Nearly a third of UK shoppers ditch their online shopping carts due to high delivery costs, revealed in new report

16.07.2022

A new study has revealed all the details about online window shopping in the UK, along with the UK’s go-to shops for window shopping, how much businesses are losing out on, and how online window shopping can actually harm our health.

The study was conducted by Fondy through internal and external research and found the following key points:

  • Amazon is the UK’s favourite place to window shop.
  • Window shopping can cause addiction-like effects on the brain.
  • Women are more put off by high delivery costs than men.

Fondy quizzed 1,000 UK shoppers in an external survey, discovering Amazon as Brits’ favourite place to online window shop, with 21% saying so. eBay was the second choice (5%) and ASOS third (1%).

An internal survey was also conducted by the payment solution services, revealing that shoppers in the UK window shop online in the evenings, with over half (53%) saying so, and 13% will actually window shop online when they should be working.

Businesses are losing out on these high-value baskets due to simple issues, as the internal survey revealed that delivery costs were the most main reason (30%) shoppers aren’t checking out. Interestingly, women are more put off by these delivery costs than men, with 61% saying so.

A lack of discounts prevented a quarter of shoppers from checking out, followed by a difficult-to-use checkout interface (10%) and a lack of payment options (9%). Men are keener on a good deal overall, however, as they were more likely to abandon their shopping carts if they couldn’t find a good discount.

But whilst it’s fun to browse our favourite online shopping sites, it can actually be detrimental to our mental health.

Fondy spoke with Ray Sadoun, ‌‌a‌‌ ‌‌London-based‌‌ ‌‌mental‌‌ ‌‌health‌‌ ‌‌and‌‌ ‌‌addiction‌‌ ‌‌recovery‌‌ ‌‌specialist, who said:

People tend to virtually window shop for a quick release of dopamine – even if you don’t purchase anything, you still experience a spike in your mood as you consider the possibility of owning a new product.

If people are getting a dopamine hit from browsing products without needing to waste money on every product they see, this can be a good thing as it can prevent a full-blown shopping addiction. However, as with every habit, we should still be wary of it in case it does turn into an addiction.

It may teach people that the only way they can experience joy is through consumerism, so instead of working on themselves as a way of pursuing happiness, they may put too much emphasis on products to do this for them. Ultimately, this can impact people’s mental health as they need to find something that consistently brings them contentment rather than something that gives them temporary dopamine spikes.

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