Nudging in the right direction : A qualitative study on nudging online grocery store environments

Sammanfattning: Problem: Nudging has come to be widely used by organizations who wish to influence the choices of their consumers. This concept has been greatly praised, criticized, discussed, and researched; however, this has mostly been set in offline environments, making nudging in online environments an area in need of further research. Over the last couple of years, grocery store e-commerce has increased immensely in popularity, a trend that is predicted to last and grow. Due to this, companies that offer online shopping will be required to understand and adapt in order to stay in the game. Purpose: This paper is an attempt to increase the knowledge of digital nudging and its usefulness, as a way to cope with a drastic demand change within the grocery store industry. The purpose of this study is to examine how nudging can be used to improve online shopping experience in the grocery store industry in Sweden. This paper is intended for students and professionals in business administration, and as well for nudge architects in the online grocery storeindustry. Method: This research is a qualitative study that has been conducted under an interpretivist paradigm with a dual research approach, deductive and inductive. Data have been collected through a literature review, one interview with a field expert within grocery store nudging, and nineconsumer families. After analyzing these data, conclusions could be drawn in answer to the study purpose. Conclusion: The main conclusion drawn from this study is that there are such large differences in consumer behavior in online versus offline environments that it is practically impossible to transfer nudges without making any adaptations or changes to the environment and/or the consumers behavior. Rather than trying to convert analog nudges to digital, the authors found that listening to the consumers’ wishes is the best way to find inspiration for digital nudge creation.