Digimums' online grocery shopping: the end of children's influence?

Abstract

PurposeThis paper investigates children's influence on their mothers' online grocery shopping. As virtual shopping does not provide instant gratification, the authors explore how children between the ages of 7 and 11 are involved in the online purchasing process (before, during and after the purchase) with their digital mothers (digimums).Design/methodology/approachWe collected qualitative data from 27 separate semi-structured interviews of mothers and their children.FindingsChildren's influence during the online buying process exists and can be active, passive and/or proactive. The findings extend knowledge about children's influence by adding the notion of proactive influence where children use an intended approach to anticipate their mother's needs for grocery shopping and take initiatives. Children use less impulsive requests and become smart shoppers using more rational arguments to explain their requests. The online buying process contributes to children's online socialisation: They learn the importance of the shopping list, prices, discounts, brands and so on. Online socialisation at home might take the physical form of using digital devices (i.e. scanning) and entering the credit card code, which contributes to the children's learning.Originality/valueOnline buying virtualises children's relationship to objects, and the screen acts as a kind of filter. This makes their influence strategy less emotional and corporeal and more rational (smart shopper).

Motherhood and consumption: A systematic review and directions for future research

“…Despite “Consumer Socialization and Intergenerational Influence” being the largest perspective, only four studies have addressed the Internet's role (Ayadi & Muratore, 2020; Ghouse et al, 2020; Kowalczyk & Royne, 2016; Niu, 2017). Considering the Internet's potential to impact key consumer socialization areas—like advertising knowledge, transaction understanding, and decision‐making skills—identified by John (1999), there is a significant gap opportunity for research.…”

“…The publications in this perspective are part of an academic trend that, especially since the 2000s, have posited that children's influence over purchasing decisions has grown significantly, and that decision‐making within families has become increasingly collaborative (Sharma & Sonwaney, 2014). These studies address, for example, children's influence over parents concerning the selection of family dining‐out options (Chen et al, 2016), over their mothers' online grocery shopping (Ayadi & Muratore, 2020), or supermarket shopping behavior (Page et al, 2018).…”

A scoping review of online food retail: Who’s using it, what they are buying, and what tactics are used to promote healthy or unhealthy purchases

“…Similarly, a North American survey among online grocery shoppers found that participants wished that there were the same store circulars and in-store sales in online grocery platforms [71]. Though limited, promotional tactics included price promotions such as discounting [92] and buy-one-get-one [39]. These promotions changed weekly (as is typical in North America) or up to every eight weeks (as is more typical in Europe) [56].…”

Children’s engagement with environmental issues

“…In addition, 70% of all French people consider themselves to be ecoresponsible. Given the influence of children on food shopping in the family setting (Ayadi & Muratore, 2020), this context might arouse children's awareness about the origins of food, and the related natural and environmental issues (including agricultural practices, and the naturalness of the products). To explore children's engagement with environmental issues, we took a child-centric approach (Banister & Booth, 2005).…”