Revenge Shopping: An Emergent Behavior
Recently, L’Oreal announced its annual results of 2021 where it reported the highest sales growth in 33 years. What is the reason behind this hike even after experiencing a massive pandemic? This sort of phenomenon of excessive spending has been acknowledged as revenge shopping behavior.
Anytime a person does something
there is a force within him or her which drives him or her to end up doing
something or even nothing sometimes.
The revenge shopping behavior is a
kind of syndrome recognized after the perpetual changes in the purchasing
patterns, especially after the eviction of lockdown; lasted roughly 2-years
because of the pandemic across the globe.
Such an elongated pandemic led to
the emergence of every possible negative emotion an individual could possibly
have. The frustration, sadness, anxiety, depression, anger, and even boredom;
are revealed through excessive spending on anything either through purchasing
items or avail of services.
Purchasing pattern- Pre, During, and Post-Covid
During pre-Covid time the
consumption behavior was normal. But
during the time of pandemic when everything was shut; there was a huge upside
down in the economy, many lost their jobs and were mostly left with no choice
but to be limited to their necessities.
Afterward, the expulsion of
lockdown; the public suppressed with every kind of emotion, set out with a
whole different phenomenon of the behavior of consumption. The spending on
luxurious items was enhanced vastly. The primary purpose is to compensate for
the time they all had lost and spend doing nothing but to stay quarantined.
Concerning Brands and Data
L’Oreal’s revenues from brands,
divisions, and geographies experienced a significant growth in 2021, as
compared to 2020 and 2019. Its skincare division contributed 40% of turnover
and witnessed 28% growth (taking 2019 as the base year), while its Luxury
products division, L’Oreal Luxe saw an increase of 18%, with the luxury
skincare market experiencing an increase of 14% worldwide. All these trends can
be attributed to the Revenge buying behavior of customers around the globe that
is stimulated by the brand’s own strategies, such as live stream shopping,
offering incentives to visit the store and D2C e-commerce.
Feasibility in the Indian Context
India has huge income disparities
among all classes, so it’s difficult to say whether revenge shopping behavior
can be experienced here, like other nations, or not. Indians have different
spending and saving behaviors, where poor and lower-middle-income class spend
their majority of income on necessities, which makes their spending power weak
and the situation can be seen aggravated because of pandemic and lockdown
impacting their income. However, one can experience this behavior among
upper-middle and high-income class but, their population is low as compared to
lower-income classes, so leveraging statistics and insights through such a
small sample size and generalizing them on a whole nation like India might be
considered as flawed.
Conclusion:
Likewise, there are several other
brands like, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, and Tesla confronted the similar
advancement in their sales as they might never have seen before. And not only
the luxurious brands but the retailer market is also experiencing the same. The
longevity of this behavior is uncertain but, surely it has provided a boost to
the market and to the economies somehow.
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