The Psychology Behind Online Shopping | CIOLOOK

The Psychology Behind Online Shopping

Welcome, to the journal of Elizabeth Crown.

By now, you must have known that as my name and as the previous pages on which I’ve written my whole life story, that like the name suggests, I like to live life king’s size.

Despite the fact that being a woman in this extremely fast and overwhelming world is a walk on tightropes, there are always these little things that we or this modern generation, with most of their necessities fulfilled, can underline or relate with. And that is the online shopping that we find immense pleasure in.

But today, like any other day, I was brain-draining myself in a tidal wave of thought. However, what was really surprising in this entire brainstorming process was that it was not the emotional breakdowns that I have on a weekly basis, nor was the feeling of being high and happy at the moment. It was something I instantly spent my hard-earned money on through impulse buying and regrated it the next moment. This thought made me lost in a chain of thought like a blockchain that kept me alive long enough to know, understand and share my experience with the concept of ‘The Psychology of Online Shopping’.

It all started with a tickled feeling of want when the idea of buying was incepted.

Technically with my short knowledge of economics and commerce and having once dreamt of running a business, it was all brought down to the fact that ‘If you don’t know the Demand. Create the Demand!’. And eCommerce, in the hands of a group of money-minded, intelligent people, can make or is making a fortune out of it. Looking from a natural and faraway point of view, it can narrow down to one that which psychology works and to prove it, and I’m here sharing my experience to tell you this story.

So, listen… I mean, read carefully! Creating a Demand?!

After a long run of thought and surfing through the businesses I see around myself, I concluded that it would be more comfortable if I tell you when people like you and me come face to face with each other, i.e., the customer.

So, the question arises, when is a demand created, cutting all the unwanted weeds from the targeted pitch? Demand is created when there is a product that is to be sold or, even better, just being introduced to the market.

What does a product require to sell? A customer! Yes, you are correct, but if you want to sell it to masses like us, it needs to be a part of our life. Like this story, it started with a demand for this latest fashion trend in the eCommerce industry that is being promoted heavily by the so-called social media influencers.

Problem is the best Demand

Once the demand is created, the burden falls down to selling it. The best way that marketers all around the world have come up with is, ‘Don’t sell the product, but sell the problems and present them the solution.’ That is what every company around us try to do, right?

This is when the solution is presented to us in the form of a product. Though you may or may not know about the whole existence of the product until it reaches you through other third-party means, the product is already old and picking up the pace. Word-of-mouth publicity is their weapon for it.

Psychologically, it also means that the product is good and can be entrusted by many newly potential turned clients with their money.

The 3rd-Party Means!

This is the tricky part, and this is where my chain of thoughts stopped to refill the coal on this the thought train was running on. At this point, the product is actually introduced to the customer with a solution. May that be through anyway. Usually, the need for the product is created, like the prominent Britishers and Middle Eastern population created tea and the way Americans commercialised, having coffee in the morning.

This often comes in a scripted way, and that is why most copywriters are some of the financially stabilised writers in the writing industry. When they say that words have power, well, it’s true, they do, and they help in building the consumer psychology online shopping.

Though this does not work in emotional buying or meeting the customers’ essential needs, a concept like an impulse buying does wonders.

From the copy that you read or hear, the entire plan this journal is being ranted about is set in motion. The eCommerce website researchers actually live your life. If you ask me, they would know the time you eat your food to your work’s login time.

Having said that, the Demand is created and introduced to the customer as a problem. The silent psychology that plays in the background is this product turning into a luxury to want. This act is thoroughly practised by the third parties who bring the product in front of your eyes and force your spine rather than your brain to tap the screen or click the mouse buttons to buy it.

It’s All About Timing

I saw this picture of an amazing dress that was Instagram trending, and everywhere I saw it was just fed to my mind to buy it. Someone on my friend list was showing the dress off, while someone with a huge following list was making money through it. When a well-placed came across my feed after 2 hours of Google research on the quality that it was providing, and after checking out how the dress looked on me through some AI applications, my subconscious mind was sure to buy the dress, all it required was some push that would make me go to the shopping application and place my order.

That’s when a well-placed ad sneaked into my notification panel, just like those creepy boys with the surname of King trying to win me thinking I’m literally their crown. The notification knew the colours I like, the time when it was high and used those power words that made me go ahead with that purchase. This notification triggered the feeling of Missing out, which clearly took me directly to the landing page and even gave me an offer that would make me click that CTA.

After placing the order and the text of money debited from my account appeared on my screen, I realised that I was the psychology that these online shopping eCommerce apps create to make you buy that product.

When people say that data is being stolen, it is not the personal images they want but the timing and the art of selling by hijacking your timeline and entering your inner circle. So, in short, it is all about the timing.

And I Ended up Buying that Dress…

Well, the thought process didn’t end here. I studied the psychology of online shopping and learnt how the data is used to make you clearly buy that product.

However, all this is worth it when the product you get is the one you are satisfied with.

Make everything count and take advantage of eCommerce shopping apps that make you buy that dress you saw online. However, the psychology is not that you have bought the dress. The psychology of shopping in this modern world is how they sold you that dress.