Yesterday we discussed the main types of Buyers Remorse for online purchases so today we are going to dive into preventing it.

There’s no way to completely eliminate Buyers Remorse but there are tactics you can use to curve it.

The first step is to figure out if the majority of Buyers Remorse your buyers are experiencing is due to Expensive Purchases or Impulse Buys. If you’re not sure which one is the key factor, read about The Different Types of Online Buyers Remorse.

Preventing Expensive Purchase Buyers Remorse

There’s only a couple things you can do to help prevent Buyers Remorse that comes from larger ticket items.

Listing Details, Details, Details. If you read yesterdays blog post you already know that buyers feel self-regret for spending a high amount of money so they must increase their expectations for the item. This means, as a seller, you need them to clearly know what they are getting, not just the color and size. Consider adding additional details, such as:

What material is it made out of? If the item is a cabinet, is it real wood or is it cheaper wood that looks like real wood? I once bought a buffet cabinet off Amazon. It was listed as Wood. It looks like wood but it’s actually a wood laminate applied to a particle board type material. So basically I paid a lot of money for a cabinet that LOOKS expensive but isn’t great quality… which would have been fine, but the problem is I was looking for a real wood buffet for my 5 foot fish tank to go on.

• Is the hardware plastic? Metal?
• Is the logo engraved? Embossed? Printed?
• Is there double stitching?
• Is the bottom reinforced?
• Is it lined? If so, what material is the lining?

Describe the color by providing very specific details. You can even find the exact color using a color chart. Instead of saying “Yellow Purse”, say “Bright, Bold, Sunflower Yellow”. The reason this is important is because you are looking at the actual item whereas a buyer is looking at a screen. Depending on their screen settings the yellow bag may look like a mustard-color or it may look light yellow. Letting them know it’s a bright, bold yellow will eliminate buyers remorse if they were expecting a pastel bag.

Preventing Impulse Buyers Remorse

The reality is that companies WANT impulse buys. In fact, companies pay fortunes to marketing teams to generate impulse buys. Think about it, you go to a website and “Today Only, BOGO!” with a countdown clock or you add something to your Cart and you see a message “You’re only $9 away from Free Shipping!” or after a couple glasses of wine you see the Amazon non-stick frying pan and it’s only $9.99, while supplies last and selling quickly… Suddenly you NEED a new pan and you rush before someone else buys it. #FOMO, #ImpulseBuy.

As you can see, Impulse Buys make the internet go round BUT also leads to the buyer feeling ashamed for buying yet another frying pan or spending the extra $9 on something just to get the free shipping. And when the buyer feels upset with themselves they don’t want to accept self-blame so they resort to convincing themselves the item is “junk”. - If you look at the impulse buy items on Amazon you will see 5-star reviews as well as a bunch of negatives, all complaining the $5 item is “cheap”... it’s pretty easy to tell which reviewers bought on Impulse.

The only thing you can do to eliminate Impulse Buy Buyers Remorse is to offer a simplistic return policy. This way, if the buyer is truly miserable with the $5 tank top they can send it back.

Next Read:  Insane Online Purchase RETURN Statistics (seriously, it will blow your mind!)