Long before, I became a branded items seller. My supplier was coming from the USA and Europe. Mostly, they are Indonesians who have already lived there for a long time. That is one of the glorious times for me, because my income from only selling branded items is bigger than my salary, so I am really confident to ditch my job behind to focus on selling from home, so I will still be able to take care of my kids.
One day, my supplier in the USA told me, “Hey, it’s Black Friday sale! The price is crazy! You won’t find deals like this ever again!”. I heard a lot about this Black Friday, especially from those YouTube videos showing the wild stuff- people lining up like it’s a concert! They even camp out in front of the store! The shoppers increases extremely. It’s the total battle out there! Everyone’s trying to snag what they want or need for just a few bucks less than usual. Seriously, it’s getting insane! It makes sense that so many accidents happen on Black Friday. People got injured, crazy parking lot crashes, and even worse. Scary.
I also noticed that everything’s changing. Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. Now, it has become much more relaxed than before since the store now does online shopping and extends the deals over weeks or even months. That takes away the craziness and urgency that used to drive people into a frenzy. The once-frantic, single-day event evolved into a more relaxed, widespread shopping season. I guess business figured that they’d better get ahead of the game and keep customers coming in longer than their rivals. Sigh, it’s relieved. But, as for me, I don’t know about you, the problem isn’t stopping there.
The word DISCOUNT or SALE indeed attracts everyone to spend their money. Sometimes, it’s the stuff that we need, but mostly, based on my experience, it turns out it’s not. I won’t say a thing again about this, since I’m pretty sure, you guys know, deep inside, we realize the stuff that we bought from the sales event mostly comes from impulsive buying, not because we need it. Because here’s the truth: if we really need that stuff, even though it’s not on sale, we still buy it anyway!
Honestly, I was also an impulsive buyer before, yeah, not super proud of it. And to be frank, there’s a time when that habit still slips from my fingers. But, here are the methods, or we can say a tips that I got one of from best-selling books “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, the book isn’t clearly saying the method: “How not to be an impulsive buyer and avoid discount” but more good about it, we can use it to removes all of our bad habit. Duhigg argues that habits are powerful forces that shape our lives, and by understanding how they work, we can change them to transform our personal and professional outcomes. I totally agree with him!
So, here’s his method, he explains that every habit follows this simple loop:
- Cue – A trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode
- Routine – The behavior itself
- Reward – The positive reinforcement that makes your brain want to repeat iy
Our brains learns this loop and run it automatically. Understanding this loop is the key to changing bad habits or building good ones. Here’s the golden rule of Habit Change: We can’t completely avoid cues and rewards, since cues are often part of our environment, emotions, and daily routine. So does the reward after it. We can only change the routine. Back to “How to Stop Impulsive Buying Habit”: First, we have to identify the cue, maybe the cue is like this: feeling bored, stressed, or triggered by an ad, seeing a SALE notification, or getting a payday rush. Then, the routine after that, usually we open an app, browse, and make a purchase. Or, we visit the store, browse around, try on clothes, and make a purchase. And we got the “reward”, A dopamine hit, temporary relief and excitement, or a feeling like we “treated” ourselves.
I wanna share how I deal with it. For me, the cue is always because I’m feeling bored, when I’m bored, my first instinct is to hit up the shopping malls. The usual routine? I head over, do some window shopping, but let’s be real, it rarely stops there, and I end up buying something! Duh! Indeed, I feel excited for a while (reward) because I got those cool pants, but then I get home and realize I totally don’t need them since my closet is already stuffed with similar ones! Classic me! But here’s how I’ve changed the game: instead of just hitting the malls and making those impulse buys, I’ve switched things up. When boredom strikes, I still head to the mall, but I hit up my fave coffee spot instead. I grab a coffee, crack open a book, and do some writing. And get this—the happy vibe I get from that is just as good, if not better, and it actually sticks around. Same cue (boredom), same reward (pleasure), but a new routine that doesn’t involve spending. I feel way more satisfied because I’m doing something productive instead of spending cash on stuff I don’t need. And the bonus is, you can use that money that you aren’t spending on a nice investment, or just saving for something that you truly need! No regrets, just good vibes!
So, over time, our brain learns that this new behavior also grants a reward, the buying impulse gets weaker (I’m not saying it’s totally dead down there, you know, woman and shopping are actually the twins), and then the new routine starts to become automatic. You can do a lot with understanding this habit loop. You can change your bad habit into a good one. The one that will give you the greatest feeling of reward, a feeling that sticks around for a long time. If we understand how habit works, we can control them. And if we can control them, we can shape our destiny.
To sum it up, here’s a nice quote from Charles Duhigg,
Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.
Love,
Kirana
