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The study found that store displays can get female shoppers to change their preplanned purchase decision from their favorite brand to another product.
You make your shopping list, download some coupons from the Web and head to the supermarket. You’re ready to be a frugal shopper. And yet there’s still a good chance you’ll make a significant number of impulse purchases.
An overwhelming portion of the average shopper’s purchasing decisions -- 76 percent-- are being made in the store, according to the recently released 2012 Shopper Engagement Study. That’s an all-time high for this sort of survey.
“What you find is that people will tell you they plan to do one thing, but their actual behavior will be quite different,” says Richard Winter, president of Point of Purchase Advertising International, the marketing association that conducted this survey.
Researchers interviewed 2,400 shoppers as they were about to start shopping and afterward.
“While a person would enter a store and anticipate things on a list that they planned to purchase, the actual purchases changed while they were in the retail environment,” Winter says.
The study found that store displays can get female shoppers especially to change their preplanned purchase decision from their favorite brand to another product. It seems a company can do all sorts of marketing, but the real decisions are made while the customer is shopping.
Brian Wansink, director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University, says deviating from the shopping list can be costly.
“If you’re making impulse purchases, it’s likely you will spend more than you planned,” he says.
Pay with cash if you want to spend less
According to the Shopper Engagement Study, people who pay with credit cards or debit cards are more susceptible to impulse purchases. They buy larger quantities and make more unplanned purchases than those who pay with cash.
“I think there’s something about having to shell out cold, hard cash that makes you more cautious about how you spend,” says Gerri Detweiler, a personal finance expert with Credit.com.
Besieds, most shoppers can’t accurately predict how much they will spend at the store. The average shopper in the engagement study misjudged how much he or she would spend by 35 percent. More than half (57 percent) spent more than planned.
One more interesting finding
Researchers were surprised to see that a significant number of people left the store without buying everything on their list. It could be that these shoppers simply forgot those items. Or more likely the price was not as good as they expected, so they decided to skip the purchase and try another time.
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Subliminal seduction at work
I can't for the life of me figure out why so many people fall for impulse items---Their shopping carts are full of CRAP---Pop,candy,TV dinners,cookies,etc. And then you WONDER WHY we have a Fiscal AND Health Crises in this country ???
Raymond - it is not impulse that loads carts full of CRAP - that's a HABIT. Impulse is when they buy something healthy :). The less money people have, the more CRAP they buy. However, researchers are not interested in that category of buyers. They typically go to yuppy parts of town and make their learned observations.
I too often stop at the grocery store on the way home because I need garlic or something for the dinner I planned that night. I get home and find I bought canned tomatoes, chicken and oranges because they were at a really good price, but no garlic. When I go to the store with a list I do pretty well.
These giant corporations like Jewel, Walgreens, etc. all have their own think tanks dedicated to buyer data. They've even figured out if you shop "counter clockwise" in their stores, you buy more! Next time you're in a store check out where the entrance is, and which way you're moving through the store! Certain shelf space is more valuable than others based on visibility, accessibility, etc. The stores get bigger discounts on products for giving this shelf space to them. Kind of like the politicians keeping us off balance by blaming each other, and making things that don't really matter seem very important!
We know we can only spend the allocated budget on groceries because the rest of the money is all accounted for. It makes it very easy to stick to our list even when using a credit/debit card. I always take out bill/cash out/savings money right away and put it in our bills checking account and leave the grocery and gas money only in the account of the card used to grocery shop with.
NEVER go shopping hungry!
Solution to this problem: 1. Find Impulse Buy That You Want. 2. Whip Out Smartphone. 3. Load "Our Groceries". 4. Add Impulse Buy To Groceries Future List. 5. Place Item Back On Shelf. 6. Walk Out Of Grocery Store Knowing That In The Year 4,000,000 This Product WILL Be Purchased (Therefore Tricking Yourself That The Product Is Already Purchased, Your Just Leaving The Product At The Store To Be Picked Up In The Year 4,000,000.) - Solution: NO BUSTED BUDGET! BU HAHAHAH!
The displays don't usually tempt me. I have two problems: (1) begging child .... and (2) things I forgot to put on the list, but remember the family needs as I walk through the store and see them on the shelf.
I keep a record of my spending and have a budget. But I'll buy food ahead of time when I need it if there's a good sale on something I know I'll use and it's something that will keep or freeze. I do impulse buy, but it's not a major part of my purchases. We have an 11 and a 4 year old in the extended family that we buy on impulse for, but we don't spoil them: one "no" is enough to get them to put it back, they know pouting won't help their cause.
raymond, I can second everything that you said!
People go into the store any buy such copious amounts of crap. Then they bemoan that their grocery bill is so high!
Quit buying crap, people!!!!
Ok, I fall in the category of the impulsive shoppers and the belong to the 35.5% group, which is not that bad. It is really hard to resist on buying junk and things you like, especially me, as I have a major sweet tooth and can not imagine going home without at least a candy or bucket of icecream. It is true that the junks we buy are what make our bill goes high, but it is hard to help it!
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