Alcohol doesn’t make you do anything. But a few glasses of wine sure can quiet that voice in the back of your head that tries to tell you, “We don’t actually need that Tim Tebow Fathead wall sticker,” or whatever regrettable impulse buy you might be on the verge of making. And online retailers admit that those occasional after-work happy hours or the extra couple of drops of vodka in your homemade Bloody Mary that sometimes work out to their benefit.

The president of e-tailer Gilt Groupe tells the NY Times that it is adding more late-night sales (i.e., post-9 p.m.), because, “Post-bar, inhibitions can be impacted, and that can cause shopping, and hopefully healthy impulse buying.”

Meanwhile eBay’s VP for mobile tells the paper that intoxication is “absolutely” a factor in the fact that the auction site’s busiest hours are between 6:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. in each time zone. “[I]f you think about what most people do when they get home from work in the evening, it’s decompression time. The consumer’s in a good mood,” he says.

The Times also rounds up some recent online sales that could be taking advantage of a buyer’s post-work buzz:

from 6 to 9 p.m., a limited-quantity sale on fashions at Neiman Marcus; at 7:38 p.m., a promotion for three-day stays at Loews hotels; at 8:44 p.m., a promotion by Gilt for macaroons and faux-fur blankets; and at 2:23 a.m., an offer by Saks for a $2,000 gift card with purchase.

We wanted to see how easily swayed by ethyl alcohol our readers were, so here’s a poll to respond to while you’re hopefully still sober:

Online Merchants Home in on Imbibing Consumers [NY Times]

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