How to stop impulse buying online: 7 things that actually help

Online shopping is designed to make buying easy. Your card is saved. Checkout is one tap. The app knows what you looked at last night and would love to remind you about it.

None of that is an accident, and none of it is your fault. But it does mean that "just have more willpower" isn't a great plan.

What helps is adding a little friction back in. Not so much that you can never buy anything, just enough to give the real you a chance to weigh in. Here are seven things that make a real difference.

1. Delete your saved cards

This is the single easiest change on the list. When your card is saved, buying something takes about four seconds. That's not enough time to think.

Remove your card from the stores you shop at most, and from your browser's autofill too. Having to get up, find your wallet and type in sixteen digits is a surprisingly good moment to ask, "Wait, do I want this?"

If you still do, great. Type it in. You've lost thirty seconds and gained a real decision.

2. Unsubscribe from sale emails

Sale emails have one job: to make you want something you weren't thinking about five minutes ago. "24 hours only." "Your favorites are on sale." "Did you forget something?"

Go through your inbox and unsubscribe from every store that emails you more than once a week. If you're worried about missing a deal on something you actually need, you can always check the site when you need it. The deal will find you less often, and that's the point.

3. Turn off shopping app notifications

Same idea, but louder. A notification from a shopping app is a sale email that taps you on the shoulder.

Turn off notifications for every shopping app on your phone. Even better, move those apps off your home screen, or delete the ones you can live without. You can still shop in a browser when you need something. You just won't be shopping by accident.

4. Unfollow the accounts that make you want things

Some accounts are really fun to follow and also quietly cost you money every month. Haul videos, "Amazon finds," "things I can't stop buying." They work because they feel like a friend's recommendation, not an ad.

You don't have to quit social media. Just notice which accounts leave you with a new thing in your cart, and mute or unfollow a few of them. Your feed will slowly fill up with other things, and so will your free time.

5. Notice when you shop, not just what

Impulse buys tend to have a time of day. For a lot of people, it's late at night, when you're tired and scrolling. For others it's when they're bored, stressed, sad or have just been paid.

For a week or two, pay attention to when the urge hits. You don't have to fix anything yet. Just knowing "oh, it's 11pm and I'm on my phone again" takes away a lot of its power.

(Mark, for the record, is up late too. He's just looking at the moon. He has never once bought anything at midnight.)

6. Use a waiting list instead of your cart

This is the big one. When you want something, don't put it in your cart. Save it somewhere else, and wait.

How long depends on the thing. A day works for small stuff. Bigger things deserve a week or even a month. I wrote a whole note on the 24-hour rule and the 30-day rule if you want to pick the right one.

The magic is in what happens while you wait. The excitement fades, the countdown timer disappears and the sale ends, and you find out whether you actually wanted the thing or just the feeling of buying it. A surprising amount of the time, you'll forget it was ever on your list.

7. Ask a few honest questions before you check out

When the wait is over and you still want it, run through a quick check:

• Do I already own something that does this?
• Where will it live, and what will I use it for this week?
• Would I still buy it at full price, with no sale and no countdown?
• Will I still be glad I bought it a month from now?

If the answers are yes, buy it and enjoy it, completely guilt-free. That's the whole point. Stopping impulse buys isn't about never buying anything. It's about making sure the things you buy are things you really want.

You don't have to do all seven

Pick one or two to start. Deleting your saved cards and unsubscribing from sale emails take about ten minutes and make a noticeable difference straight away.

And if you'd like somewhere quiet to keep your waiting list, with no feeds, no "you might also like" and a small bookmark to keep you company, that's what Favelist is for. It's why I built it in the first place.