Money Management
November 11, 2024
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The holiday season comes with its fair share of shopping. With the indulgence in shopping, businesses take advantage and try to push their sales as much as they can.
To boost their sales, businesses use marketing tricks to get you to buy more. However, the deals offered might not be good deals for you. Hence, you might be overspending in the name of a good deal.
Therefore, what should you be looking for to avoid being tricked into purchases you had not budgeted for, which might lead you to dent your pocket?
Limited-time offers are offers that are given for a certain period. Typically, the December holidays might last throughout or just a few weeks.
That being said, some retailers do not necessarily give an offer. They only slap a “limited-time-only” or “while stocks last” sign, whereas those items are not in short supply.
These signs create a sense of urgency and encourage impulsive buying. The customer thinks, “If I don’t get it today, I might miss it tomorrow,” and they want to stock up. When you buy into the trick, you benefit the business as they make more sales, but you might have to disorient your budget.
Therefore, when you see these signs that indicate limitation or put a timeline on a certain price, pay attention not to be drawn to making purchases you had not intended.
Bundled deals are top-rated during the holidays. You might think you have a steal when you buy a bundle of different products at a seemingly cheaper price. While there might be value in bundled deals, you also get to buy items you might not have planned for in the first place or buy a brand you do not prefer just to get the one item you want.
The seller's trick is to bundle one desirable product with other less desirable products. The more desirable product is positioned as the main product in the bundle, and the less desirable products are positioned as the offer. Hence, the seller gets to sell the less-moving products by tagging them with popular ones.
You need to pay attention and apply some critical thinking when going for these bundled deals for your own good. Compare the pros and cons of taking the bundled offer. If you find a good deal, good for you, but do not be tricked into buying products that you don’t want just to take advantage of the deal.
Leveraging urgency and the fear of missing out (FOMO) are the flash sales and countdowns.
If you move around town during the holiday season, you will see all these billboards and banners advertising end-year flash sales. Companies push these flash sales through social and traditional media ads as the perfect time to have a good deal.
Sometimes, it indicates 50% off the items or even more. But some businesses inflate the prices of their products and then discount them. Unfortunately, what you thought you bought off offer, you bought it at the actual price or just a little cheaper.
Do not be tricked by these flash sale offers if you have not budgeted for certain purchases. The offers are meant to make you spend when you did not intend to.
Another marketing trick you should be looking for this holiday season is the hidden cost trick. Sometimes, a product is displayed to be way cheaper than it costs.
Some of the hidden costs could include taxes. For instance, the VAT in Kenya is 16%. However, the vendor writes the price without including the VAT to make a product seem cheaper. You buy the product thinking it is cheap, but when it comes to payment time, you realise you have overpaid. The extra payment you realise is for VAT. Nonetheless, you have already made the purchase, which was the vendor's goal, albeit to your disappointment.
Ensure that you pay attention to the fine print, and before committing to a purchase, ask as many questions as needed.
Hiding costs is a cunning way of doing business, and it is still common. This holiday season, you should be on the lookout to avoid overspending.
Always read the fine print and calculate the total expense before purchasing.
Most of the purchases we make are emotional purchases. We are just very good at finding logic to justify the purchase. For instance, buying chocolate is an emotional decision. However, people justify the purchase by saying, “I need it.”
Brands and vendors understand this concept well and use emotions to drive their business.
They might make you feel bad for not buying certain products for your children. They might present certain products as must-haves, or they will make it look like everybody else has bought into their product, and only you are left.
These are some of the marketing tricks businesses employ to improve their sales, but it does not mean that they are inherently bad. They are just strategies for business.
The most important thing is to understand what the business is trying to do. So that before making a purchase, you know what you are buying and what you are not. You do not want to be tricked into thinking you have a deal while, in reality, you just overspend.
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