Online shopping brought us short-lived joy, but now we regret it

Most of us turned to online shopping during the pandemic, and now we’re regretting it.

Lockdown was a weird and difficult time. Most of us coped by either learning how to bake sourdough bread, or scrolling through all the online sales, spending too much money in the hopes of sparking joy.

Well, apparently any joy was short lived.

A new survey by Finder discovered one in four people around Australia regretted a purchase they made during the pandemic.

Of those, it was Gen Z who suffered the most from buyers remorse. A huge 54 per cent of shoppers under 25 were feeling regret from their pandemic purchases, while only five per cent of Boomers felt the same way. It’s also affecting men, more than women.

Not all that surprising, given Gen Z-ers found themselves with more downtime as their jobs were disproportionately affected, and they’re much more savvy with the internet.

More men are suffering pandemic buyer's remorse than women.

“When we purchase an item, dopamine — the pleasure chemical — is released in our brain,” explained psychologist Donna Cameron.

“During lockdowns, most of our joy-activating activities were cancelled and shopping was one of the few things a person could do to get this dopamine hit.”

So what was everyone buying that’s causing them such grief now? According to the survey, the top items include clothing, used cars, bicycles and even property.

“So many more purchases have been made (since the pandemic) in an effort to keep our dopamine levels high,” Ms Cameron said. “The chase for that happy feeling.

“The problem is, the happiness feeling of a purchase does not last long term. So when the feeling wears off, buyers remorse can kick in.”

Lockdown might appear to be a thing of the past, but sadly the pandemic is far from over — so how do we avoid unfulfilling spending going forward? Ms Cameron suggests tricking yourself into a dopamine hit, without spending the money.

Exercising, meditating, having a massage and getting enough sleep all help raise our dopamine levels – without the need to spend money.

“Sometimes just the act of adding the item into your shopping cart can activate the joy,” she suggests. “So one way to avoid unwanted items showing up to your door step is to add to cart then leave it for a couple of days. If the product isn’t really wanted, you probably won’t return to it. This can save you your money and feelings of remorse.”

She also recommends you avoid shopping when you’re “feeling sad or bored” and finding “other ways to activate joy in your life”.