Retailers criticised for fuelling after dark shopping splurges

Tuesday, November 1, 2016 - 09:14 by Graham Miller

With more people shopping online late at night or in the early hours of the morning, retailers are getting serious benefits from being able to sell items at any time. But now mental health campaigners are arguing that this is proving to be problematic for some people and that companies should not exploit vulnerable consumers by sending marketing emails at midnight, according to the Telegraph.

Emails containing the latest information on products and offers tend to arrive between 12am and 5am, with major retailers, including Amazon and Lastminute.com, implicated in the research from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute.

People with a variety of issues, from insomnia to alcoholism, are seen as being especially susceptible to this type of promotion and are thus more likely to make regrettable purchases as a result of such activities.

Report spokesperson, Polly Mackenzie, said that people who shop compulsively are being put at greater risk by retailers indirectly exploiting their habits and thus making it much harder for them to get a handle on the amount they spend.

Ninety three per cent of people with mental health problems said that overspending was something they regularly did when experiencing periods of distress, with bouts of so-called ‘crisis shopping’ common among 40 per cent of respondents.

Experts argue that retailers should do more to ensure that the marketing emails they send are not disrupting the lives of the customers who receive them, such as by allowing consumers to opt out of particular platforms altogether.

This not only applies to shopping online but also to the world of TV, where digital channels dedicated to shopping are growing in number all the time and people who are likely to shop during times of mental distress now have easier access to such potentially damaging services.