Financial times are tough. We may even be in a recession, however that doesn’t stop 80 per cent of Aussies from hiding purchases from their loved ones during times of economic crisis.
You could be forgiven for believing that the purse strings should be held a little tighter in the current financial climate, however most of us continue to treat ourselves to life’s little luxuries. Eight in every ten Australians are making purchases that they hide from their families, friends or loved ones with more than half of those admitting that they either hid or downplayed those purchases because they feel their loved one doesn’t understand the true value of the item.
This new research, comissioned by eBay, also shows that guilt is a driving factor behind retail indiscretions with 30 per cent of Australian’s surveyed saying that they felt guilty about their purchases. According to the research, 23 per cent of us feel guilty about exercising a little retail therapy because we believe we’re expected to save for a rainy day, or because we’re already too far in debt, while more than one in ten of us feels obliged to shop for better value.
eBay spokesperson Sian Gipslis said the global financial crisis and different interpretations of what was actually considered good value, seemed to be the main reasons why consumers were choosing to ‘closet buy’. Gipslis said “respondents felt it didn’t seem right to be spending money during a financial crisis as people continue to lose jobs, try to save money or reduce debt.”
Althought these findings appear to point towards a trend for frivilous shopping behaviour in Australia, the majority of Aussies surveyed (72%) said the main reason they made the purchase wasn’t because they are shopoholics, but because they couldn’t resist buying something that offered such good value for money.
Seemingly the majority of our secrect spending sprees occur online at auction sites such as eBay with 65 per cent of the survey respondents saying it offered better value for money, while more than half (53%) found it a convenient and discreet way to shop. Interestingly the research also revealed more men (48%) than women (33%) indulged in online closet buying.
Other shopping secrets revealed…
NSW and ACT residents were the highest closet buyers in the nation, with 85% hiding purchases from loved ones, followed by VIC and WA (80%) and 78% of Queenslanders.
Residents from the Northern Territory scored the lowest in the nation with only 50% making closet purchases
100% of Northern Territory residents surveyed said they hide purchases from their partner compared to 83% of TAS, 81% of VIC, 81% of SA, 82% of WA and 80% of NSW.
ACT (73%) ranked the highest in the nation for the percentage of residents who hid closet buys because their loved one won’t understand the value of the purchase. SA (60%) and QLD (58%) were closely followed by NSW/ TAS (54%)
Northern Territorians surveyed had the most guilt with 57% surveyed saying guilt made them hide their closet buy. This was followed by VIC/ TAS (33%), WA (31%) and NSW (30%)
More residents in TAS (50%) shop online for value compared to NSW (43%), VIC (42%), QLD (39%), and ACT (36%)) WA (29%) survey respondents were the lowest in the nation for online value hunting.
Are you a closet-shopper? Tell us your secret below…
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
