9 out of 10 people hide a purchase: what that says about consumers

The other day a friend told me, feeling pretty guilty, that she'd bought herself a ridiculously expensive handbag.
She told her husband someone had given it to her. Her mom, a cousin, some distant relative... by that point it didn't really matter who.
Her defense was: "well, everybody does it."

And that "everybody" doesn't work for my brain. I need to know how many human beings "everybody" actually is.
So I went looking for the data.
Turns out she wasn't far off: 9 out of 10 people had recently hidden some consumer behavior from someone close to them (partner, kids, etc.)
And that's when I had to admit I wasn't exactly in a position to judge her either.
I've tossed shoeboxes in a trash can before getting home. I've also gone to pick up deliveries at the entrance of my complex to avoid the buzzer and any unnecessary questions.

But the stat stuck with me.
Because if this happens to so many people, then it's not just a slightly embarrassing anecdote. It's a behavior, and that's the part I love..
And when a behavior shows up in 9 out of 10 people, my brain immediately starts asking what we're designing without taking it into account.

Because today, buying something discreetly still takes a certain amount of creativity: hiding the box, deleting the email, intercepting the package, asking the delivery guy to please not announce to half the building where it's from.
And maybe it shouldn't be so complicated. We're not talking about Swiss bank accounts or some illegal network, it could be anything from a chocolate bar to a handbag....

You don't need to invent anything revolutionary. Sometimes it would be enough to be able to choose "I'd rather keep this purchase discreet" and have the rest of the experience get it from there.
My friend wanted to justify a handbag.
I ended up hooked researching consumer secrets and thinking about how to design them differently.
Pretty normal for me.

P.S. You don't have to confess your guilty purchase in the comments, we already know you're one of the 9 people lol
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*Brick, Gullo Wight and Fitzsimons. Journal of Consumer Psychology, University of Connecticut.