Online shopping is really popular, and for good reason. It is convenient, easy, fast and you can do it sitting in your dressing gown with morning TV on in the background. No red raw hands from carrying shopping bags across town, or bedraggled hair and red raw cheeks from braving the rubbish weather. Plus there’s a world of money to be saved, if, that is, you avoid impulse buying which can result in you wasting money. Online shopping for clothes is the easiest way to impulse buy because of ‘fast fashion’ and fads that come in and out of our lives quicker than hover boards. With this in mind, it’s important we take care to consider our online clothes purchases carefully.
Here are some tips to help you avoid impulse buying when shopping online
You Are In Charge
Online shopping is great because it gives you complete access 24/7 to items you might want to buy. This is fabulous if you work shifts or have other things that stop you getting to the shops during their opening hours. Unfortunately, it also means that you are the only things stopping your access to a very addictive, exciting world. With this in mind, you must ensure you restrict yourself when you are online shopping for women’s fashion because the online shops certainly won’t stop you spending your money.
Once you are online and in the midst of browsing, the compulsion to spend can be huge, and that is music to the ears of online retailers battling to get your attention with their wares. But if you struggle to maintain a healthy shopping attitude, it can be all too easy to spend away without really thinking about your purchases at all.
When you are already online and in the midst of it, you are already tempted so you really do have to apply strategies before and after you shop to make sure you don’t impulse buy your way through hundreds of pounds within a few hours.
The First Line Of Defence
If you’re mostly able to restrain yourself when online shopping, but can go overboard, then you need to put in place some simple rules when you shop. Consider doing the following:
- Before you shop, write a list of exactly what you are looking for and stick to that list
- Before you shop, set a strict budget for yourself and do not go over the budget when you shop
- When shopping, make yourself think about each purchase hard, setting a five minute timer for each item thinking about whether or not you really need or want it
- Give yourself a cool down period after shopping where you consider your purchases for a few hours and if you regret any of them, go back and cancel the order while you can
- Agree (with yourself) that you will send the item back if it does not fit or you don’t use it. Many people can’t be bothered to send an item back when they receive it and it isn’t right. Remember every single penny you spent you have earnt – you wouldn’t just chuck a tenner away on the street would you?
Stronger Tactics
If the above basic rules really don’t work for you, you need to set up even stronger tactics to avoid impulse buying.
- Add items you like to a list provided by the site like a wishlist or favourites list (or screenshot it and save it to a folder if they don’t do this) so that you have created another step to go through before making the purchase. Never add the item to the basket to review when you look at the shopping cart, it puts you too close to the end of the buying process.
- Speak to people about the product – if you’re on an auction site or similar consider asking questions about the product, which again adds more time between you browsing and buying. Maybe you could read some reviews or even chat about the product on social media – whatever it takes to give you more time before buying.
- Add to the basket before buying – if you’re not into asking questions or making lists, then do add to the basket before buying rather than just buying the item and then another item and so on. Seeing all the items you have clicked on together and the full price may well be enough to put you off. It should also help you look over your choices and consider whether or not you need all the items on the list.
This article was sponsored by Outwar.
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