Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Earl-eye in the morning!
There has never been a shortage of ideas for what to do with a drunken sailor. Now retailers are considering how to handle inebriated online shoppers, some of whom are waking up the next morning with the equivalent of a tattoo of "Mom" scrawled across the chest.
The New York Times cites the case of one blotto shopper who, in the wee hours of the morning, indulged in the purchase of a $10,000 motorcycle tour of New Zealand. (Fortunately, he was happy with the trip.)
In a recently conducted study by U.K. shopping site Kelkoo, over half of the Britons surveyed admit to online shopping while under the influence, typically between the hours of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. This group says they spend more when tight, and one in seven admitted they wouldn't have made the purchase at all had they been sober. The most popular categories for boozy purchases: apparel, DVDs, books, video games, technology and lingerie.
Generally speaking, late evening e-shopping has been on the rise in recent years in the U.S., according to ChannelAdvisor, and retailers are not unaware that adult beverages may be involved. Gilt Groupe, says the Times, is responding to spikes in traffic after 9 pm with more promotions for that period and speculates that some of the activity is influenced by drink.
"Post-bar, inhibitions can be impacted, and that can cause shopping, and hopefully healthy impulse buying," Andy Page, the president of Gilt Groupe, told the Times.
Steve Yankovich, vice president for mobile for eBay, also acknowledges heavier traffic to the site in the evening but, as with most retailers, equivocates on the topic of appealing directly to drunken shoppers.
While, on the surface, the lowered inhibitions experienced while intoxicated could seem to present a real selling opportunity for online merchants, irresponsible shopping could come back to haunt retailers. One could easily imagine a higher return rate among this group and more irate or confused calls to customer service.