Mood-boosting properties of online shopping uncovered

Friday, August 17, 2018 - 12:48 by David Aiken

A new survey from Clicktale has found that three quarters of consumers place orders via safe shopping online in order to improve their state of mind.

Internet Retailing reports that retail therapy is the main way that 40 per cent of people in the UK choose to release some of the pent up stress that has accumulated in their daily life.

Just over a third of respondents said that when they were feeling vexed or anxious, they tended to shop online for edible items. Other popular product categories during sessions of stress-relieving e-commerce include books and makeup.

While stress may be a big motivator to get people into safe shopping online, it is just one of the many factors identified as influential today.

Fifty eight per cent admitted that they made online purchases as a result of pure boredom, while almost half of those questioned said that they chose to browse shopping sites in order to stave off the feeling of hunger in between meals.

Study spokesperson, Geoff Galat, said that these findings were tied into National Relaxation Day, an event held earlier this week that sparked a number of surveys and discussions on the nature of stress in the modern world.

He explained that it was not sensible for retailers to try and capitalise on irate consumers arriving on their sites, since this was not a particularly healthy practice. Instead they should attempt to better understand the needs of customers and ensure that they can make calm, informed decisions when they get to the checkout.

Galat argues that personalisation is a good way of achieving this, reducing the strains that can be caused by shopping online in its own right and keeping customers happy and content throughout their time on a site or app.