habits.  In addition, more stores are engaging in automatic influence tactics that link perception with behavior.  When those factors are combined with social environment, emotions could spread (Berger, 2013).  Integrated marketing efforts used in tandem with personalized marketing techniques may also spur higher sales for brick and mortar plus online retailers. 

Unconscious buying behaviors are fueled by thoughts and attitudes.  It explains why one could have a goal in mind of making a single purchase when entering a retail outlet and physically leaving with more items than originally intended.  “Recent insights on influence tactics and persuasion have emphasized that we often rather ‘mindlessly’ to stimuli that trigger certain automated responses” (Dijksterhuis, Smith, Van Baaren & Wigboldus, 2005).  The purchases made in the previous example demonstrate the ease of shopping on autopilot. 

The next time you are shopping online or at a brick and mortar retailer, remember that unconscious consumer behavior is quite common, and emotions are linked to items catching on (Berger, 2013).  Lapses in awareness could result in more items in your physical or online virtual cart.  Retailers and online sites are aware of this and are attempting to exploit the phenomena.  Remember to not be too tough on yourself the next time you buy more things than intended, because it is all by design.  The physical retail and online environments are engineered to get consumers to spend more than intended.  Unconscious attitudes and behaviors could be contagious, so always try to exercise the power of positivity. 

References

Berger, J. (2013).  Contagious:  Why things catch on.  New York, NY.  Simon & Schuster. 

Dijksterhuis, A., Smith, P., Van Baaren, R. & Wigboldus, D. (2005) The Unconscious Consumer:  Effects of Environment on Consumer Behavior.  Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(3), 193-202, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.  Retrieved from:  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Pamela_Smith5/publication/232601627_The_Unconscious_Consumer_Effects_of_Environment_on_Consumer_Behavior/links/5a7a35f10f7e9b41dbd615b6/The-Unconscious-Consumer-Effects-of-Environment-on-Consumer-Behavior.pdf

*All of the images appearing in this blog are stock photos.