Online grocery shopping (OGS) as scripted behavior: insights on shopping routines of households with children

Purpose Grocery shopping is characteristically a regular, routinized undertaking and therefore resistant to changes, yet little is known of the routines. Using script elicitation, this study investigates what the online grocery shopping (OGS) routines typically look like in households with children, a central target group for grocery retailers, to expand the understanding of OGS for theory development, and to help retailers develop their services relevantly. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected through semi-structured deep interviews from 14 households in Finland and analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings The analysis generated a comprehensive general script for OGS, outlining all possible actions involved, and identified typical OGS routines for households with children, differentiating between impromptu shoppers and planners, with some further variation among planners. Originality/value By approaching OGS as a regular, routinized undertaking and by highlighting the steps in shopping routines that are typically overlooked by researchers and retailers, several recommendations can be made on how to conceptualize OGS in future studies, and how to develop the services to support routinized OGS among households with children.