​Online shopping is the new drug addiction that is pulling India’s professional

If you’re amongst the ones going crazy about flashsale on eCommerce sites, this piece is for you. There are hundreds like you and most of them are working with India Inc and ending up spending too much in online shopping is the new in thing. As per a news report in The Economic Times, employers are conducting shopping de-addiction programme. Optum International, the organisation that conducts the de-addiction programme, connects the candidate with counsellor.

HRs across various industries have noted, employees would have various shopping apps open in their mobile and would be seen secretly shopping the entire month.

The financial daily has reported that a person named Anirudh Sehgal has recently undergone Optum treatment.

"We not only made him realise the long-term impact and possible ways to tackle this addiction, we also connected him to our financial advisors who helped him plan his expenses better," Amber Alam, head of business (India), Optum International (formerly PPC Worldwide), a provider of employee counselling told the ET.

It has so far conducted online shopping de-addiction programmes for about 500 executives.

The tribe of such compulsive online prodigals is slowly growing, say counsellors and psychiatrists. This is forcing companies to come alongside and offer help to executives addicted to buying stuff online.

"Shopping addiction exists in our study on exploration of behavioural addiction in community," Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, additional professor, department of clinical psychology, NIMHANS, Bangalore told the financial daily.

About 4.7% of female respondents and 3.5% of male respondents admitted to online shopping addiction in a NIMHANS study of 2,750 people in the age group of 18-65 years. The study was funded by Indian Council of Medical Research, Delhi.

Every day, Sameer Malhotra, who heads the department of mental health & behavioural sciences at Max Healthcare, treats at least two patients struggling with compulsive online shopping disorders. Leading multinational corporations are seeking de-addiction and counselling assistance for their employees, companies that provide such assistance say.

"There is a lot of anxiety because people are spending money buying stuff on the Internsitting in offices, airports, washrooms, wherever they can, and damaging their finances," added Alam.

"This is a kind of compulsive behaviour where consumers get a kick or are compelled to buy things they do not need in abundance," says Max Healthcare's Malhotra. "It sometimes boils down to keeping them under supervision or keeping away plastic money from them," he adds.

Online retailers claim to be unaware of this syndrome. "We haven't come across any cases of online addiction among consumers so far," Praveen Sinha, co-founder and managing director of Jabong.com told the ET. "

(Image: Reuters)