HAVE you ever bought something that seemed to be a good buy but after a few hours or days, you start questioning yourself whether you really got what you wanted?
For instance, the dress that looked so sexy while you were fitting it in the mall now seemed a little tacky. You start wondering whether you were just influenced by its TVC and was it really worth the price you paid for?
Or maybe that brand new car which felt so right when you test-drive it and hastily made that down payment for (which, at that time, seemed low) and yet now that you are beginning to feel the brunt of its monthly amortization, you ask yourself if you really needed a new car.
The “buyer’s remorse phenomenon” has been widely associated with the feeling of regret over having purchased something expensive or out of the usual budget.
Some of the symptoms of “buyer’s remorse phenomenon” are:
*Hesitating to take out the tag just in case you can still return what you bought
*Questioning yourself whether what you purchased is really worth its price tag
*Starting to prefer y our older version than the new one you just purchased
*Doubting whether you really need the product bought
*Feeling like you were victimized by your own impulses, or by the store design, or by the charming sales person
*Questioning whether the extra purchase you made was really worth the extra cost
Companies spent millions in research on strategic marketing to make their products more attractive to consumers.
It is therefore imperative that we take a vigilant step to guard our hard-earned money from these marketing ploys so that we can spend it on the right things at the right time at the right price.
So as not to fall prey to the “buyer’s remorse phenomenon, arm yourselves with research, research, and more research.
Survey the market for the best buy, comparing models, prices, locations, and deals. Find out the right time to buy a certain item or product (if you want to buy a house on loan, find out if the current interest rates are affordable, or schedule your purchase during seasonal sale).
Set a maximum amount you are willing to spend on the item you want to purchase so that you can learn to shut out anything beyond your budget no matter how attractive it looks.
Before buying anything new, make sure you have conducted an inventory of the things you already possess. Have a list of the things you want to buy and schedule them according to when you are going to actually need them. This way you won’t be lured into buying the little knick-knacks because you know you’re saving up for something big.
Never shop during intense emotional episodes - no explanation needed.
Without these shields of armor, we may find ourselves lured into the seduction of buying things we don’t need, or worse, we don’t really want at all but bought it just because it felt good at the time (thanks to the good lighting of the store).
Although we cannot always be totally sure of the satisfaction we would get from every product, we can at least say that we did our best to get our money’s worth. So that with every “buyer’s remorse,” it is hoped we learn “buyer’s atonement” which are the lessons learned.