"Mom, please buy me the chocolate!"

Recent study shows the great influence of children on the purchasing behavior of their parents

The influence of children on the purchasing decisions at the grocery store is enormously underestimated by parents. This is the result of a new study by the University of Vienna. Only half of the impulse purchases that are triggered in the supermarket of children, parents also aware. Consumer researchers Claus Ebster and Udo Wagner from the Institute of Business Administration of the University of Vienna have published this in the prestigious journal "Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services".

"Most parents is unclear how much they are influenced in their purchasing decisions of their offspring," says Claus Ebster. At the 200 parents were unnoticed observed, while with their children shopping went in supermarkets, and then interviewed them. When asked how many of their purchases were influenced by their child, the parents gave an average of only half of the concealed observed purchases. "When you consider that most buying decisions are made in the business office, neither the trade nor the parents themselves should the influence of children on impulse purchases underestimated," says Udo Wagner, professor of business administration at the University of Vienna.

The two researchers also looked at what factors are responsible for children's buying stimuli. It was shown that children in particular demand products that are directly at their eye level. These include sweets and toys that are strategically placed on the lower shelves by retailers. Parents can best keep their child's purchase inquiries to a minimum if the child sits in the shopping cart with their faces turned towards the parents, as this restricts the little ones' field of vision. "When the offspring is sitting in the stroller, the purchase inquiries to the parents are also lower," states consumer researcher Claus Ebster.

Parents, on the other hand, tend to give in to their children's purchase wishes if the product can be used or consumed in the store, such as toys, sweets and fruit, because children are then busy with them while shopping.

The study also has advice for the children: It pays to ask politely! Parents were far more willing to respond to their children's purchase requests if they were communicated clearly and politely; not so when the children angrily asked for a product or expressed their wish only weakly and hesitantly.

You can find the study [here]

Source: Vienna [Univ.-Doz. Dr. Claus Ebster]