You should feel happy after shopping... in everyway!

Shopping is absolute indulgence in many cases and sheer necessity at times. It’s a kind of activity that falls under both ‘leisure & responsibility’. Whether your kids want new school bags, your kitchen needs some add-ons like micro-wave for speedy work or you need a winter dress good enough to protect you from cold – in all these cases it appears to be a necessary act to go out and spend some real good amount to buy these items.

But when you are shopping to buy a gift or get something for yourself, it’s a kind of treat. The term for it is Retail Therapy! It intends to make consumers feel good out of their shopping experience. A study points out that shopping activates key areas of the brain, boosting your mood and making you feel better – but unfortunately, only for a time being. Many cases have been there when after shopping, regret creeps into your mind, making you feel depressed instead of being cheerful for the things purchased. A normal middle class person complains of feeling guilty after he/she had splurged some amount on items which they later realized were not ‘necessary enough’.

One such case comes from the online world – Mrs. XYZ says that, “With all these websites for shopping online, I’m literally 'window' shopping everyday for clothes. My problem is, I have a habit of saving money and never spending it...which is both good and bad because I always add stuff to the shopping cart but don’t actually buy them until later (most of the time they go out of stock)...when I buy too much I feel guilty.”

So what is the solution to all of this?  

Shopping should ultimately make you feel happy and content. It should fulfill your desires for indulgence, necessity and also having a really good time, getting to know about new arrivals. You often come across things which you’ve never encountered before in the market, and thus you tend to buy it out of curiosity and excitement. Instead, analyze your lifestyle and ask yourself these quintessential questions:

1 – Is this item of some value to my life?

2 – Will it improve my living style or help me in any way?

3 – Is the cost worth it or am I getting carried away due to the decorations and 

      feel-good environment around?

4 – What will it make me feel once I have reached back home along with this ‘item’?

Once you’ve studied the answers in your mind, you know what you should do with ‘it’. Avoid remorse and lower your risk of overspending. Just be happy after shopping in every way!

Shopping by instinct?? Harmful or Useful?

The study reveals that most of us shop at a time when it's not planned at all. For example, you are out to meet a friend and you plan out for shopping at the near by mall; or you have headed to the market to purchase something very specific, and it somehow turns out into a shopping night with so many bags lingering on to your shoulders. Reason whatsoever, the result is unexpected or unplanned expenditure.

Many households are of the opinion that they tend to buy better items at more profitable deals at times when they've actually not planned the trip. Once planned they either forget certain necessary items or tend to stick to only pre-planned products, even if their price is above the normal rates.

But many others say that, the visual appeal and the desire to own a specific product displayed intelligently on a store adds to the instinct to buy it and have it for no reason. This leads to unwanted expenditure, which they later regret heavily, once back to home.

No matter, which column you fall into, but instinct shopping (shopping just because you felt so - for any reason), is a major factor which the shoppers lean onto to get their sales up. Meanwhile, online shoppers tend to provide you better deals and offers where you don't see the product (only to get lured), instead prepare a list and log in just when you want to shop, just what you want.

Make your choice, but be careful before making any decision based on pure instincts. Happy Shopping!!! :)