The tactics retailers use to make us spend more – and how they harm the vulnerable

Online stores draw in shoppers but those with mental health issues are particularly susceptible

As a digital marketer, Emily Ware spends a lot of time online, yet this comes with a risk. Ware has borderline personality disorder, a mental health condition linked with impulsive behaviours. In her case, that's spending money online.

At the start of 2020 I was 4,250 in debt with nothing to show for it," she says. A good 95% of this was due to impulse spending, from clothes to pub trips to gig tickets. One of the worst was spending 300 on tickets to see Cher on a whim."