Spaving is a

marketing strategy Marketing strategy refers to efforts undertaken by an Organizational structure, organization to increase its sales and achieve competitive advantage. In other words, it is the method of advertising a company's products to the public through an est ...

where consumers are encouraged to spend money to gain access to savings. Common spaving tactics include discounts, sales, and promotions such as free shipping at a certain threshold and

buy one, get one free "Buy one, get one free" or "two for the price of one" is a common form of sales promotion. Marketing strategy The economist Alex Tabarrok has argued, that the success of this promotion lies in the fact that consumers value the first unit sig ...

. The term is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of the words ''spending'' and ''saving''. The concept has been popularized by

online retailer Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of t ...

s and

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. Spaving has been criticized as a financial pitfall causing consumers to purchase more than needed and creating excessive buying habits. Consumers engage in spaving due to

fear of missing out Fear of missing out (FOMO) is the feeling of apprehension that one is either not in the know about or missing out on information, events, experiences, or life decisions that could make one's life better. FOMO is also associated with a fear of re ...

and

loss aversion In cognitive science and behavioral economics, loss aversion refers to a cognitive bias in which the same situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain. It should not be confused with risk aversion, which descri ...

. Consumers who excessively engage in spaving are referred to as spavers.

References

{{marketing-stub Sales promotion Advertising