5 tips to help you end "impulse buying" and save 100%

Today is 618, and those who like online shopping will not miss this shopping day. Nowadays, online shopping live broadcasts have become a channel for many merchants to sell goods, and at the same time, it has also become a way for consumers to understand the goods. I have to sigh that people nowadays really love watching live broadcasts, and they also like to place orders in the live broadcast room more and more.

With the development of live streaming sales, more and more goods are being sold, from snacks, daily necessities, and electronic products in the beginning to online pearl opening and kiln opening now. It can be said that everything can be sold through live streaming.

Have you ever watched live broadcast of opening clams and digging for pearls?

Live streaming with goods has indeed brought us an innovative shopping experience in a closer and more interesting way, causing netizens to not only love watching live streaming with goods, but also love impulse consumption, but this has also caused many people to feel troubled by this.

This brings up a very interesting question: what is the magic of live streaming that makes so many people buy things without paying attention to their empty wallets? In the face of all kinds of live streaming, how can we control our excessive shopping desire? Today, we will analyze why live streaming is so addictive, and how to prevent ourselves from being addicted to online shopping.

Too long to read

To prevent yourself from getting addicted to online shopping, you can do the following:

1. Tell yourself that "live streaming with goods" is a marketing tool, and realize in advance that you may be potentially affected, thereby increasing your vigilance and reducing impulse consumption to a certain extent.

2. Create a clear budget and make a shopping list based on your needs and priorities, buying only what you need and within your budget.

3. Learn to "delay decision-making" and say to yourself: "I know you are in a hurry, but don't be in a hurry." Give yourself some time to calm down.

4. Get in-depth information about the product from other channels to see if the product is not what you want or does not meet your expectations.

5. If you always make impulse purchases, especially when you feel anxious, depressed or other negative emotions, then you may be suffering from compulsive spending and it is recommended that you seek help from a professional.

01

The more I believe in this anchor

More prone to impulse buying

When we go shopping in offline malls, there are often shopping guides and other marketing staff in the store to guide our consumption.

In live streaming sales, the hosts play the role of marketers. They not only need to introduce and recommend products, but also need to interact with the audience in real time. It can be said that the hosts are the most important factor in guiding consumers to buy.

Live streaming with goods brings the role of the anchor to the extreme. Many live broadcast rooms will invite experts, celebrities, internet celebrities and other influential figures to serve as anchors. The biggest role played by these celebrity anchors is to enhance consumers' sense of trust and create a celebrity endorsement effect , making us believe that their evaluation and recommendations of the products are true and reliable, so we can buy with confidence.

There is a very famous Milgram experiment in psychology: in the experiment, participants were told to punish another learner (actually an actor) with electric shock. The experimenter acted as the authority. Even though the learner expressed discomfort and pain, 62.5% of the participants still obeyed the authority's instructions and applied the highest intensity electric shock.

From the Milgram experiment, we can clearly see how much influence authority figures have on individual decision-making.

Nowadays, live streaming also invites some actors to join in, with the aim of gaining everyone's trust.

In addition, the social identity theory proposed by psychologists such as Tafel and Turner believes that people generally have an inherent need to be accepted and recognized by others.

When anchors have high levels of influence and social identity, viewers will satisfy their need for social identity by purchasing the products they recommend in the hope of having similar experiences, lifestyles, or feelings of success as them.

This is actually the same principle as learning from role models. We want to use the same items as role models or the items they recommend, hoping to become as good as role models. Merchants, in turn, take advantage of this and ignite our urge to shop.

02

The three-tier routine of live streaming sales

Overwhelm your self-control

When it comes to impulse shopping, the celebrity effect of the anchor certainly plays a certain role, but not every live broadcast room has a celebrity anchor, so we have to mention the influence of the situation and the group.

Most of the time, we are encountering these products in the live broadcast room for the first time, and we are not sure whether the quality, price and other aspects of these products meet our requirements.

In traditional shopping environments, we often take the initiative to confirm this information, but this process is completely overturned in the live broadcast room.

Consumers are placed in a virtual shopping situation where they are online with others in real time. We not only watch the host’s vivid product recommendations, but also see various things happening in the live broadcast room: the number of people online, other people’s purchase information, live lottery, real-time interactive comments, likes, and new viewers, etc. All this information implies: “ Many people are watching + many people are watching and discussing + many people are buying = I want to buy too .”

Copyright images in the gallery. Reprinting and using them may lead to copyright disputes.

This can easily lead to a very common psychological phenomenon: the herd effect , which refers to the tendency of individuals to imitate or follow the behavior, opinions or decisions of the majority when faced with uncertain situations.

Under the overwhelming bombardment of information, it is easy for us to abandon the time-consuming and laborious way of shopping around and instead tend to rely on the purchasing behavior of others as a reference. It seems that there is a voice in our mind that keeps whispering: " So many people are buying, so it's right to follow suit !"

At the same time, the survivor bias effect is also a little devil that works quietly , because the cunning live broadcast room will only keep telling us "someone has placed an order" and "XX people have placed an order" and other one-sided information, which makes us form a cognitive bias: everyone in the live broadcast room is buying it. In this case, it is difficult for us not to follow the crowd.

In addition, price discounts are the last straw that overwhelms self-control. Low-price promotions can be said to be the most common sales strategy in the live broadcast room . In addition to simple price discounts, the anchors will also create a sense of urgency through limited-time and limited-quantity flash sales, rush purchases, and the lowest discounts in history, etc., to encourage consumers to buy in groups. This time pressure has magnified the herd effect to a certain extent, causing us to have no time to think, but to choose to follow everyone and buy quickly!

03

Make consumers happy

The unchanging rules of bringing goods

Interestingly, many live streaming sales programs nowadays do not necessarily follow the usual path, but instead create a positive atmosphere and emotions through carefully interpreted storylines, or provide real-time interactive opportunities, allowing viewers to interact with the anchor through leaving messages or drawing prizes.

Whether it is through storytelling or real-time interaction, it is actually utilizing a psychological principle - emotions affect decision-making . This is called the "evaluation tendency framework theory", which means that once a certain emotion is activated, it will trigger the corresponding cognitive tendency. For example, watching live broadcasts makes you feel very happy. At this time, your evaluation of the anchor and his products will become better, and your desire to buy will increase accordingly.

There is a domestic study on the impact of the atmosphere of the live broadcast room on sales promotions . This study divided the subjects into two groups. In the group with a strong live broadcast atmosphere, the subjects saw: "The live broadcast room is full of barrage, the anchor and the audience are actively communicating, there are red envelope rain and lucky draws in the live broadcast room", while in the group with a weak live broadcast atmosphere, the subjects saw "very few barrages in the live broadcast room, the anchor and the audience rarely communicate, there are no red envelope rain and lucky draws".

The research results found that in the weak live broadcast atmosphere group, there was almost no difference in the impact of limited-time and limited-quantity promotions on audience emotions and purchasing desire, and both were lower than those in the strong live broadcast atmosphere group.

The host’s enthusiastic promotion and interaction will make consumers more “impulsive”. Image source: Reference [1]

04

5 Tips

Say goodbye to impulse buying

For many people, consumption is the source of happiness, and everyone has different ideas about money, so there is nothing wrong with consumption behavior itself. But impulse consumption is not the case, because it is essentially a kind of "passive consumption."

One thing we must admit is that while we have free will, our thoughts, emotions and decisions will be influenced by others and the environment, and each person is susceptible to different degrees of influence, which makes it easy for merchants to exploit us and cause us to buy a bunch of unnecessary things.

At the same time, this is not conducive to one's mental health. Frequent impulsive consumption will not only not make oneself feel happy, but will bring oneself too much anxiety. Only moderate consumption can bring the maximum experience.

If you are always troubled by this, then the following methods are worth trying:

1. Realize that these are marketing tactics

Earlier, we talked a lot about the principle of "how merchants make you consume impulsively". In the final analysis, live streaming is for the purpose of "selling goods". To this end, anchors will adopt various marketing methods . Being aware that they may be potentially affected will increase their vigilance and reduce the risk of impulse buying to a certain extent.

2. Make a budget and shopping list

Before you prepare to enter the live broadcast room to make a big purchase, it is recommended to set a clear budget and make a shopping list based on your needs and priorities, and only buy items that you need and are within your budget.

Copyright images in the gallery. Reprinting and using them may lead to copyright disputes.

3. Don’t rush into making decisions

Delaying decision-making is a very effective method . When you have a strong desire to buy, say to yourself: "I know you are in a hurry, but don't be in a hurry." Give yourself some time to calm down.

You can also discuss with a friend, for example, ask a friend to tell you "three reasons why you shouldn't buy it" from a third-person perspective to help you make a rational decision.

4. Learn more about product information

We can easily be led astray by the atmosphere of the live broadcast room and the host’s strong recommendations, only to find out afterwards that the product is not what we want or does not meet our expectations.

Before buying, take the initiative to understand the objective evaluation and usage experience of the product, and look for similar products to compare prices, because the anchor is often equivalent to a dealer who helps other merchants sell goods. The same products will also be listed on other platforms. Knowing more information can help you avoid the above situation as much as possible.

5. Beware of compulsive consumption

If you find yourself always making impulse purchases, especially when you are feeling anxious, depressed, or other negative emotions, then you may be suffering from compulsive spending, which means that you are experiencing extreme pain inside and are using repeated and excessive spending behavior as an outlet.

Since compulsive spending may hide deeper psychological problems, it is recommended to seek help from professionals.

05

Conclusion

Finally, when merchants offer special sales, many people probably don’t want to miss this opportunity to “get something for free”. However, everyone should still try to be rational in their consumption under the temptation of marketing and “routines”. Although “emptying the shopping cart” is very satisfying, it is too impulsive and sometimes your wallet can’t bear it…

References:

[1] Zhang Yuqiao. (2022). Research on the impact of restrictive price promotion strategies in live streaming marketing on consumers’ impulse buying intention (Master’s thesis, Shandong University).

[2] Li Yucui, Wei Songwen & Zhou Qingping. (2023). Analysis of the influencing factors of e-commerce live shopping scenarios on consumers’ impulse buying behavior. Journal of Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities (01), 44-52.

[3] Shen Yulei. (2022). Research on the influence of opinion leaders on impulse buying intention in e-commerce live streaming (Master's degree thesis, Northeast Normal University).

[4] He Bichen. (2022). Research on the influencing factors of consumers' impulsive buying behavior in the context of e-commerce live streaming (Master's thesis, Guangxi Normal University).

[5] Xiao Kaihong & Lei Bing. (2021). Opinion leader characteristics, promotional incentives and social e-commerce consumer purchase intention: A survey based on WeChat group shoppers. Management Journal (01), 99-110.

Author: ACC Psychology Popular Science Creator Popular Science China

Reviewer: Tang Yicheng, Deputy Director of Beijing Zhongke Popular Psychological Health Promotion Center

The cover image and the images in this article are from the copyright library

Reprinting may lead to copyright disputes