Have your spending habits changed for good due to COVID-19 pandemic? Let’s find out. According to a Global Survey, there’s an incredible change in the spending pattern of Indians & an apparent inclination towards local businesses and sustainable products. Though, the overall spending decisions are very similar on a day to day basis but changed in the grand scheme of things & decisions. Our brains have started to work at a faster frequency, irrespective of the work at hand.
Due to the insane second wave of COVID-19, there’s been a strong push inwards. Indians buying is more locally driven while it was totally different before. Now, they are that enlightened to make minds work in utter rationality, based on mobility issues & lockdown restrictions everywhere. Looking at the shifted consumption patterns, it’s obvious that we as Indians are making time relative changes. This is very different from how we used to behave previously. We had been experiencing that our minds are lazy & takes minimal effort to reach decisions. Basically, our mind works on autopilot & takes delayed action on important matters. Even with our high energy levels, our mind didn’t like to spend too much time hence it went smoothly with the flow!
So, actions were taken by an unconscious & subconscious mind which was nurtured as a child. We took intelligent shortcuts to save every effort possible. This is exactly how we spent our money too. We made 95% of our spending decisions inside an unconscious mind. It’s time to dig deeper into human minds and the spending psychology in times of novel coronavirus. COVID-19 is well educating us to mold according to the criticality of situation & act swiftly. After months of incessant lockdown rules & social distancing, we’re forced to change our habits. This pandemic has divided us into two, one who could save a dime and others who struggled to meet their ends even.
Here are the different ways in which our spending habits have changed with the deadly first & second wave of coronavirus. This is how we are currently behaving:
1. Online shopping leading the way
Earlier, if you’d like to shop, you could take either of two routes. One to make an immediate purchase at the shop or buy online. But due to the rapid surge in cases, online shopping has made life livable. Though, the choice for online shopping is only applicable to essentials and home supplies. Planning a trip outside is no more an option as agenda, if we want to spend money & treat you our senses mindfully. Let’s plan to select immediate pleasures instead of long term returns, sometime.
This pandemic has turned out to be a big blessing in disguise. It’s kept our instincts under check & driven us to act responsibly to say the least.
2. Living life in scarcity
As an aspiring consumer, we’re always so full of options. And just then the pandemic hit us hard. It taught us to not be lured by amazing online offers. Not everything we can see online can be acquired. So this pandemic has taught us a tough lesson of scarcity & how to effectively deal with it. Ofcourse. our minds have been wired to act upon building pressure. So what? It’s good to redo our patterns of spending and focus on the current problem. For the time being, we’ve got to act based on scarcity, not logic.
3. Gone past the social pressure
We’ve encountered how money matters have changed after COVID-19 came into existence. One cannot even use its own budget to plan lunches or dinner. The only way to spend it would be on important supplies at home, even if we’re urged to spend more.
Generally, our minds work to best fit into a situation & follow the mainstream. This is what we call succumbing to social pressure & how we spend money in and over our capacity. But now things are taking a slow pitch after COVID-19 & we are totally gone past the social pressure coming in our way before.