IN BRIEF: We all shop, often. We window shop more often. What are the impacts of shopping on our outlook of life? What is Retail Therapy? And does it work positively? These are the aspects we address in this post for your delectation.
Have you ever had a rough day, and then you went out and bought something which kind of lifted your mood, suddenly!
Shopping therapy, yes that’s what retail therapy is. According to a study, shopping can literally make you happy. Getting yourself something nice at the shops in your bad mood, evidently has a ‘positive impact on mood’.
Let us have a look on the research conducted by hundreds of interviewees at different shopping centers, who asked shoppers to jot down their shopping behaviour, moods and buys they regretted.The one’s with the bad mood on their way into the shop were more likely to indulge in an instinct buy.
A total of 62% said they had bought something to cheer themselves up while 28% said they had indulged as a form of celebration.
Calling it “therapy” to describe the effects of shopping wouldn’t be fair because the stuffs bought are later regretted. Focusing on the pros of retail therapy many researches are found it to be beneficial. Benefits of retail therapy are as follows:
Helps to ease transitions
Shopping can be an affluent source of mental preparation. As people shop, they candidly visualise how they’ll use the products (they’re) considering, whilst visualising their new life. We go shopping and visualise the future as a means of gestation for these big transitions.These activities help people feel they have more control which makes them less anxious about the unknowns lying ahead.
And as many great athletes will manifest, visualisation is a performance booster and anxiety reducer. Be it a dorm equipment shopping with your teenager or special outfit shopping to wear on a vacation, the act of browsing and purchasing can help us predict, imagine, and mentally prepare.
Social Connection
Its an age old story that people go to the marketplace to connect with other people. Finally humans are social animals. Especially young people, they meet friends and compare notes about their tastes.
Talking about the antidote to emotional distress, it’s human connection. We’re a breed that’s allured to be with others we love socialising be it over dinner, at home, or at the mall, it’s therapeutic.
The Pleasure Boost of Creativity and Aesthetics
If you ask me why I just bought a top when I already have 10 of it. My response will the about the colour the design the work and the latest trend that the new top will add to my wardrobe.
Its just not another top its another piece of attractive clothing. Some think that retaining a luxury item is about status, but for many like me it’s more of a deep gratitude of craftsmanship and design that rejuvenates the senses.
Improves Child’s Development
According to a study, shopping helps in improving child’s development. As stated by, Oxford University, shopping has proven to be another way to boost social and motor skills.
Shopping may be beneficial because it counts in changes of scenery from shop to shop, which cultivates the child’s motor and social skills more than a sedentary activity. Conferred by two lead researchers, Professor Paul Anand and Dr. Laurence Roope, the more retail therapy infants were revealed to, the happier they were. Their everyday skills showed signs of rectification, too.
Dressing for Success
When I moved from my small hometown to my new college for perusing my academics, I went my way out shopping for new clothes as everyone looked better than me. I had to get some new stuff. I know judging should be done just by my work, but I really felt so much better and confident when I’d come in with a stupendous outfit.
It’s dollars to doughnuts wrong that I wasn’t dauntless without getting new clothes, but it was true, and it still is something I think is important. Turns out that dressing appropriately increases our confidence and help us perform better.
