Stress and shopping go together like peanut butter and jelly, according to a new report from Clicktale, which found that how consumers feel can influence their buying behaviors.
Shopping and purchasing aren’t nearly as straightforward as they may seem, given the results of Clicktale’s survey of more than 2,000 consumers in the U.K. and the U.S. For one thing, there’s a notable discrepancy in how consumers view their shopping activity (78 percent are convinced it’s fully rational) versus the data experts who believe shopping is actually a completely irrational phenomenon (76 percent).
Looking at consumer behavior debunks any notion of rationality, especially when stress is a factor. The younger the consumer, the more likely she is to stress-shop, Clicktale noted in its Stress Shopping report. Sixty-two percent of consumers in the 16-to-24-year-old bracket admitted to engaging in this behavior, and that number steadily drops across generations to a low of about 20 percent in the 55-and-older cohort.
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Maybe these overloaded folks just need a dopamine hit. Two-fifths told Clicktale they view shopping as “retail therapy” and a tried-and-true way to calm down, while 74 percent said they’ve engaged in stress shopping at some point. No surprise, shoppers most frequently acquire culinary treats as their top stress-shopping purchase (35 percent); eating is a common way people deal with stress, and with platforms like Seamless and Postmates, it’s easier than ever to access food on demand. Apparel comes in close second, with 29 percent buying new clothes as a way to make themselves feel better.
While some shop for food when they’re stressed, others (46 percent) find that browsing and buying help to distract themselves from the annoyance of hunger pangs, Clicktale said.
Turns out, the shopping experience—whether online or off—can compound the anxiety levels. Shopping is a stressful undertaking for 20 percent of survey takers, while more than one-third (35 percent) confessed to losing their cool while inside a physical store. Smaller numbers said the same of e-commerce; digital shopping is taxing for 12 percent, while 15 percent said they’ve lost it while using a shopping app or website.
It’s usually a breakdown in the experience that pushes shoppers to their limits. Clicktale said the biggest stressors across channels remained consistent, with consumers citing checkout problems as a top point when using an app, browsing a website, or queueing in store. Other less-than-ideal moments? Frozen apps or crashed websites (75 percent), online discount codes malfunctioning (86 percent), declined vouchers or card readers misfiring (85 percent), and sites that load at a snail’s pace (81 percent). Though e-retailers promote product recommendations in an effort to be helpful and to expose more of their catalog, 65 percent of consumers find these suggestions to be stressful when they don’t match their needs. Shoppers are even more likely to be triggered by a hot mess of an e-commerce site, as 83 percent cited hard-to-navigate web stores as a major stressor.
When it comes to brick-and-mortar, Clicktale uncovered issues with store staff, whose unwanted and unhelpful product recommendation interjections stress out 79 percent of survey takers. On top of that, 83 percent described the stress of being shadowed around the store by associates.
That could be why 18 percent of Clicktale’s cohort (and 21 percent of those from the U.K.) said they’ve purchased from a store associate solely because of the “social awkwardness” of the interaction.
