Marketing Professor Anthony Miyazaki shares his advice for cutting through the commercial noise and making the best gift choices
By Gisela Valencia
It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year. It’s also one of the busiest shopping seasons.
Many of us are trying to figure out what to get our loved ones — and how to get it on sale. If you’re anxiously looking at your shopping cart (online or physical), you may be thinking there’s no way to cut costs this holiday season.
But Marketing Professor Anthony Miyazaki says there are a few steps we can take to avoid impulse buying and shop smarter, better and cheaper.
To help us get through the gift-giving frenzy, he sat down with FIU News and shared 5 of his top shopping rules.
1. Create a plan. Know what you need.
It might seem obvious, but it’s important. We need to make a list of the gifts we plan to give, and we need to create a budget. Basically, we need to decide what we need, how much we’re willing to spend and where we plan to go to buy the items.
“You need to know what you want to buy,” Miyazaki says. “The worst tactic for time-bound shopping is to walk into a store looking for deals.”
Advertisements and special promotions might confuse you into believing you should gift a particular item even if it wasn’t your initial gift option.
“You are likely to miss out on the real best deals and, even worse, will overspend on items you didn’t really want.”
Another factor: the holiday rush. He explains that when our shopping has a hard deadline such as Christmas Day, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, we are more likely to feel that we have to grab whatever items we see quickly before other people take it. It’s a perceived (and sometimes, real) sense of scarcity of gift options. The time crunch impacts our decision-making process.
Impulse buying also affects our decision-making abilities. How can we curb the shopaholic in us?
“You have to identify your emotional triggers,” Miyazaki says. “Do you tend to make purchases when you are hungry, stressed, or in a rush? The more you can try to think about what types of things will trigger you, the better you can try to avoid those emotional triggers, and go shopping when you are in a clearer frame of mind.”
The best solution? Be prepared with your gift ideas, stick to your plan and shop early.
Plus, do your homework: compare prices across retailers and research sales, coupons and discounts so you’ll be prepared.
2. Weigh the pros and cons of online vs. in-store shopping.
“Life’s a tradeoff and so is shopping,” Miyazaki says.
With online shopping, you’ve got the store at your fingertips, he says. It’s convenient, quick and you can scan various websites for the best deal, all within minutes. But you can’t try on clothing, and you can’t look at items up-close.
You also have to worry about shipping costs — and shipping dates. If you order online, make sure your gift will arrive by Christmas or whichever day you need it. “An I-owe-you under the tree is not going to be meaningful,” Miyazaki advises. “So, make sure you look at shipping times.”
If you enjoy the shopping experience and want to browse in-store, then going in-person is the route for you. Also, if you realize you really want to buy something, and it won’t arrive in time through an online retailer or it’s only available in-person, then you’ll want to head to the store.
Miyazaki adds that retailers want consumers to shop in-person. Once we’re in a store, we tend to look around and drop some extra items into our carts. It leads to better sales for businesses. So, stores may offer some special in-store deals to get us to the brick-and-mortar location. That can work to our advantage if there’s a particular sale that will make the gift you’re looking for a better deal.
If you don’t like the big crowds, you’ll have to decide whether the gift you want to buy is worth the effort. As we near Christmas, stores will get even more crowded. Go early if you need to.
3. Understand the return policies before making purchases.
If you don’t understand the return policy or if you are uncertain about buying a gift, Miyazaki says, “you might be better off skipping it.” Return policies can be complex, especially for electronics. You need to know if you’ll have to pay a restocking fee or if there’s a 30-day return or final sales or exclusions to return items.
He also says to be cautious of pop-up stores or mall kiosks that are seasonal and may close right after the holidays. If the seller is no longer active, there will be no way to return a product.
4. Watch out for scams, especially online.
Before you click the “buy” button, research the seller. If you find a deal that’s too good to be true, then it’s probably a scam.
One way to protect yourself is to check the website's security. “You need to look at the URL address," he says. "The address has to have an ‘s’ at the end of ‘https.’ If not, it’s not secure and you shouldn’t purchase the item.”
If the website seems secure, but you don’t know much about the retailer, Miyazaki suggests using PayPal, prepaid cards or a credit card — not a debit card.
The bottom line: “Stick to buying from reputable retailers,” Miyazaki says. “It’s always the best idea.”
“Credit card scam is at an all-time high during the holiday season,” he adds. “It’s important to continue to check your credit card bank statements. Fraud occurs out there. Because people are shopping so much, they are less likely to see or notice an unauthorized charge. Be vigilant.”
Miyazaki also suggest remaining alert with our emails, too. “Phishing scams and emails often have a higher success rate during the holidays because we’re shopping more and at different places. If you get an email that seems to be from a popular retailer, and you remember, ‘Well, I did shop there the other day, and now they’re saying there’s something wrong with my order,' you might be more likely to click.”
Keep cybersecurity protocol: never click the link in a suspicious email and do not provide information. If you think it may be a real email, go to the company’s website that you’ve bookmarked in your favorites (not from a link or the URL address listed on the email), and then you can check your account or call the company's customer service number.
5. Remember that gift-giving is about showing someone you care.
Miyazaki's greatest shopping advice: “Whatever you’re buying is probably not going to bring you as much joy as spending time with your family or friends."
“I’m a marketer, I should be saying, ‘buy, buy, buy.’ But, I’m a marketer who cares about consumers," Miyazaki says. "It’s hard to get over the commercialization of all these things. But the truth is that creating a good, happy environment around the entire gift-giving season and process is more important than all the gifts. If a family has a bunch of gifts under the tree but everyone is upset because of a disagreement, then they’re not going to feel joy.”
He encourages parents to give their kids a little money to go with their older siblings or another family member to buy gifts for their parents and loved ones. “Bringing in the little kids into the gift-giving makes a real difference. They want to give, too.”
“Everything should be joyful. It’s about giving and receiving. That's the gift-giving experience. Wrapping presents and spending time to do holiday activities and give gifts is beautiful. It’s about the relationships. We give gifts because we want to make the other person happy. We're showing not that we spend a lot of money, but that we care.”
A father of four, Miyazaki says that when his children were young, they would wrap his gifts in white sheets of printer paper. They would color on the paper and decorate it. “That was more meaningful to me than anything," he says. "I'm keeping those wrapping papers for life because my kids made them personal with their artwork.”
That's the real magic of gift-giving. And it's something we should all keep in mind as we shop this holiday season.