Latest news with #JasonPallant
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Business
- The Guardian
A good deal or a good deal of waste? How to be more conscious about your consumption during sales periods
Whether the discount is offered on social media, via email or in a banner on your favourite website, if a business you've ever been a patron of is having a sale you can be sure they'll find a way to tell you. 'Temporary sales events are aimed at leveraging FOMO,' says Jason Pallant, a senior lecturer in marketing at RMIT University. 'The idea is to make consumers feel like they will miss out on a great bargain if they don't buy something right away.' While it can feel good to click 'buy now' in the moment, ending up with piles of barely used impulse purchases leads to a particular kind of shame, regret (and clutter). With the end-of-financial-year sales period upon us, here are some strategies to ensure you are being conscious about your on-sale consumption. Believe it or not, our brains are wired to encourage us to buy things at a reduced price, especially when there is a sense of urgency – ie during sales and promotions. Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, a professor of consumer psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, says this is because of three things. 'When we see a price tag that we perceive as a good deal, the part of our brains that deals with pleasure is activated,' she says. Then, when we make a purchase, we get a dopamine hit that makes us feel good and, finally, when there is a time limit on the availability of the discounted price, it triggers heightened adrenaline. This combination means sales shopping can make people 'feel giddy with excitement'. Being aware of this dynamic and recognising it when temptation arises is the first step to exercising self-control and resisting the urge to make an impulse purchase. The second step is to take 'a calm pause between looking at an item and purchasing', says Dr Kate Luckins, the author of Live More With Less. This should help to 'counter the frenzy of the sale'. If you're shopping in store, one way to do this is by holding on to the item while you continue browsing and delay heading to the checkout. Or, if you're shopping online, stand up and walk away from your computer or put down your phone and do something else to see if the shine of the product wears off. Alternatively, sleep on it. 'In that pause, you will either obsess over the item you're considering, or you will move on and forget about it,' Luckins says. So as not to miss out on the savings promotional periods offer, Stephanie Atto from Australian Consumer and Retail Studies recommends keeping a list of products you are looking to buy and sticking to the list during sales periods. 'To resist sales pressures, consumers should focus on being informed and assertive,' she says. 'Be prepared by understanding your needs, doing your research and setting a budget.' The popularity of this strategy is borne out by data. Pallant says the increased frequency of sales periods has trained consumers to wait to make purchases. 'A recent shopper survey from Mailchimp suggests 76% of consumers use these events to buy products they were planning to buy anyway.' Although it might feel like being increasingly online gives retailers an advantage, Pallant suggests inverting this dynamic by keeping track of what you want to buy, what a good price is and gathering your own data. 'Do your research about how often these brands or products go on sale and what a good discount really is,' he says. 'There are so many sales events now that if you miss out on one, you might only have to wait a couple of weeks for another.' Given the frequency of email and social media marketing, you can do yourself a favour ahead of time by 'setting tech limits', Atto says. This can be as simple as running through your inbox and unsubscribing from brands and retailers that always seem to be communicating promotions, or unfollowing social media accounts that do the same. As the designer and poet William Morris said: 'Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.' Regardless of how much your dopamine-hungry brain is calculating you will save with the purchase of an item, once you've bought it, it's yours – so it's worth assessing whether it is a good investment. Try exercising some reverse Marie Kondo (the decluttering expert) and ask before the purchase: Does this item truly bring me joy? In six months, when I am cleaning out my cupboards, is its quality so good that I will still be proud to own it? The flip side of this is that shopping on sale can be an opportunity to buy something of beautiful quality or craftsmanship that might normally be out of your budget. 'Buying one piece or product we love rather than a bunch we kind of like at a discount is much more satisfying in the long term,' Luckins says. If you're having trouble using the form, click here. Read terms of service here.
Techday NZ
16-06-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Experts reveal how AI Agents impact retail, shopping and customer loyalty
AI agents are poised to become part of everyday life. Google's Gemini helps plan your week, while OpenAI's voice assistants manage tasks through natural conversation. A wave of startups and innovators are already building AI agent solutions for specific business needs using foundation models from leading providers. Previously limited to their own data, these models now incorporate additional information and capabilities through special APIs and developments like Model Context Protocol (MCP), creating reliable connections to external sources. AI agents are here, what does it mean for loyalty? The marriage of AI and retail loyalty makes a lot of sense. Eagle Eye, for example, already has a powerful AI-driven personalisation engine and other predictive systems, which thrive on ingesting and processing data intelligently. In addition to being able to ask questions, AI agent helpers can make decisions, compare prices and steer people to where to shop. This stands to change how retailers reach customers. Four ways AI agents will reshape loyalty: 1. The rise of the personal loyalty concierge: Most loyalty programs today require customer effort; browsing offers, tracking points, redeeming rewards. AI agents reverse this dynamic. Acting as personal concierges, they understand your preferences, track rewards across programs, and proactively suggest ways to maximise benefits while shopping. 2. Mass-market offers become financially unsustainable: Blanket promotions available to all customers will become even less viable in an agent-driven marketplace. AI agents are built to optimise for value, identifying and exploiting the most generous public offers. This cherry-picking erodes margins and will render mass offers increasingly unprofitable. 3. A new era of offer optimisation: AI agents necessitate a step-change in how offers are structured and delivered. Offers must be real-time, personalised, and API-accessible for easy evaluation by AI assistants. Loyalty programs will need to evolve to support dynamic offer issuance, individual targeting, and instant redemption. 4. Trust and transparency become the currency: As AI agents mediate interactions, retailers won't just sell to customers, they'll negotiate with algorithms. Simplicity and genuine value will be rewarded, while complexity and trickery will be filtered out. Clear, fair loyalty programs will build the trust needed for this new landscape. AI Agents: Opportunities and challenges Dr Jason Pallant, Senior Lecturer of Marketing at RMIT, says he is intrigued by AI agents because of how they may empower consumers to tailor their shopping experience, as well as how brands will leverage this further with loyalty. "We know consumers now want, and even expect, tech and AI to help them navigate purchase decisions, particularly complex ones," he says. "AI agents could be a really effective way to do that, helping consumers leverage AI insights without needing prompting skills. The opportunity for brands that get it right could be highly personalised and engaging shopping assistants delivered at scale. That's the promise and potential at least." Pallant also notes however that brands will need to rethink how they interact with customers vs with agents to ensure both are nurtured correctly. "Consumers still desire human interaction, particularly for complex purchases, and this actually increases the more technology advances," he says. "Just look at complaints around chatbots that lock consumers in and won't let them talk to humans. More 'intelligent' agents might simulate that human interaction better but there's still a level of technology in the middle. "That interaction can also create a 'black box' effect, particularly with agents, where it's not always clear to consumers where an answer has come from or why. Brands need to make sure they stay transparent throughout the process to maintain consumer trust." As with all technologies there can be upsides and downsides, which need to be navigated by brands to ensure they are maximising the good and not forgetting their customers. "While AI agents might increase engagement and personalisation at scale, they risk losing the human element and competitive advantage of the brand if not used strategically," Pallant says. Digital connections and [reparing for change In the retail loyalty space, these connections will require a backend that can process loyalty transactions in real-time, deliver personalised offers at moments of decision, communicate seamlessly with AI systems through standardised protocols, and adapt rapidly as agent capabilities expand. Remember, getting into a good position on AI isn't just about money. In the case of agentic AI, retailers will succeed if they understand how agents evaluate and present options to consumers, remember that behind the agents are humans who both demand efficiency and occasional acknowledgement, and design their loyalty experiences accordingly.
