This episode of DNews is brought to you by Real-tour dot com.
Remember the last time you got super excited about that new thing and you ran out and bought
it!
Then, a month later you regretted it?
Why do we suck at shopping?
Hey consumers, thanks for watching DNews, I'm Trace!
And research shows that all too often we make irrational buying decisions, no matter how
big or small the purchase is.
In other words, your emotions are costing you dearly!
American thinker and educator John Dewey studied basic consumer psychology WAAAY back in 1910,
and came up with five stages -- you identify a problem, search for information to solve
it and then look for alternatives, weigh the convenience, value, whether it meets your
needs and so on and then you buy it!
That's not all though, you also evaluate your decision AFTER buying and eventually dispose
of the product.
This behavior has been studied extensively over the last century and companies have gotten
so good at learning our behavior they sometimes know what we want BEFORE WE DO.
It's freaky.
They paint things the right color, play the right music and place it JUST right to get
you to LOVE it.
The question is, aside from covering basic needs like food or warm clothes, why do we
decide to buy stuff at all?
Well, apparently we like buying stuff because it makes us feel better.
According to market research paid for by an online rebate site, 64% of women and 40 percent
of men in the U.S. shop because it improved their moods.
Retail therapy is real, y'all.
But it's a short-lived mood booster obviously, because eventually the novelty of those new
shoes wears off.
On top of that, researchers at Bangor University scanned the brains of shoppers and found that
we have about 23 minutes of shopping before our logic is exhausted and we start making
decisions emotionally.
After 40 minutes of shopping, the brain's emotional center is fully in control and we're
not making ANY rational decisions whatsoever.
Functional MRIs of people evaluating brands found we make decisions based on feeling and
experiences rather than facts.
And the Journal of Advertising Research has found emotions can be two to three times as
influential to a purchase, even a big one!
Which means buying cars or houses or big vacations involve the same logical/emotional breakdown
as buying a nice new shirt.
However, if you're trying to save some money, here's a secret tip: according to the Journal
of Consumer Research[a], sometimes you don't actually have to BUY ANYTHING to get that
feel-good boost, or what they call "hedonic elevation."
Sometimes you'll feel better just by browsing.
In the end, we ALL follow the same stages of purchasing, and we ALL ignore those stages
once we become mentally exhausted and go with our emotional biases, but because our ancient,
still evolving brains try and protect our egos we all THINK we make perfectly logical,
rational decisions.
We don't.
We so stupid.
Fortunately there are tools out there to help you make better decisions when it comes to
big purchases - like real estate.
For instance, Real-tour-dot-com uses data and personal experience from the National
Association of Realtors.
They update their listings every 15 minutes and specialize in getting people in their
perfect home.
Let them do the hard work so you can just make the final decision, that should save
your brain and keep you logical.
Check them out at real-tour.com or download their app.
Meantime, What's the largest thing you've ever bought?
Was it tough?
Tell us about it in the comments, and be sure you subscribe for more DNews.
Thanks for watching DNews!