Search for ‘the best’ proves endless
Shoppers stressed over the ‘right’ buy
You need a water bottle TORONTO — or cellphone, laptop bag or toaster — and turn to the Internet to find the best of the bunch, only to have a seemingly simple search spiral into a weeklong research project.
Since when did even small purchases become so fraught with doubt and anxiety?
The fear of making the wrong choice is a reflection of modern consumer behaviour, in which increasing social pressure puts shoppers on constant alert for something better than what they bought before, says Martin Hand, a sociology professor.
And Google offers up a staggering number of reviews and meticulous rankings for just about any product, all purporting to help you make “the best” choice you won’t regret. “Have I gone on the right vacation? Am I wearing the right clothes?” says Hand, chair of undergraduate studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., of the modern neuroses gnawing at many consumers.
“Some people find this relatively easy to cope with. For other people, it exacerbates an existing insecurity.”
Online publishers know shoppers are on an endless quest for “the best” of everything.
Last year, the New York Times acquired the reviews’ websites The Wirecutter and The Sweethome, which focus entirely on identifying the top products in a wide range of categories. Just about every headline on the sites starts with “best” or “the best.”
Others acknowledge the pressure to slip the b-word into as many headlines as possible — even if the term’s ubiquitous use seems to have rendered it meaningless.
“It’s a lot less offensive than some other clickbait. And I do struggle with it,” says cosmetics blogger Janine Falcon, whose review site Beautygeeks sometimes employs the term as a necessary evil.
It’s such a subjective term, adds Falcon, whose top lipstick pick “could be the worst for the person standing next to you.”
Car analyst and reviewer Timothy Cain of Halifax is leery of using it in reviews at his site GoodCarBadCar, but admits “best” creeps into copy because readers want
quick and easy verdicts. It’s a 140-character age, he notes.
“Searchers are trying to figure out the best way to get the information they want and we’re trying to figure out the best way to make sure we’re near the top when someone wants to know something.”
Before the age of social media, shoppers were generally “more independent” in their choices, says Claire Tsai, a professor at Rotman School of Management.
“But nowadays, especially younger people who are very active social media users, they try to get validation while they’re still browsing,” notes the marketing expert.
The purchasing decision is suddenly a group one, and not an entirely honest one, at that. Public platforms tend to encourage opinions that conform to prevailing thought, while friends might be reluctant to offer any negative feedback, she notes.
But more information doesn’t necessarily improve the ability to make a good choice, adds Tsai. People tend to be inconsistent in assessing various factors, she says, and biases can creep into the decision.
“Remain critical of what you read and who’s behind it, says Falcon. “You’re looking for information that helps you make a personal decision and nobody else is going to make that decision for you.”