Proto-practices of online circular shopping: an affordance-based perspective

Sörum, Niklas

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2025, vol. 87, issue C

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to describe and conceptualize consumers' proto-practices of online circular shopping and to examine how digital platform affordances contribute toward shaping consumers’ online practices. This study integrates a Social Practice-Theoretical perspective with an affordance lens to examine how platforms co-shape consumer activities. The analysis is based on an experimental ethnographic “field trial†designed to explore consumers' emergent shopping practices, focusing on the use of digital platform services for circular consumption. The data comprises diary methods, where participants self-reported their platform usage, and in-depth interviews with 24 informants covering themes such as platform utilization, interaction, overall service experience, and platform service attributes. Four proto-practices of online circular shopping were identified: selecting, evaluating, desiring, and redistributing. The findings emphasize that digital platforms should support consumers' online circular shopping practices in order to enhance engagement and facilitate the renting, purchasing, and selling of secondhand fashion, and to promote the circular consumption of fashion items. This paper offers original theoretical insights into the status of online circular shopping, setting new directions for future research on circular consumption from a Social Practice Theory perspective and providing managerial implications regarding the design and features of platform services.

Keywords: Online circular shopping; Proto-practices; Social practice theory; Digital platform affordances; Sustainable fashion; Consumer engagement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:87:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925002346

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104455

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