Many people check prices before buying and claim to avoid impulse buying. However, sometimes they are seduced, and some say that there is no discount that is too great.
Budapest, November 13, 2019 - A significant part of the Hungarian internet users has already purchased during a special offer period, a large part of them also takes advantage of discounts online – according to a survey conducted by Reacty Digital in partnership with Euronics, representative of internet users aged 25-59. With the research, Euronics also examined the experiences of key shopping periods (such as back to school, coupon days, Christmas, Easter, etc.) and Black Friday separately. The research revealed that Hungarians love promotions, but above a certain level, most of them think the discount is too big to be true.
Anyone who surfs the Internet knows what Black Friday is
Ninety percent of those who completed the questionnaire had already made a purchase in a special discount period, and 30 percent had purchased several times a year. Almost all the respondents (99 percent) know or have heard of Black Friday, and two-thirds have already shopped at least once as part of it. While making the decisions buyers are most affected (88 percent) by the degree of price reduction, but delivery costs (74 percent) and website transparency (69 percent) are also important.
One cannot ignore the fact that more than two-thirds (69 percent) of the population familiar with Black Friday said the shops were overcrowded towards the end of November, the crowd was huge, while 41 percent were convinced that most of the discounts at such times were scams. In 2019 Euronics launched the "Black Friday = Fair Friday" campaign, in the framework of which, as usual, it offers real discounts in its communication this year, as well as giving customers more time to buy selected products, while encouraging them to use price comparison sites to base their decision.
We typically spend between 15 and 30 thousand forints in special sales periods, over 40 thousand forints men are overrepresented (62 percent) against women (38 percent). According to their own admission 59 percent of shoppers use price comparison sites regularly before making a high-value purchase, 7 percent prefer to compare offers from individual stores, and 5 percent buy again at a store they think is reliable based on their previous shopping experience.
What motivates Hungarians to shop?
At least six out of ten people (66 percent) buy a discounted product because they consider it a good offer, and there are roughly as many (61 percent) who specifically need a certain product but wait until it becomes availabe on sale. It is an interesting fact that 7 percent of Hungarian internet users decide on the given product only for the shopping experience, while 5 percent of the respondents said that they shopped during the discount period, not because of the promotion, but simply because they had time for it.
Euronics research also asked whether Hungarians prefer to shop online or in person. Today, 45 percent of shoppers are happy to shop both in person and online, a third (31 percent) only like to hunt for discounted products online, but 24 percent still insist on wanting to check out and touch the product before giving money for it. People who buy online usually have the ordered goods delivered to their house by courier service (85 percent), but package machines are also becoming more and more popular, 34 percent of the respondents have already chosen them.
What do we buy at a discount?
The representative sample of internet users aged 25-59 also confirmed that we are happy to buy discounted products for both personal use and as gifts, mostly clothing (50 percent) and beauty care (45 percent) products. In third place is the toy / gift category with 39 percent, followed by home appliances and kitchen equipment, as well as computer equipment and consumer electronics. All these also mean that the category called technical items as a whole is still popular during promotional periods.
Ranked 8th with 26 percent are books, newspapers, and magazines. Perhaps unsurprisingly, at the bottom of the list is the category of car-motor and their parts (5 percent), which could only surpass the group of used items, antiques, and antiquities (3 percent).
Four out of ten people felt disappointed before whenshopping at a discount, with poor quality products causing the most problems (62 percent), and 40 percent saw the product at a similar or lower price elsewhere after the purchase, which made them feel they were misled. 22 percent of shoppers complained about products arriving too late, 17 percent were annoyed by damage to the packaging, and 11 percent were dissatisfied with the service or customer service.
Too good to be true?
Three-quarters of those surveyed agree that discounts above 50 percent are too good to be true, but 15 percent of respondents believe there is no such thing as too much discount. Men are more skeptical, they are looking at even the lower discounts with a keen eye; among women, mainly promotions above 70-80 percent become suspicious. “The good news is that Hungarian internet users follow the extremely high discounts with a critical eye and are willing to check their reality. In such cases, it is also worth considering whether there is a stock at all behind a seemingly fabulous price, because like unfortunately all over the world, including Hungary, some retailers try to attract buyers to the web store with remarkably high discounts, where the product is not available. Obviously, the psychology behind of it is that, if consumers are already there, they will find something else to buy, said László Hunyady, Marketing and Sales Director of Euronics. He added: “This practice is quite preposterous, which is why Euronics has a good supply of discounted products, and the discounts are real. That's what Fair Friday means to us.”
All in all, it can be said that - at least based on their own statements - Hungarian internet users avoid impulse buying, consciously check prices, but sometimes they are seduced. Euronics has a full staff for Black Friday Week, a stocked warehouse and a reinforced webshop, but they still ask customers for more patience than usual, and for all skeptics it is recommended to check the prices on one of the price comparison sites or in various store chains to get real discounts.