Carolin 
inspire-studio
Yesterday I stumbled across something really fascinating. There are more and more online shops where you can browse products, add them to your cart, and “buy” them. But you don’t pay with real money, and the items are never shipped. The entire point is the dopamine hit from browsing and choosing. Impulse shopping without guilt—wow.
This isn’t about Dopamine Decor, but if that’s why you’re here, you might enjoy my rainbow blanket or my bright red baby blanket. .
At first, the idea made me feel sad. Sad that people need something so decadent while children are still starving in parts of the world. But after reading more about it, I realized the concept is actually brilliant—and that I’ve unconsciously done something similar myself. But let’s start at the beginning.
Why do people do this?
For many people, online shopping is genuinely fun. They use comparison sites and configurators, read product reviews, and fill their carts. Along the way, they experience lots of little dopamine hits. People who prefer offline activities might get those same good feelings from picking raspberries, gathering mushrooms, or even hunting.
The payment process itself is often less enjoyable.
Damn, they don’t accept my favorite payment method... where’s my credit card number again? Did that work, or do I need to click again?
Paying online can actually be a bit stressful. It gets even more annoying when delivery is delayed. You may have to call strangers or pick up your package from a neighbor you don’t particularly like. Then the package finally arrives, you unpack everything, and realize it’s just… normal stuff. Stuff that now needs space on a shelf, leaves behind a cardboard box cluttering the hallway, or—worst of all—needs to be returned immediately. Which means getting up earlier the next day so you can drop it off before work.
So there’s this happiness curve that drops sharply after checkout—and this is exactly where these shops come in. If everything after paying is mostly frustrating anyway, why not just skip that part entirely?
I don’t know exactly how these shops came about, but I did read about one developer who created such a shop as a therapy tool for people struggling with shopping addiction.
But there are many more people who could benefit from this. I’m thinking of people who are financially comfortable but want to reduce their consumption for ethical and/or environmental reasons without giving up the fun. These shops can also create a sense of participation for people who don’t have much money but still want to enjoy the experience of “shopping.”
How wonderful! We can all order an outrageously expensive watch—without having to buy a safe or pay for insurance afterward.
Too good to be true? What’s the catch?
But is fake shopping really better for the environment than making an actual purchase? Data centers consume so much energy, after all.
I was surprised myself by how clear the answer is: YES.
First, we should remember that real online shopping also uses computing power. Still, I looked up figures to compare the carbon footprint of one ball of yarn with the carbon footprint of one hour of fake shopping.
Carbon footprint
Producing 1 kg of conventional cotton causes roughly 11–15 kg of CO₂ emissions. Animal fibers like wool can reach 20–30 kg of CO₂ per kilogram of fiber. That means a 100 g ball of natural fiber yarn already accounts for about 1–3 kg of CO₂ in production alone—not including storage, packaging, or shipping.
One hour of faux shopping produces only around 8–19 grams of CO₂. Even if you include building and disposing of data centers, you’re still in the gram range.
As consumers, we can improve that number even more by using our devices for as long as possible.
And that’s only the carbon footprint. I’m not even looking at water consumption.
What’s in it for the dopamine-shop operators?
If nobody pays, how do the operators make money? Why build these shops at all?
That’s an excellent question.
Building a shop and filling it with products takes time. Depending on how seriously the shop is run, there may also be ongoing costs for hosting, legal compliance, advertising, and support.
Some people do this in their free time out of pure altruism. Others at least want to cover their costs—or even make money from it. And honestly, I think that’s perfectly fair. If someone puts work into a digital product, earning money from it seems entirely reasonable.
I read about one app that charges €3.99 per month. A small amount compared to what users might spend on real online shopping. For the developer, even 1,000 users would already create a decent income.
Overall, I think that’s a very honest model.
Others may place ads for real shops or products inside their faux shopping platform. Personally, I’d be fine with that as long as the advertising is clearly labeled. Others may use it for market research or collect user data they can sell. I’m okay with that too—as long as users are informed. What’s not okay is collecting data secretly or sending intrusive spam, especially based on products I selected.
Whenever something new appears on the internet that people click on, someone will find a way to make money from it. And whenever money can be made online, people will try everything—from the most ethical to the most shameless approaches, and everything in between.
So if you decide to try one of these services, pay attention and read the fine print.
Want to try it yourself?
Here’s the bad news: there don’t seem to be any fake shops specifically for crafting supplies yet. But maybe this feels familiar already. You don’t actually need special shops to fill a cart without buying anything. This works in every online shop. Thinking about it now, I’ve unconsciously done this many times myself. It’s a modern form of dreaming, planning, and playing—and there are many variations.
- Fill your cart and abandon it
Simply use your favorite online shops. - Make wishlists or checklists
This is slightly more abstract than a shopping cart. Fill a wishlist or checklist with things you’d like to have. These don’t even need to be specific store items—general wishes like “crochet hook set” work too. This also works offline, by the way. - Combine patterns and yarns on Ravelry Anleitungen und Garne kombinieren
On Ravelry (or similar platforms), you can browse endless patterns and yarns, com - Simulation games
Online games where you can build things and interact with other players are the perfect place to live out all kinds of consumption fantasies without accumulating physical clutter. (Maybe someone still remembers Second Life?)
Pro tip
To wrap things up, I want to return once more to the carbon footprint. The real ball of yarn actually comes out ahead if we already have it at home and decide to knit with it instead of simulating consumption. Instead of browsing tactile materials like yarn online, we can simply go to our own stash, touch the skeins, run strands through our fingers, compare colors, and fall in love again with products we already chose once before. I call this shopping in your own closet. And if you have lots of WIPs, you can browse those too, pick a kit, and start crocheting right away.₂-Bilanz: Das echte Wollknäuel schneidet dann besser ab, wenn wir es bereits zu Hause haben und uns entschließen, das Knäuel zu verstricken, anstatt Konsum zu simulieren. Anstatt etwas Haptisches wie Wolle online auszusuchen, können wir auch einfach an unseren Garnvorrat gehen, die Knäuel befühlen, einzelne Fäden durch unsere Finger streichen lassen, die Farben vergleichen und uns neu in die Produkte verlieben, für die wir uns schon einmal entschieden haben. Ich nenne das Shopping im eigenen Schrank. Wer viele WIPs hat, kann auch dort stöbern, ein Kit auswählen und direkt los häkeln.
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Is this topic new to you, or are you already a faux-shopping pro? Feel free to leave me a comment.
