Scientists and students of Novosibirsk State Technical University (NETI) explored the topic of impulsive purchases and answered questions about what exactly affects the number of spontaneous purchases, and most importantly, how to avoid unplanned spending online.
Teachers and students of NSTU-NETI became interested in the topic of impulsive online purchases, and most importantly, the reasons that make you spend money on things thoughtlessly and in a matter of seconds. To answer the question of what exactly is to blame for spontaneous acquisitions, students of the NSTU-NETI Faculty of Business interviewed 150 people aged 18 to 45 at the first stage of the study.
It turned out that online commerce is more to blame for impulsive purchases. As soon as the real store shelves turned into endless online storefronts of marketplaces, the number of spontaneous purchases increased significantly. According to Nicoleta Kosareva and Clara Ershova,fourth-year students of the Faculty of Business of NSTU-NETI, who conducted the research under the supervision of Associate Professor Evgenia Dragunova, Candidate of Economics, consumers are not always to blame for such spontaneous shopping. "What is happening does not necessarily mean that consumers are impulsive, but rather that online commerce is shaping a new pattern of behavior. Innovative technologies have led to a large number of ways to spend money quickly," they are confident.
One of the main reasons for impulsive behavior was the ease and speed of purchase. Many services save bank card data and do not require a confirmation code or a code from a push notification when ordering again - the money is immediately debited from the account. Almost 80% of consumers are more likely to order something from a mobile application where they have already linked their bank card than to place an order on the site they visited for the first time. This is indicated by the survey data at NSTU-NETI.
Automatic payments and subscriptions have created a sense of comfort for consumers in a short time, and customers do not need to control their expenses. But this same uncontrolled behavior leads to the fact that consumers often do not know the exact amount of money spent. In addition, the growth of spontaneous purchases was influenced by the personalization of product recommendations. Modern analytics allows you to evaluate the tastes of the consumer and offers products in accordance with his preferences.
New items will definitely be on the list of offers — this is another reason for impulsive purchases. People are interested in trying something new among the first, and the online store allows you to purchase a purchase immediately after release. The "shortage effect" works in a similar way, when online stores add the "Have time to buy" icon to the product photo, "There are very few pieces left," which leads to a quick, thoughtless purchase.
But it is impossible to completely remove the human factor from the list of reasons that lead to impulsive purchases. Valeria Kapustina, head of the Department of Psychology and Pedagogy at NSTU-NETI, Candidate of Psychological Sciences, Associate Professor, is confident that spontaneous purchases are one of the easiest ways to please yourself, experience positive emotions from the very fact of purchase and the thought "I can afford it." According to the scientist, this behavior is activated when a person experiences a lack of impressions from life, is depressed and fully confident that life will be more interesting with a new purchase. By the way, impulsive acquisitions do not bring joy: positive emotions disappear almost immediately.
To get rid of the desire to make impulsive purchases, Valeria Kapustina suggests putting into practice the recording and assessment of income and expenses, making lists of desired purchases and critically reviewing them about once a week to answer the question "Why should I do this?", setting purchase limits in accordance with the analysis of expenses and income and artificially restrict access to the store sites. But the most important thing, according to the scientist, is to find ways to experience positive emotions without shopping — meetings with friends, walks, movies and books are much more interesting.