Stress and boredom sparks impulse buys by UK shoppers - study

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Oct 30, 2017

Retail therapy has taken on a whole new meaning as new research reveals that 46% of shoppers have felt the need to shop after a stressful event in their lives.

According to price comparison website MoneySuperMarket.com, Brits are 14% more likely to overspend if they embark on a shopping trip while feeling stressed or bored. Of all the emotions, stress was found to be the biggest sales driver, costing individuals up to £1,250 per year along boredom.

Stressed shoppers are more likely to treat themselves to snack food, clothes and takeaways, while women are also 40% more likely to buy beauty products when feeling blue.

Impulse buys are also being facilitated by the rise of contactless payments, as the method makes card payments easier than ever before. According to the report, two thirds of all emotional purchases made in store are paid by debit or credit cards.

Pip Heywood, brand director at MoneySuperMarket, said: “Conducting this study with Mindlab has been fascinating – it's given us an opportunity to explore the psychology of spending and how a person's mood affects their propensity to spend. 

“Everyone has their reasons for buying that handbag, or booking that weekend away in the country, but they probably don't realise that a situation three hours earlier, unrelated to the purchase, prompted them to buy it.”

The results are based on a survey of 2,500 British shoppers.