We are pleased to announce that Dr. Katrin Zulauf from the Department of Economics at the University of Kassel has received the DITRA Award 2023. This award recognizes her contribution to research, in particular for her article "Online shopping therapy: if you want to be happy, store around" in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing, which she published together with Prof. Dr. R. Wagner.

The study examines how online shopping is used as a coping strategy and to regulate mood in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The research emphasizes the role of motivation for online shopping and crisis coping shopping and examines cultural differences in purchasing behavior during such crisis situations.

Based on data from Europe and Latin America, the study shows that crisis coping shopping has a three times stronger influence on therapeutic shopping than pure motivation for online therapeutic shopping. The results indicate that retailers should consider consumers' emotional responses in disruptive times.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in routines and attitudes, with compensatory consumption and shopping identified as possible coping strategies. The study highlights that these findings are not only applicable to the pandemic, but also have broader implications for understanding purchasing behavior in crisis situations.

Overall, Dr. Zulauf's research sheds light on the role of online shopping as a strategy to increase wellbeing during a crisis and highlights the importance of crisis coping shopping to regulate mood. The findings provide retailers with insights on how to address consumer needs during difficult times and provide impetus for future research in the area of shopping behavior during disruptive events. We congratulate Dr. Zulauf on this award.