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Promise and pitfalls for healthier food and beverage purchases
Pitts, S. B. J., Ng, S. W., Blitstein, J. L., Gustafson, A., & Niculescu, M. (2018). Online grocery shopping: Promise and pitfalls for healthier food and beverage purchases. Public Health Nutrition, 21(18), 3360-3376. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980018002409
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.
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.