A week ago, some people at the office convinced me that I "needed" a certain big-ticket item. They could not have been more wrong.
I was about to take the plunge when indecision plagued me. I couldn't decide where I should make the purchase, the mall or an online retailer. After a few days of going back and forth with my decision, I started feeling like buying this big-ticket item was more hassle than I thought and that was when I realized that I was about to make a purchase on impulse.
The number one sign that you are about to buy on impulse is when you want instant gratification. When you want something
RIGHT AWAY, it is a very clear sign that will glare at you in the face that means that you are buying something on impulse. Yes, I know the feeling. You feel giddy and you want it now, not in the next hour, not tomorrow, and certainly not next week!
In fact, this was how I felt when I made the decision to buy a big ticket-item. It was a new toy, sleek, and shiny. I couldn't wait another hour to get my hands on it! I didn't want to buy it online because I'd have to wait for 1-7 business days for it to be delivered. I didn't feel like buying it at a mall either because there's just too many stores in the mall and how would I ever know which one has the best deal?
Now I know the title says two signs that you are impulse buying. Well, I lied, there's just one and that is all that you will ever need! The next time that you are at the mall and you see something that you want to buy,
imagine that the store clerk tells you that you will have to go back the next week to buy it, will you do it? Or will you say, no thanks? If your answer is the latter, then you, my dear, were certainly about to do some impulse buying!
And don't think that impulse buying only happens at the mall; impulse shoppers are like kids in a candy store whenever they visit online retail sites! Think about it. How many times have you found yourself in the office bored and with nothing to do? You check out your favorite online retail website and it is just so easy to add items to your shopping cart and hit the checkout button!
The second sign is buyer's remorse. Buyer's remorse is a clear sign that you have bought something on impulse. I want you to take a look at the purchases that you have made in the past few months, check how many of them you thought were mistakes just a few days after making the purchase. To avoid this from happening in the future, I recommend putting off purchasing something for a few days or in cases of big-ticket items like cars and houses, a few months. This is to give you time to rethink your decision.
Here is a nice quote on impulse buying:
"The longer you have to wait to fulfill your impulse, the less likely you are to just buy something to scratch that itch.
As for the big-ticket item I wanted to buy, I decided that I really didn't need it and that all I ever wanted was a diversion, and I could think of literally hundreds of cheaper and longer lasting diversions.
I hope this post curbs your impulse buying and make you a smarter consumer in the future!
Comments
Post a Comment