New Year’s Eve, a night known for its drunken revelries,  is almost here. Everyone knows about the dangers of drunk driving and dialing. The new risk is drunk shopping.

In her article, “Online Merchants Home In on Imbibing Consumers,” the New York Times‘ Stephanie Clifford reports on the logic behind retailers tailoring their online marketing strategies to reach consumers who might be shopping under the influence.

“‘Post-bar, inhibitions can be impacted, and that can cause shopping, and hopefully healthy impulse buying,’” Andy Page, president of Gilt Groupe, an online retailer, tells Clifford. Page also mentioned his company was adding more sales starting at 9 p.m. to respond to high traffic at that time.

ComScore reports that e-commerce spending for the first 48 days of the holiday season reached $32 billion, jumping 15 percent over last year. It also found that close to 40 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to make a purchase at least once.

Obviously, it is impossible for online retailers to determine what percentage of their sales can be attributed to drunk buying, but as more people do their shopping online through a pc or a smartphone, the chances of it happening are  increasing.

It’s also a given that some customers will immediately return the item they purchased while wearing beer goggles, however there’s no denying business owners have an added incentive for targeting those happy hour and late-night shoppers.