6 Lessons to Make You Smarter on Black Friday

Plus: Why science says it’s actually okay to splurge

As consumers we are irrational, plain and simple. But it’s not our fault. Retailers are engaged in one part economics and one part psychology to sell, sell, sell. In other words, they do everything in their power to make us buy.

“Smart shopping” is pretty tough in this type of environment.

Exhibit A: Black Friday, a holiday created to get retailers out of the red and into the black. A holiday where retailers put their best foot forward to sway us to swipe our cards and leave rationality behind. Their biggest weapon of choice? Behavioral economics.

All too often, we go from ‘just looking’ to ‘just charge it to my card.’ Social science can tell us why. We rationalize our purchases based on feelings rather than math, and favor superficial cues over a more comprehensive analysis. Once the impulse to buy hits, we stop thinking, analyzing, and reasoning, and start buying into the madness that is Black Friday. And retailers know that all too well.

That shiny new TV you’re eyeing? Well, when you walk into the store come Black Friday, it’ll probably be around “70% off” at the appealing price of $129.99. Awesome right? Well… think about it for a second. 70% off of what, exactly? Does $433.30 sound like a real price a retailer would offer? Now, you have to ask yourself if that TV was ever meant to sell for that amount in the first place.

Moreover original price tag, ask yourself this: in your mind, do you view this as saving 70% or spending $129.99?

“When we see a sale, we shouldn’t consider what the price used to be or how much we’re spending. Rather we should consider what we’re actually going to spend. Buying a $60 shirt marked down from $100 isn’t ‘saving $40.’ It is spending $60.” (The Atlantic)

While “smart shopping” may be for the unicorns among us who can see though ‘exclusive,’ ‘limited time’, ‘special offers,’ smarter shopping is relatively attainable for the average buyer.

It’s not that Black Friday is the devil — it’s a pretty awesome opportunity to get goodies at an unbeatable price, as long as you do it the right way. Here are some science-backed tips to help you outsmart your irrational self — and retailers — on Black Friday.

1. Want a big ticket item on sale? Get it! But don’t grab anything else on your way to checkout.

Picture this: you see a killer discount for laptops at Best Buy. You decide to get one — you’ve been needing a new one anyway. But leaving the store, you spontaneously place a few more tempting items into your cart: a computer case, an extra charger, and some cool new earbuds.

That laptop is called the “doorbuster” — behavioral economics-speak for something priced extremely low in order to get you in the door in the first place. Its sole purpose is to set you up to buy more stuff while you’re in the store. And it’s kinda hard not to.

There are variety of psychological factors at play here.

First off, according to consumer psychologist Lisa Nemeth Cavanagh, retailers often play slow tempo music to compel you to spend more time browsing.

Here’s another one: according to experts in “retail ergonomics” (yes, that’s a thing), retailers strategically design their floor plans to motivate customers to purchase and spend more. How? They place high-margin items at eye-level to the customers’ right, and lead them on a counterclockwise journey through the store to reach the cash register. (The Atlantic)

Think about when you walk into a Bed Bath and Beyond or Whole Foods Market. You enter through a door on the right side of the building. In order to get to the register, you have to walk all the way around the perimeter of the store or walk in and cut through isles of premium stuff to get to the register.

So how do you deal? According to Lemonade Chief Behavioral Officer Dan Ariely, being aware of our irrationalities is the first way to combat these influences. So grab the discounted laptop, stay strong, and make it to check out without adding anything to your cart.

2. Keep your willpower energized to avoid “decision fatigue”

It’s scientifically proven that making multiple decisions, one after another, depletes good judgement and leads to simplified decision-making.

At the beginning of a shopping trip, your critical thinking is fueled and ready to go. When you begin making decisions, you start thinking about how much an item costs versus how much you have in your bank account, how often you’ll use it, how many years until you’ll need to replace it, and if there’s another store that may offer a better price. You may be thinking: “It’s 50% off, but it’s still a lot of money and I don’t think I’ll get a whole lot of use out of it, and oh, it may be less expensive at the other department store.”

At the end of the day, after many purchases and three times as many decisions, you’re mentally drained. Chances are, after a while, you’ll start going for an easier deduction such as, “it’s 50%, which is a good deal… I should get it.”

This effect, called decision fatigue, was coined by Roy F. Baumeister. He conducted a study, and found that shoppers who made more purchasing decisions throughout the day gave up the quickest when asked to solve simple arithmetic problems. (The New York Times Magazine)

What does that teach us? Well, when you shop till you drop, your willpower drops, too.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a business major or physicist — if your willpower is depleted, it’s harder for you to make complex decisions. Funny enough — Baumeister’s team suggested a nice, refreshing glass of lemonade to get you back to your savvy self. Electrolytes and glucose actually increase willpower. Anther good tactic is to make a list of what you want to buy before you shop, so your decision making is already done!

3. “Free” is great, except for when it makes you spend more than you wanted

Let’s be real. We love FREE! Free is awesome. But what isn’t so awesome is when retailers use ‘free’ to get us to buy something that we may not want (or need). That sucks.

Something strange happens in our brain when shipping costs go from $1.99 to free. We stop thinking clearly and start going out of our way to get it. We’re the first to admit that we’ve bought that extra shirt or pair of socks simply to get free shipping on an order.

There’s a scientific explanation for this type of consumer behavior. And retailers take full advantage of it on Black Friday.

Prof. Dan Ariely explains in his book Predictably Irrational:

“A few years ago, Amazon.com started offering free shipping of orders over a certain amount. Someone who purchased a single book for $16.95 might pay an additional $3.95 for shipping, for instance. But if the customer bought another book, for a total of $31.90, they would get their shipping FREE! Some of the purchasers probably didn’t want the second book (and I am talking here from personal experience) but the FREE! shipping was so tempting that to get it, they were willing to pay the cost of the extra book.”

Moral of the story? Don’t make extra purchase to satisfy your need for ‘free.’

Here’s a good rule of thumb: if you would’ve paid the same amount whether or not ‘free’ was offered, great. Skip it if A) the offer requires you to spend more than you planned or B) the deal is part of a ‘buy two get one free,’ ‘three for the price of one,’ etc. type of offer.

4. Don’t listen to your inner FOMO

“Limited time offer”

“Only 5 items left”

“Valid until the 31st”

“Preorder only”

“Maximum 1 per customer”

Do any of the above sound familiar? Well, they should. These are some of the top tactics that stores use to create that love-to-hate feeling of FOMO, or fear of missing out.

By limiting or restricting consumers’ ability to buy, businesses create an illusion of ‘scarcity,’ which makes us want it more. It’s the oldest trick in the book.

James Mourey, author of Urge, backs that up. He says presenting an item as scarce and a deal as limited — even if you know that you might be able to get that same item at a comparable price someplace else at a different time — gets shoppers thinking in an irrational way.

This is especially applicable to holidays characterized by mega discounts such as Black Friday — retailers will make you think what you’re getting is of greater value than what’s on the price tag.

5. What’s another $100 after you already spent $20? Another $100!

You walk into Anthropologie, but you’re just there to browse because you’re on a budget. But then you see a cool pillow that would go perfectly with your room, so you swipe your card. Ouch. Then you buy some shampoo at CVS and a cool gadget at Brookstone— but now, you don’t feel too bad about it.

What gives? Economists Daneil Kahneman and Amos Tversky explain that while people are initially loss averse — a.k.a they don’t like losing money — once they start losing money, this aversion fades. Why? The amount of pain we experience lessens with every additional dollar after our first purchase. [HuffPost]

So on Black Friday, after that doorbuster item we discussed above, the $8 phone case, $20 leggings, and $100 Fitbit won’t lead to the “pain of paying” which usually keeps us from buying every darn thing in the store the other 364 days of the year.

That’s why retailers pull out every trick in the book on Black Friday: instant rebates, one-time sign-up discounts, credit cards, and more.

6. Recognize that it’s actually okay to splurge and embrace your inner spender (but just for a day)

A couple has a tradition of going to a cheap restaurant every Tuesday. However, one Tuesday they decide to splurge. They go to an expensive restaurant, and order expensive food and wine. Can you guess what they did the following Tuesday? Spoiler: they went back to that cheap restaurant.

Dan Ariely explains while people who increase spending on a random day are more likely to increase their spending in the future, if they increase it on a “special day,” they’ll usually go back to their normal routine.

“If you do something in your natural habitat, it becomes part of your repertoire…if you do it separately, then it’s not me, it’s just Black Friday.” — Dan Ariely

What does this mean for our inner spender?

If you have the urge to splurge, make sure you tell yourself that it’s a special day, so afterwards you can return to your good ‘ole thrifty self.

Happy shopping!

P.S. It wouldn’t hurt to keep this handy on Cyber Monday ;)