The 10 Stages of Online Shopping

Online shopping is single-handedly the greatest and worst thing ever created. Not only does it encourage shopaholics like myself to drain our savings accounts, it is absolutely way too easy! It's like a vortex that just sucks you in. A simple click, and suddenly an entire store's inventory appears at your door... Oops?

For the seasoned veterans out there, you know there are stages. You know exactly what sites to wait for until the end, when the best prices come out, and exactly how long it takes for something to arrive. It looks sorta like this.

1. The Casual Browse

This is typically just a couple scrolls down Forever 21's dresses, or JustFab's boot collection. Here, you're simply being nosey.

2. The "OMG, that would be perfect for (insert upcoming event)!!"

This item is the jaw-dropper that caught your attention. It's cute, very you, and ugh you just NEED it!

3. The Price Check

Now, we're telling ourselves we're ONLY gonna spend a certain amount. We're not going to go crazy or anything. We try to make ourselves feel better by checking to see A) how much it is, and B) if we can afford it. Is it on sale, can we find it somewhere else? We can't commit just yet.

~Half hour later~

4. The opening of another tab

We're starting to go downhill a bit because we all know, once two tabs are open, tabs three-four-and-five are shortly behind. We're getting into our zone.

~Hour later~

5. The Favoriting Stage

At this point, we've convinced ourselves we have enough will-power to withstand the online shopping storm. We only have three or four tabs open, and we are JUST favoriting items. (For now...)

~Three hours later~

6. The "Cart Clean-out" stage

At this point, we are still self aware and willing to make a conscious effort to limit our spending. We go through our carts and really decide what is worthy of our dollar.

~Four hours later~

7. The Shopping High

PURCHASES HAVE BEEN MADE PEOPLE. Ugh, our hearts are happy because we just shopped and didn't have to move. LIFE IS GOOD.

8. The "... Did I just spend ALL that..."

We've succumbed. We've bought that cute dress, the shoes to match, AND the handbag that goes perfect because it was on sale. And about fifty other things. It hurts to check our bank statements after an expedition, but we have to make sure we left a few cents to scrounge for a meal or two for the next month. Here, many shoppers make the empty promise NEVER to do that much shopping again. We always fail, but it's the sentiment that counts, right?

9. The Waiting Game

Rationally, we know these items aren't going to just appear after we click the "buy" button, but... WAITING IS AWFUL. We religiously check our inboxes for the beautiful "Your Item Has Just Been Shipped!" email. We wait. And wait.

~Three-Five days later~

10. The Arrival!

THE BEST DAY EVER. AHHHHHHH!!!

We online shoppers know we have a problem, but we wouldn't want to change it for anything in the world. Here's to more 3am shopping sprees in our jammies!