Terms

Buyer’s Remorse

Buyer’s remorse is the feeling of regret, anxiety, or guilt that can arise after making a purchase. While often associated with significant investments like a house or car, this feeling can also surface after smaller, everyday buys. This post-purchase anxiety is a form of cognitive dissonance, where the reality of the purchase conflicts with a person's expectations or other potential choices.

Causes of Buyer's Remorse

This post-purchase anxiety is often rooted in cognitive dissonance, where you second-guess your decision. It's frequently triggered by impulse buys or the 'paradox of choice'—worrying a better option existed. A lack of research before buying can also lead to regret.

High-commitment purchases, like cars or homes, are common culprits due to the high stakes. Social pressure and unexpected costs can further fuel these feelings of doubt. Spending more than budgeted or discovering hidden fees intensifies the post-purchase strain.

Psychological Impact

Buyer's remorse is a form of cognitive dissonance that creates significant psychological discomfort. This internal conflict between your expectations and the reality of the purchase can trigger a cascade of negative emotions, from mild regret to severe anxiety. The experience often leaves you questioning not just the purchase, but your own judgment.

  • Regret: A persistent feeling that you made the wrong choice or missed a better opportunity.
  • Anxiety: Stress over the financial impact or the finality of the decision.
  • Dissonance: The mental discomfort arising from conflicting thoughts about the purchase.
  • Self-doubt: Questioning your own judgment and ability to make good decisions.

Buyer’s Remorse vs. Cognitive Dissonance

While related, buyer's remorse and cognitive dissonance are distinct concepts with different implications for businesses.

  • Buyer’s Remorse: This is the specific feeling of regret following a purchase. While it can be a learning experience for consumers, it represents a negative outcome for companies. Enterprises work to mitigate it to reduce returns and dissatisfaction, especially after high-commitment sales, by improving the post-purchase experience.
  • Cognitive Dissonance: This is a broader psychological discomfort from any conflicting beliefs or actions, with buyer's remorse being one example. Understanding this allows companies to proactively design marketing and support that reassures customers, resolves their internal conflict favorably, and builds long-term brand loyalty.

Strategies to Overcome

This is how you can tackle feelings of post-purchase regret.

  1. Re-evaluate the purchase. Focus on the positive aspects and the reasons you originally wanted the item.
  2. Check the return policy. If the item isn't a good fit, returning it is the most straightforward solution.
  3. Stop browsing for alternatives. Continuing to look at other options will only amplify your feelings of doubt.
  4. Talk it over with someone you trust. A different perspective can help validate your decision or clarify your feelings.

Real-Life Examples

Buyer's remorse often strikes after significant life purchases, but it can also appear with smaller, everyday buys. The feeling is common across various scenarios where commitment and cost are high, leaving you to second-guess your decision.

  • Real Estate: Feeling anxious after buying a home, especially when unexpected repairs or maintenance costs arise.
  • Vehicles: Regretting a new car purchase after finding a better deal or realizing the monthly payments are too high.
  • Electronics: Second-guessing a new smartphone purchase when a newer model is announced shortly after.

Frequently Asked Questions about Buyer’s Remorse

How does buyer’s remorse impact customer lifetime value (CLV)?

It can significantly lower CLV by leading to returns, negative reviews, and brand distrust. A poor post-purchase experience discourages repeat business and erodes long-term loyalty, making it a critical metric for retention-focused teams to address.

What's the most effective way for B2B companies to prevent buyer's remorse?

Proactive onboarding and consistent communication are key. Reinforcing the value proposition post-sale with dedicated support, clear implementation roadmaps, and early success stories helps validate the customer's significant investment and builds confidence.

Is buyer’s remorse more common with online or in-store purchases?

It's more prevalent online due to the inability to physically inspect products, leading to a gap between expectation and reality. Easy returns can mitigate this, but the initial disconnect often triggers higher rates of post-purchase regret compared to in-person transactions.

Other terms

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Sales Metrics

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Shipping Solutions

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Lead Scoring

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Employee Engagement

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Account-Based Marketing

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User Interaction

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Marketo

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Ramp Up Time

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Marketing Attribution Model

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Account-Based Everything

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Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface

A Representational State Transfer (REST) API is a web service that uses a simple, stateless architecture for systems to communicate online.

Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface

Lead Scoring Models

Lead scoring models rank prospects by assigning points for their behaviors and demographics, helping sales teams prioritize their outreach.

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Knowledge Base

A knowledge base is a self-serve online library of information about a product, service, department, or topic.

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Demand

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Trigger Marketing

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Account-Based Selling

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Content Management System

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Application Performance Management

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Webhooks

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CRM Enrichment

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Big Data

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Sales Workflows

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Generic Keywords

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Sales Methodology

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ABM Orchestration

ABM orchestration aligns marketing and sales actions across channels to deliver seamless, personalized experiences to high-value accounts.

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Lead Generation

Lead generation is the process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business's products or services.

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Sales Pipeline

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Lead Qualification

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Customer Buying Signals

Customer buying signals are the actions, behaviors, or statements a prospect makes that indicate they are moving towards a purchase decision.

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Target Account List

A Target Account List (TAL) is a focused list of high-value companies that a business specifically aims to convert into customers.

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Contact Data

Contact data is the set of details, like names, emails, and phone numbers, used to get in touch with a person or business for outreach.

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Sales Intelligence

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CRM Integration

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Use Case

A use case is a detailed description of how a user interacts with a system to achieve a specific goal, outlining the steps from start to finish.

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Average Revenue per User

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Intent-Based Leads

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Account-Based Marketing Software

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Feature Flags

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Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Channel Partner

A channel partner is a company that works with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell their products, software, or services to customers.

Channel Partner

GDPR Compliance

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Enrichment

Enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to get a more complete picture of your leads.

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Integration Testing

Integration testing is a software testing phase where individual modules are combined and tested together to verify their interaction.

Integration Testing

Smile and Dial

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Sales Acceleration

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Single Sign-On (SSO)

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No Cold Calls

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FAB Technique

The FAB technique is a sales framework connecting product features to advantages and then to the specific benefits for the customer.

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Copyright Compliance

Copyright compliance is adhering to laws that protect creative works. It involves legally using content by obtaining permission or licenses.

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Awareness Buying Stage

The awareness stage is the first step in the buyer's journey, where a potential customer realizes they have a problem or an opportunity to explore.

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System of Record

A System of Record (SoR) is the authoritative data source for a specific type of data. It acts as the single source of truth for an organization.

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Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is the set of marketing tools a company uses to sell products, defined by the 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

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Objection Handling

Objection handling is the process of responding to a prospect's concerns or hesitations about a product or service to move a deal forward.

Objection Handling

Lead Enrichment

Lead enrichment adds third-party data to your raw lead lists, creating fuller prospect profiles for more effective and personalized outreach.

Lead Enrichment

Predictive Lead Generation

Predictive lead generation uses data and AI to find prospects most likely to buy, helping teams focus their efforts on high-value leads.

Predictive Lead Generation

Marketing Play

A marketing play is a repeatable tactic used to achieve a specific marketing goal, like generating leads or driving engagement.

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Customer Relationship Management Systems

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that centralizes customer data to help manage interactions and nurture relationships.

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Buying Committee

A buying committee is a group of stakeholders within an organization who are jointly responsible for making major purchasing decisions.

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Customer Data Platform (CDP)

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes customer data from all sources to create a complete, unified profile for each individual customer.

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Firmographics

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Order Management

Order management is the end-to-end process of tracking customer orders from placement to fulfillment, ensuring a seamless customer experience.

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Sales Operations Analytics

Sales operations analytics is the practice of analyzing sales data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire sales process.

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Sales and Marketing Analytics

Sales and marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing performance data to maximize effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI).

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Closed Won

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SAM

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Intent leads

Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.

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B2B Sales

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Landing Pages

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Net New Business

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Microservices

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White Label

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Customer Retention

Customer retention refers to the strategies and activities a company uses to prevent customer churn and encourage them to continue buying.

Customer Retention

Competitive Intelligence (CI)

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the ethical gathering and analysis of market data to inform strategic business decisions and gain an advantage.

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Revenue Forecasting

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Revenue Forecasting

Sales Intelligence Platform

A sales intelligence platform is software that provides sales teams with data and insights about prospects to help them sell more effectively.

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Mid-Market

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Mid-Market

Sales Demo

A sales demo is a presentation where a sales rep shows a prospect how a product or service works and solves their specific problems.

Sales Demo

Performance Plan

A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.

Performance Plan

Custom API integration

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Custom API integration

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Learn about B2B, including what is it, its key elements, the benefits of B2B partnerships, the differences between B2B and B2C, and strategies for effective marketing.

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Chatbots

Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.

Chatbots

Event Marketing

Event marketing is a strategy where brands engage directly with target audiences through live events like trade shows, conferences, or webinars.

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Sales Development

Sales development is the process of identifying and qualifying potential customers to create a pipeline of sales-ready leads for closers.

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Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel.

Lead Nurturing

Cohort Analysis

Cohort analysis is a behavioral analytics tool that groups users with common traits to track their actions and engagement over time.

Cohort Analysis

Account Management

Account management is the post-sales practice of building and nurturing long-term relationships with a company's most valuable clients.

Account Management

Buyer Intent Data

Learn about buyer intent data, including sourcing and interpreting buyer intent data, & key metrics in buyer intent analysis.

Buyer Intent Data

Sales Territory

A sales territory is a specific group of customers or a geographic area that a salesperson or sales team is responsible for managing.

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Account Development Representative

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Mobile Compatibility

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Lead Routing

Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.

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Account Mapping

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Sales Automation

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Lead Generation Funnel

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Retargeting Marketing

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Sales Enablement

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Direct Sales

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Programmatic Display Campaign

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Programmatic Display Campaign

Scrum

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Scrum

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a digital strategy where businesses send targeted emails to prospects and customers to build relationships and drive sales.

Email Marketing