Understanding Motivations for Using Grocery Shopping Applications

Shopping for groceries in stores has remained almost the same for decades, without much technological support. In recent years, shopping applications have finally started to gain popularity. In this article, the authors investigate why and how people use these applications. They present a case study of Foodie.fi, a popular grocery shopping application in Finland that enables users to plan meals and compile shopping lists to enhance their in-store shopping experience, in addition to shopping online. The authors present the results of an online survey for registered users of the service. The analysis revealed three main motivations for using the service: holistic meal planning, using an external memory aid, and online shopping. In addition, the authors compare the use of grocery shopping applications for in-store and online shopping and explore different situations in which the application is used. The study shows that integrating a recipe service into the grocery shopping application can engage users and also enhance their diets toward more versatile and healthy directions. This article is part of a special issue on pervasive food.