Almost everyone can relate to the experience of buying something and later wondering why they felt compelled to do so.
By leveraging big data and an understanding of human behavior, retailers have seemingly mastered the art of the sale. So much so that some people might worry they are being manipulated into opening their wallets. Experts say that might not be the right word to describe what’s going on, but stores certainly are doing their best to get your money.
“Manipulate is a very harsh word,” says Lauren Beitelspacher, a Babson College professor who specializes in retail management. She thinks it might be a bit unfair to characterize marketing in that way but notes, “Retailers are in the business of selling products.”
Here are six ways retailers have gotten good at closing the sale:
By gaining your trust. There’s a reason the old adage says, “The customer is always right.” By providing excellent service and a willingness to bend, stores foster goodwill. That, in turn, brings people back for repeat sales as well as creates positive word-of-mouth marketing.
Beitelspacher says price matching is one tactic used to create an ongoing relationship with shoppers. “While it seems like it might hurt a retailer, the trust it creates may encourage shoppers to spend more,” she says.
[Read: 6 Strategies That Save You More in the Store.]
By creating urgency. Black Friday sales are successful, in part, because they are often framed as once-a-year events. At other times of year, stores may advertise markdowns as the “lowest price of the season” or “one time only.”
“Consumers are endlessly confronted with the anxiety of whether this deal will come around again,” says Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. While people are becoming savvier about recognizing sales cycles, this strategy still drives many to buy.
By reminding you what you and your friends like. Digital wish lists and social media sharing of purchases is nothing new, but the latest technology makes it possible for stores to offer highly targeted notifications based upon that information. “When customers walk into a store and they have the retailer’s app, we can use beacon technology to remind them about items they care about,” says Berkley Bowen, CEO and founder of the marketing platform Cue Connect.
Those notifications can be paired with information about price drops or coupons, which can make a purchase even more tempting. That’s something Bowen says is a win-win, since the platform is focused only on promoting those products of the greatest interest to that particular person. “The consumer is no longer getting offers that are out there for anyone,” he says.
By playing to your emotions. Retailers like to appeal to people’s pain points, Beitelspacher says. For example, she relates a recent trip to a department store where she was encouraged to buy a particular pair of jeans with the promise they would make her a fashionable mom. On another shopping trip, she was informed making a purchase was important if she wanted to keep her child safe. “Customers want to feel special, and they want to feel like their problems are being solved,” Beitelspacher says. When a retailer offers a solution, whether large or small, people may find that’s enough to fuel an impulse purchase.
By offering freebies and discounts. Buy one, get one free sales, coupons for a certain dollar amount and free gifts with purchases are all used by stores to close a sale. “Retailers often create multiple discounts,” Cohen says. “That’s a very popular enticement.”
In the online world, free shipping is the carrot often dangled in front of consumers. However, to get it, most stores require spending a certain amount, a mandate that can lead shoppers to add otherwise unwanted items to their cart. “More than 70 percent of the time we see a free-shipping offer, it’s tied to a minimum,” says Karl Quist, president of PriceBlink, a browser add-on that compares prices and searches for online coupons.
[See: 10 Things to Know Before You Shop for Back-to-School Supplies.]
By making it easy to buy. It’s not uncommon for shoppers to leave a site such as Amazon and then find the exact item they were just browsing in an ad on another website. It’s a tactic called ad retargeting, and Quist says, “Merchants have gotten really sophisticated about doing it.”
Once a customer clicks back to the site, one-click ordering makes it easy to close the sale. Tap-and-go credit card payments and subscription services are other ways both online and brick-and-mortar stores make it simple for people to buy goods without devoting much time or thought to the process.
How to Avoid Spending More Than You Planned
Merchants may be working to subconsciously pull customers to a sale, but no one is forcing a shopper to pull out his or her wallet. Experts say one of the easiest way to avoid impulse purchases is to always shop with a list of needed items. “We go to the grocery store with a list, but we don’t go to the department store with one,” Beitelspacher says.
It also helps if consumers are aware of how stores may direct customers to certain products. “We’re trained by Google that the things at the top of the list are better,” Quist says. However, stores may list most profitable items first in search results. “Consumers shouldn’t assume the products they see first are the best or the most popular.”
[See: 10 Money-Saving Websites to Check Before Shopping.]
With the proliferation of shopping comparison tools and increased knowledge of marketing techniques, today’s shoppers are well-positioned to avoid the retail hype and zero in on only the items they need and truly want. “This is the brave new world of sophisticated consumers who are basically in charge,” Cohen says.
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How Retailers Convince You to Spend More originally appeared on usnews.com
