Citation
Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie B.; Ng, Shu Wen; Blitstein, Jonathan L.; Gustafson, Alison; & Niculescu, Mihai (2018). Online Grocery Shopping: Promise and Pitfalls for Healthier Food and Beverage Purchases. Public Health Nutrition, 21(18), 3360-3376.Abstract
OBJECTIVES: (i) To determine the current state of online grocery shopping, including individuals' motivations for shopping for groceries online and types of foods purchased; and (ii) to identify the potential promise and pitfalls that online grocery shopping may offer in relation to food and beverage purchases.DESIGN: PubMed, ABI/INFORM and Google Scholar were searched to identify published research.
SETTING: To be included, studies must have been published between 2007 and 2017 in English, based in the USA or Europe (including the UK), and focused on: (i) motivations for online grocery shopping; (ii) the cognitive/psychosocial domain; and (iii) the community or neighbourhood food environment domain.
SUBJECTS: Our search yielded twenty-four relevant papers.
RESULTS: Findings indicate that online grocery shopping can be a double-edged sword. While it has the potential to increase healthy choices via reduced unhealthy impulse purchases, nutrition labelling strategies, and as a method to overcome food access limitations among individuals with limited access to a brick-and-mortar store, it also has the potential to increase unhealthy choices due to reasons such as consumers' hesitance to purchase fresh produce online.
CONCLUSIONS: Additional research is needed to determine the most effective ways to positively engage customers to use online grocery shopping to make healthier choices.
URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1368980018002409Reference Type
Journal ArticleYear Published
2018Journal Title
Public Health NutritionAuthor(s)
Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie B.Ng, Shu Wen
Blitstein, Jonathan L.
Gustafson, Alison
Niculescu, Mihai