People Are ‘Fake Online Shopping’ for Instant Dopamine Hit

By Danial Martinus • 18 Jun 2026 in Futurism

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(source: Raychan / Unsplash & FoodNeverComes)

Online shopping has truly been one of the most convenient innovations to have come from the internet age. You no longer need to head to the mall or a specialty store just to get something you want. Everything’s available at the tap of a button.

But many people have become too accustomed to the convenience. They wind up developing a dopamine addiction due to the instant gratification of checking things out of your cart and eagerly waiting for your delivery to arrive. For some, it’s resulted in severe debt, burnout, and a decline in mental health.

Gen-Z in South Korea think they might have found a solution for that in the form of fake online shopping platforms, otherwise known as “dopamine sites”. You’re not spending any real money. Just “shopping” for the sake of it; for that instant hit of dopamine.

No real transactions or deliveries, just an authentic “shopping experience”

Dopamine sites like FoodNeverComes mimic real delivery apps. They let you browse through the menus of different restaurants and add individual items to your cart, complete with optional customisations like size, flavouring, add-ons, and more.

These sites apparently help people who frequently swipe through delivery apps when they’re bored or have nothing else to do. It’s almost-instant gratification in the form of a fake delivery app.

Except with dopamine sites like this, no money changes hands. This apparently helps prevent unnecessary spending, especially among those who impulsively spend money out of habit.

It’s also raised some concerns. Critics of dopamine sites like FoodNeverComes say the fake shopping experience doesn’t actually give you an instant hit of dopamine. In reality, not being able to physically receive the thing you ordered might actually make things worse.

But as one Reddit user puts it, “this app is for people for whom shopping is the point, not people for whom shopping is a means to an end.”

It wouldn’t make sense for someone without a shopping addiction to feel any joy out of using the site. But for many shopping addicts, it’s not the product that matters at all; it’s merely the experience of shopping (adding things to cart and checking out) that makes them feel good.

Harsher critics of these sites point to how consumerist and materialistic people have become, linking self-worth with the worldly items in their possession:

Regardless of your thoughts about it, we wouldn’t recommend going to dopamine sites at all. If you’ve got a real shopping addiction, you should probably seek professional help instead.