Why You Get Sucked Into All of Those Black Friday Sales

In the midst of a massive third wave of coronavirus cases hitting every state in the country, Americans are weighing how to participate in a time-honored tradition: shopping on Black Friday. Last year, shoppers spent $11.6 billion across Thanksgiving Day and the day after.

Shopping this year will definitely be different. In response to the pandemic, consumers have flocked online, driving a monumental growth spurt in online spending.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, e-commerce sales grew more than 30% between the first and second quarters of 2020; in the second quarter of 2020, Americans spent $211.5 billion online. Though panic buying and other consumer trends — like spending more time on social media — were largely responsible for the surge in online spending, e-retailers were quick to pull out tricks — or dark patterns — to lure shoppers into spending more.

“A dark pattern is a design practice that is intentionally created to mislead a user or have them do something that they wouldn’t normally do,” said Tyler Andersen, senior product designer at ConsumerTrack.

More people will see these dark patterns when they hit their computers for some post-turkey shopping. Find out what you can do to avoid getting sucked into another Black Friday sale.