{"id":81666,"date":"2026-11-09T23:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T04:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hec.ca\/?p=81666"},"modified":"2026-11-10T12:09:26","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T17:09:26","slug":"why-do-we-buy-things-we-dont-need-digital-marketing-influences-our-buying-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digital.hec.ca\/en\/blog\/why-do-we-buy-things-we-dont-need-digital-marketing-influences-our-buying-decisions\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Buy Things We Don\u2019t Need? Digital Marketing Influences Our Buying Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have You Ever Spen an Extra $20 Just to Avoid Paying $5 for Shipping?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever gone online to buy one little thing and ended up with a shopping cart full of stuff you didn\u2019t actually intend to buy? I\u2019ve done that more than once. I remember going on Shein just looking for some hair ties and a comb. That was it really, just two things I needed. But as I was browsing, I kept coming across other things and started to add those in too. I ended up with a few more items in the cart and somehow I\u2019d ended up buying a bikini. By the time I\u2019d finished my order, it was absolutely nothing like what I\u2019d set out to buy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Figure 1: Consumer buying online<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, this made me think about how easily you can lose sight of what you actually wanted when you\u2019re shopping online. The same applies to promotions, particularly free shipping. You\u2019re buying a T-shirt for $35 and it turns out the shipping is $5. It\u2019s free if you spend $60 though. Rather than pay the $5 for delivery, you just buy another item for $25. You feel like you\u2019ve saved money, but you haven\u2019t actually. You\u2019ve spent $20 more than you would have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an evidence, Becerril-Arreola, Leng and Parlar (2013)<\/a> looked at the impact of free shipping on purchase behaviour. They used retailer data and a simulation model to look at the effect of delivery conditions on spending. In the data they had, the average order value was $58.61 without free shipping and $63.13 with free shipping (i.e. where orders of $75 or more were eligible for free delivery).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buying Decisions Are Influenced<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We all think we\u2019re sensible when we\u2019re out spending. We buy things because we need them or because we\u2019ve found a good price. But there are times when you see something on Instagram and you just want it, even if you weren\u2019t in any way looking for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is connected to impulse buying<\/em>, where you just feel the need to buy something at that very moment without having planned to. Online shopping makes this so much easier as you don\u2019t have to go into a shop and payment is just a few clicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another key factor is cognitive fluency<\/em>, which refers to how easily we process information. As discussed by Peep Laja in CXL<\/a>, the more easily we can understand information, the simpler a purchase decision may feel. A website that is easy to navigate will allow a customer to find what they\u2019re looking for and complete the purchase with minimal effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, emotions can also play a part in our decisions. D\u00edez Marcet et al. (2016) looked at the way shopping can at times provide a temporary emotional release for people who are suffering from compulsive buying. That\u2019s of course quite different from simply buying things on a whim, but it does serve to remind us that shopping isn\u2019t always about the utility of the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Does Free Shipping Feel Like Such a Good Deal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the psychological principles that may be at work here is loss aversion<\/em>. The notion is that losing something often feels worse than gaining the same amount feels good. Paying $5 for delivery may seem like you\u2019ve lost money, whereas you\u2019d be quite happy to spend more on another product as you\u2019re getting something in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also the framing effect<\/em>, which is all about how the way information is presented affects our decisions. A site which says \u201cShipping costs $5\u201d is going to have a very different impact from one which says \u201cYou\u2019re only $20 away from FREE shipping!\u201d They\u2019re both describing the exact same situation. It\u2019s just that the second one makes it feel like you\u2019re spending more in order to get a reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These strategies also affect two important digital marketing indicators:<\/p>\n\n\n\n