Are you susceptible to marketing gimmicks?

I can never understand how people can buy fashion apparels online without the physical contact with the garments and fitting. There is no doubt that technological advancement has improved some areas of our lives to a certain extent but have you even noticed the many downsides to living in the digital age? For one, my eyesight has deteriorated drastically as I spend most of my waking hours fixated on monitors and screens-laptops, smartphones, tablets, LCD TV, etc… it is unprecedented that humans are exposed to blue light to the point of irreversible eye damage.

As we are all ‘busy’ people, shopping online seems to be a time-saver and a blessing especially before the festive seasons start and during the sales period. Unfortunately, thanks to the return policies offered to expedite successful e-commerce transactions, there are a lot of wrong purchases, regrets, and hence returns when the orders that arrive fail to match our expectations, the most obvious includes an ill-fitting size or hue which is far from what you see online. Have you any idea how much of our purchases are being returned and hence the financial and environmental costs involved in the entire process? The returns don’t go back to the retailers’ shelves but end up in landfills, a huge and ever-growing environmental burden which can no longer be ignored. The promise of the return policy encourages customers to buy and indulge without giving much thought or planning.

There are so many different marketing gimmicks used to entice customers to buy more, be it online or at a brick and mortar store. Pop-ups are a hit recently (to test the water and saving long term rental) and some retail shops have a strictly no fitting policy. To maximize the turnover of their stocks, some of the shops allow customers a grace period from 3 days to 4 weeks for return and exchange. As one of the victims who succumbed to the fast fashion mentality, I have made numerous trips back to the shops to exchange for something which turned out to be defected / plain wrong, and I had to spend hours rummaging the racks for something of similar price (if not more) which was not easy and ended up paying more (the price difference) for something I didn’t even want or need in the first place. How ironic is that?!

And there are retailers using tactics which are psychologically based to draw our attention in the vast sea of consumerism. Have you ever walked into a shop only because of the big bold sign that says: ‘Buy 1 less 10%, Buy 2 less 20%, etc…’, or ‘Buy 3 and get the 4^th free’? Why force yourself to pick out 3 items when all you need or want is one? Is the ‘freebie’ really free and worth the extra purchases? Sounds too good to be true right and you have already lost before the battle starts! Why would anyone want to be on a shop VIP list only after you have made a certain amount of purchases upfront to qualify for future discount of a meager 5%? Would the shop even exist in a month considering the skyrocketing amount of rent forever on the rise?

I have had an experience recently which I wish to share with my readers in closing. Having been a market enthusiast all my life, I found and bought a black slip dress of ideal length the other day for less than the price of a coffee until I handwashed it and the pigment started running so badly that it stained my hands! Imagine all the dye and chemical attached to your skin (if you end up wearing it) and the water pollution that entails from washing it in your machine…What I initially thought a bargain was money totally wasted; and now I have to find a way to get rid of the stain… 2