In a shopper survey, CashNetUSA asked consumers across the United States about their shopping patterns, with particular interest in “retail therapy” behaviors, and found that the average American makes 107 such purchases per year, with younger consumers more likely to exhibit this behavior.
Millennials spend more than other generations on retail therapy, at an average of $8,259, versus Gen Zers. at $5,972, and Baby Boomers, at $989. The overall increase in U.S. retail therapy spending in 2025 was only 7%, but the rise for Gen Z spending was twice as high at 14%.
The average retail therapy purchase is $73.55, with Millennials spending the most, at $92.89 per item.
Amazon is the largest beneficiary of retail therapy among retailers, with 55% of Americans reporting they’ve stress-purchased through its channels, followed closely by Walmart (54%) and more distantly by Target (29%).
Younger people may make emotional purchases due to economic worries, social media influence and the ease of one-click purchasing, CashNetUSA indicated.
From another perspective, the average male consumer, with 122 annual purchases, earns 31% more than the average female consumer, who makes 93 purchases. Men spent 20% more than the national average of $4,589, and women spent 19% less.
Of 18 U.S. cities the survey covered, consumers in Los Angeles made the most emotional purchases at 2.89 per person each week, followed by Detroit, at 2.47 and Atlanta, at 2.43. Consumers in Memphis (1.48), Indianapolis (1.53) and Jacksonville (1.62) had the fewest.
Food, whether from retail stores or takeout, was the top retail therapy purchase, but other top stress buys include clothing, electronics and video games, and beauty products.
In one emerging trend cited by CashnetUSA, 17% of survey respondents said they have been driven to retail therapy by doomscrolling, giving rise to the term “doom spending,” or purchasing compulsively to cope with feelings of concern, particularly when prompted by engagement with news and social media apps or real-world experiences, especially a bad day at work.
The introduction of Google’s AI-powered, visually oriented ‘vibe-shopping’ creates another incentive for shoppers to make emotional purchases. With people increasingly treating AI as a ‘friend,’ technology may drive retail therapy purchasing, CashNetUSA noted.
