Top retailers and e-commerce moguls announce their alluring big discount sales well in advance before the festive season. Be it Amazon’s Big Indian Festival sale or Flipkart’s Big Billion sale or Myntra’s FashionOtsav sale – they’re all ready and they’re reaching out for your pockets!
Despite skyrocketing fuel prices, despite the downfall of currency – something turns in us around the festival season and our spending patterns change drastically.
The general feeling of gaiety and the need to break the monotony of the year by means of CELEBRATION is one of the reasons we spend big around festivals. Sometimes, it’s the nudge we get by looking at our friends, family and neighbours shopping for new things – everyone’s doing it, why can’t we? Our basic human need to reinvent also drives us – be it our wardrobes, our homes or our gadgets – but the biggest tool that drives sales during holiday or festive season is the heavy discount that’s offered to us during this time.
Although, festive season sales could be a great way to save money but more often than not, we end up derailing our budget. What follows next are feelings of withdrawal from the festival season ending and a bank balance that tends to deepen our post-festival melancholia further.
Well, not anymore!
We’ve come up with a go to protocol for you to keep your spending in check, this festival season:-
1. Tempting discounts? – Don’t fall for them
Here are two basic technicalities to keep in mind when you see a discount sign outside a store – the concept of ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘information asymmetry’ Caveat Emptor is latin for ‘let the buyer beware’ – mostly hinting at the fact that the buyer always has less information about a product than the seller and it is in all cases the buyers responsibility to find out more. Beware that the prices are always inflated during discount season to cover profits – the world famous pricing strategy of Rs.99 – Rs.199 – Rs. 599 and so on. There is in-fact a whole science behind this strategy known as Bata Pricing – well, spending Rs. 1999 on something simply looks better than spending Rs.2000 – it’s psychology 101
2. The importance of shopping lists
Brainstorming isn’t a mere glamorous aesthetic – make sure you sit down with your family/roommates to make a list of things you really need. Don’t fall for attractive advertising tactics and let the creativity of an adman distract you from your list. Make a checklist and stick to it!
3. From Mega Sales to EMIs – mindless consumerism is everywhere
Say you’ve worked hard all your life and finally are in the ideal position of ‘not looking at the price tag before you buy’ – and the availability of handsome deals and easy credit make it automatically more alluring to shop more.
Don’t let the thrill of winning (the best deals) get in the way of your being a responsible consumer. Buy what you need instead of having hoards of unused items taking space in your home. Better for the environment too!
Just think about it. By making sure your budgets are intact and you haven’t over spent. You will
have a mind stress-free, leaving room for the real enjoyment that festivals could bring.
We wish you a great festive season!
