Spiritual consumerism on jewelery selling websites : a case study of critical discourse analysis and multimodal discourse analysis

Spiritual consumerism-the processes and practices when consumers buy goods and services to seek fulfillment is often used as a marketing strategy. This study investigates five jewelry websites (Buddha Stones, Shubhanjali, Karma and Luck, Buddha&Karma, Moaura), which use spiritual discourse to promote their products. 20 screenshots (including advertising page, products classification page, products/service display page, and product description page) were analyzed through multimodal discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis, focusing on legitimation, intertextuality, and visual grammar strategies. This study shows that the website makers use spiritual symbols, traditional colors, intertextual references, and legitimation to link buying their products with spiritual practice. Although the use of these discourse strategies blurs the boundary between spiritual practice and commerce, they may mislead consumers by hiding true promotional intention behind spiritual texts.