New Year’s shopping: how online stores are deceiving us

In the midst of pre-holiday fever, it is easy to get into the fishing rods of marketers and advertisers who successfully use online stores every year. Web psychologist Liras Margalith exposes the most popular of them and explains why they work.

New Year’s Eve-hot season for online stores. In anticipation of the holidays, we are actively purchasing gifts to both others and ourselves. Psychologist and specialist in the field of consumer behavior on the Internet, Lirasa Margalith shares the results of her own study, which helped her identify a behavioral pattern typical of the pre -science season.

By the end of the year, we, as consumers, behave more impulsively than the rest of the time, and make decisions to buy more emotionally than rationally. In particular, we devote less time to comparison of prices and do not delve into information about the product.

In online stores, conversion

increases-the percentage of new visitors increases. If on average, according to Margalitis, we buy 1.2 units of goods for three visits to the site, then in the hot season a typical consumer acquires 3.5 things per visit alone.

Psychology of impulsive purchases

According to Margalith and its colleagues, the reason for such a significant change in our purchasing behavior lies in various marketing manipulations or “dark templates”-such user interface designs, which are deceiving users to make decisions that are potentially harmful to their wallet and beneficial for the online store. These well -thought -out manipulations directly affect the process of making cognitive decisions, which can lead to impulsive, emotional purchases.

Here are some of these common tactics that Margalith has allocated, analyzing data from the point of view of web psychology.

1. Stimulation of group thinking

Wide advertising campaigns and mediashumikha are designed to create a “herd effect” that captures and fascinates the consumer. This form of cognitive manipulation plays at two levels.

Firstly, our nature has the need to belong to the group. Secondly, in cases of uncertainty, this allows us to study on the experience of others, that is, in this case, if everyone else indulges in the madness of purchases, the subconscious signals: they should have a good reason.

2. Break of rational consciousness

Studying data regarding the attention of consumers, Liorez Margalith noted that by the end of the year, people devote him much less details and information about the product. On the other hand, their attention to the chosen elements, images and catchy headlines increases.

Consumers are usually looking for some logical justification to justify their decision to buy. “Hermit Effect”, together with clever marketing, gives rise to the feeling that at the end of the year shopping should be reasonable and rational. And “since everyone thinks so, it means that it’s right”.

Thus, people automatically reinforce their confidence that the purchase at the end of the season is economically profitable. So, the more they buy, the more money they will save.

3. Creating a stir

A popular reception is a sentence limited: “only today”, “acts until December 15”, “the offer expires in 24 hours” is actively used in the hot season and encourages customers to act quickly. Urgency causes the feeling that in the current situation it is extremely important to do something as soon as possible, while the natural tendency to postpone the decision is rejected. Consumers feel what they should buy here, now, today, at that moment.

4. Activation of fear of loss

Avoiding losses is a natural human desire, which marketers have long been using. In fact, we are told that we risk losing a great opportunity. When we know that something is about to run out, our desire to possess it increases. An example of this is “Black Friday”. Such a time limit creates an urgency in the minds of consumers, which leads to an instant purchase.

Retailers usually arouse consumer interest, allocating limited supplies of goods available only for a short period of time. This increases their perceived value – in the end, a rarity and value are closely intertwined. Fear of missing benefits neutralizes our ability to pause before buying and think about whether we need it and how much the price corresponds to the quality of the goods.

When the logic is silent, we are controlled by emotions. And therefore, we, more than ever before, rely on how the product makes us feel, and not on a cold analysis of costs and benefits.

5. Creating collective experience

Intensive marketing efforts and advertising, which fills the media space by the end of the year, make us believe that we are participating in collective experience, which means that we become full members of society. Buying on the festive season – tradition, ceremony: every year everyone is preparing for shopping, allocating time and money for it, discussing with friends, colleagues and family.

The combination of these factors and the consumer leads to a trap of purchases. According to Lirasa Margalitis, the sites of e -commerce are trying to use similar principles during the year, but, despite the small bursts of consumer activity in other months, there is no more factor than the “finality” associated with the old year finals and the beginning of the new one, coupled with the upcoming onesholidays.