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Late-night online shopping can be an experience many people relate to: scrolling through items on a phone, feeling a sudden urge to make a purchase, only to regret it the following day. However, for some, this impulsive behavior escalates into a more serious problem. Research indicates that around 7% of adults worldwide struggle with shopping addiction, a compulsive urge to spend money regardless of financial consequences, with younger women being particularly vulnerable.
Ella Hewitt, a 24-year-old from Liverpool, shares how her shopping addiction intensified in 2021, with monthly expenses on fast fashion reaching as high as £700. “I didn’t grow up with much money, so when I got a job I would spend my wages as soon as they hit my account,” she explains. Ella describes the rush of dopamine she experienced while shopping and highlights how social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram fueled her tendency to make purchases when she was either tired or bored, often driven by the latest trends. At that time, Ella worked as an HR assistant in a school but found that her escalating habits kept her from moving out of her family home.
Determined to take control, Ella began to use strategies to curb her spending. One method involved placing desired items on a wish list and waiting a month before buying them; more often than not, the desire to purchase faded during this waiting period. Additionally, she created an imaginary daily budget of £1,000 to “shop” without actual spending and implemented a rule to buy something only if she could afford to purchase it three times over. These efforts led to a 60% reduction in her expenses. Now an ethical fashion influencer planning to launch her own clothing brand, Ella admits she’s not perfect but feels much more in control of her spending habits.
Another individual challenging impulsive buying is 23-year-old Disha Patel from London. While a student, her spending on clothes, food, makeup, and skincare escalated to the point where she maxed out a £2,500 overdraft and was perpetually broke. Disha recounts the fleeting joy of unboxing new items followed by a repetitive cycle driven by dopamine highs and lows. To combat this, she deleted shopping apps, removed Apple Pay for easier checkout, and even left her bank cards at home on workdays. She also adopted a rule where any money spent on shopping had to be matched equally in savings or investments, stating, “It worked because I didn’t want to spend the money twice.”
Research supports the trend of younger generations, particularly Gen Z and millennials, being prone to impulse buying, a phenomenon linked to social media’s influence and the ease of online purchasing. Experts argue that targeted ads, influencer culture, and seamless one-click checkouts intensify spending urges. Organizations like Money and Mental Health criticize the design of online shopping platforms for minimizing obstacles to spending, pointing to tactics such as pop-up advertisements and Buy Now Pay Later schemes that encourage consumers to spend more easily
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