Fashion appeals to me in different ways now. Although there are at least five tabs open on my laptop normally associated with fashion at any given time, there is an increasing reluctance to indulge in fashion shows.
I mainly browse for daytime viewing and browsing almost never ends with a sale in case you are wondering. Personally, I’ve made it difficult for that to happen. It started to seem frivolous to enjoy anything else even though the temptation of prices was significantly high. Perhaps this is because the reality of retail seems bleak. With so many shops going into administration, people were losing their jobs (most of them women), and the ever-so-often snap locks, the guilt of having unopened packages staring back at me start dressing in.
The pandemic has changed us and maybe even the way we see the urgency to click on new trends. So many of us are beginning to question our motivations and with less demand / need for new clothes it has finally put into perspective how much we actually have.
The average American throws in about 70 pounds of clothing and other textiles a year. In the UK 1,130,000 tonnes of new clothes were purchased in 2016 and that number increased year on year. Even with these realities, due to increased screen time, and seemingly permanent online sales, recklessness could be a difficult thing not to give in to.
You are bombarded with ads placed based on your searches and browsing history. So much so that it sometimes feels like a necessity to complete the purchase. And with the common reality of our lives, the idea of having something to look forward to feels nice.
I always get dopamine release when I click pay now, but over a year into the pandemic, I’ve learned to curb my recklessness by trying to uphold the following rules religiously.
Forget card details
Online shopping is so convenient and a big part of the reason why it is easy to become addicted to it is because the money transaction part hardly needs to be thought through. Details are usually saved, and it’s a hassle-free process. The more time you have to spend on completing a purchase, the less likely you are to complete it. I try not to save my card details so the purchasing process requires more effort such as searching for my card and always filling in the tabs. If you need more effort, you are less likely to go ahead with it.
Clear cookies and block ads
Most of the purchases I’ve made were because they always showed up. It felt annoying and almost like a noisy mother calling me and reminding me to buy bread on my way back home. Try to clear your cookies and browser history as often as possible and develop a custom to block ads at all times. If you really like it or need it, you wouldn’t need an ad to remind you.
Unsubscribe and sleep on it
I always found subscribing to stores to get news pointless. This acts as another form of aggressive marketing to push you to buy. I think the best purchases are made with reason and personal desire, not by willful conviction. Unsubscribe for mailing lists and for those you decide to keep, try to complete purchases they have influenced in a two-day time frame. When the instant excitement is removed, and rational thinking is played we tend to rationalize better.