Satisfy Sad Shoppers with Prompt Rewards

In a consumer survey released earlier this year by financial services retailer BMO, about 60% of respondents said they engage in retail therapy— the intentional use of shopping by people who are feeling sad in order to improve their mood. Now research from Columbia University and Harvard University finds that consumers engaging in retail therapy want quick payoffs, even if this means forgoing substantially larger payoffs later.
     The impatient preference for the quicker, less valuable isn’t nearly as strong with other negative emotions, such as disgust, anger, or fear.
     The Riverside researchers also found that the sad consumers created arguments to justify to themselves a choice which was, from the perspective of rational economics, inferior. For example, preferring $37 today to waiting three months for $85.
     The implications for retailers are:

• Guide sad shoppers toward items which are easy to start using and in which the benefits of use are easily recognized. These might be alternatives a regular shopper with you is unaccustomed to considering. Researchers at National Central University and Hungkuang University in Taiwan find that sadness tends to lead to variety seeking. 
• With items you’re wanting to sell to sad shoppers, emphasize the feasibility of the purchase over the long-term advantages of the purchase. 
• Follow up with sad shoppers, such as inviting them to return to your store to say how the purchase worked out. Then use the follow-ups to assess if the sadness has eased, and when it has, to consider upgrading the purchase to what might better serve the longer-term interests of the customer. 

     The impatience activated by sadness doesn’t set off a shopping frenzy. Research findings from Pennsylvania State University and HEC-Paris support the view that with the exception of the 5% of adults who suffer from Compulsive Buying Disorder, people seeking retail therapy are fully capable of exercising self-control. Their shopping is mindful, not mindless. They restrain themselves because the restraint itself helps lift their spirits.
     The Pennsylvania/HEC researchers also found that the restorative benefits of retail therapy last well beyond the duration of the shopping trips. These consumers associate relief with their trips, not regret or guilt for making unplanned purchases. Instead of avoiding the stores in the future, they become more likely to return whenever sadness reoccurs. Feeling down from time to time is a chronic condition. Show how you understand, and your store will become the quick payoff therapeutic couch.

Click below for more: 
Couch Retail Therapy for Chronic Conditions 
Direct Shoppers Toward Needs Over Wants 
Flex Your Influence for Shopper Flexibility