Shoppers lured in by enticing social media sites to spend up
Christmas is just five weeks away and retailers are hoping shoppers will be spending up. But many consumers are making snap purchases that they can’t afford.
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EXCLUSIVE
CONVENIENCE and seductive social media sites are resulting in shoppers wasting money by making impulse online purchases.
Christmas is just five weeks away and retailers are hoping shoppers will be spending up.
But new independent analysis commissioned by St George Bank found
The new data which surveyed 1000 Australians found six in 10 admit social media sites including Instagram and Facebook had taken their toll — 66 per cent said it was encouraging them to spend.
And enticing emails from retailers has turned into big business — 47 per cent of shoppers admit they got enticed by email offers.
St George Bank’s general manager Ross Miller said the boom in online shopping was driven by shoppers spending with ease, even while under the nose of their employers.
“It’s becoming a driving force in draining your bank account,” he said.
“Two in 10 respondents said they were shopping at work and half of those were shopping in their lunch hour, it’s just so convenient you can do it at meetings during work.”
And evenings is the peak time to shop with 9 out 10 shoppers placing online orders.
But 22 per cent of shoppers are early birds, shopping online as soon as they wake up.
Recent discounting days including the much-hyped Click Frenzy deals and this week Black Friday — where many retailers slash their prices — are among the busiest shopping periods in the lead up to Christmas.
The data also found 33 per cent of shoppers are ordering items via their mobile phone, 50 per cent via their computer and 11 per cent using a tablet.
Consumer finance expert Lisa Montgomery said cookies — an online tool used to digitally market to shoppers — meant retailers could follow consumers’ moves and target them with deals.
“When it’s front of mind to you it’s means you are going to be more vulnerable to that purchase because it’s in your face,” she said.
“We are super time poor these days particularly leading up to Christmas and many of us leave it too late.
“This means we are going online to look at purchases that may cost us more money and not be a suitable gift.”
SHOPPING TIPS
— Know your weaknesses.
— If it’s an impulse buy give yourself 10 minutes to see if you still want it.
— Don’t automatically upload your payment details on websites.
— Use debit not credit.
— Unsubscribe from retailer emails and unfollow their social media accounts.