New kind of shopper

Manila Standard Today, Lifestyle | December 30, 2011

There are many kinds of shoppers in the traditional and broad sense—the ones with brand loyalty, those who wait for sales and discounts, impulsive ones, those who purchase based on need and window-shoppers, couponers, hoarders, stockpilers, the list goes on. Of course, a person can be any one of the above or a hybrid of two or more kinds. But because of the not-so-healthy state of the economy of recent years and the rise of new shopping trends, there is a new kind of shopper in our midst.

Introducing the social discounter, which is technically part of the discount customer category, but more hardcore. The main driver of the discount hoarder is online group buying. This kind of shopper is a member of almost all social shopping Web sites and receives daily email updates of the newest products and services that come with markdowns.

The social discounter is a lethal combination of the discount, impulsive and window-shopping customer and makes purchase decisions based on want, rather than need and justifies the purchase by focusing on how much they’re potentially saving, which is a sign that they do want to get the best value for money. They may get a diamond peel even if they don’t need it or may buy a buffet for 10 without considering if they can actually use the voucher—just because of the 60 percent off.

They’re not necessarily shopaholics because they almost exclusively only indulge in social shopping and group buying. But they’re easily influenced and enticed by unbelievably huge discounts. And they’re your resident expert on anything and everything about the subject. The level of being a social discounter varies by individual—some can be casual participants of the activity and others can be obsessive to the point of maxed out credit cards solely for online purchases.

There’s definitely nothing wrong with being a social discounter. But it can be habit-forming and maybe even addictive. So exercise moderation.