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Young Estonians and Danes as online shoppers

A comparative study

Reelika Raamat is a MA student in the Department of Journalism and Communication at the University of Tartu. Her research interests include young people's and children's consumer culture. She has previously studied Estonian school pupil's interpretations of brands and consumption of clothing in the Estonian school environment. Address: Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Tartu, Ülikooli 18, Tartu. [email: neviani{at}ut.ee]

Margit Keller

Margit Keller (PhD) is a lecturer at the Department of Journalism and Communication at the University of Tartu. Her publications include articles ‘Coping with Consumer Culture: Elderly Urban Consumers in Post-Soviet Estonia’, Trames (2005); ‘Freedom Calling: Telephony, Mobility and Consumption in Post-socialist Estonia’ (European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2005) and ‘Needs, Desires and the Experience of Scarcity: Representations of Recreational Shopping in Post-Soviet Estonia’ (Journal of Consumer Culture, 2005). Address: Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Tartu, Ülikooli 18, Tartu. [email: margit.keller{at}ut.ee]

Anne Martensen

Anne Martensen (PhD) is associate professor at the Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. She received an MSc and a PhD, both in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School. Her research interests include children, adolescent and new media (Information, Communication and Entertainment Technologies); children's influence in family decision making; measuring and managing customer satisfaction and loyalty, and marketing communication management. Address: Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark. [email: am.marketing{at}cbs.dk]

Birgitte Tufte

Birgitte Tufte (dr. pæd) is a professor at the Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Her area of research is children, adolescents and media, media education, children and consumption, and the role of media in the consumer socialization of children. She has published many books and articles on these themes. Address: Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark. [email: bt.marktg{at}cbs.dk]

In this study, interpretations of young Danes’ and Estonians’ online shopping are compared based on interviews with 23 Danes and 24 Estonians aged 12–18 years. The findings show that young Danes are more familiar with online shopping and buying, and view it more positively than do young Estonians. This is well reflected by the fact that Estonians focus mainly on the risks of online shopping, expressing various forms of distrust, while young Danes tend to emphasize benefits. Yet, both countries’ respondents show more confidence in regular shops with face-to-face contact than in online stores which are considered to be abstract and disembedded. Differences in representations of online shopping are related to a complex set of system and agential resources: different cultural contexts, institutional and economic factors, and social networks.

Key Words: Denmark • Estonia • online shopping • trust • young people

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