Want to be happy, shop online. Many people use shopping to improve their mood. The work of Dr. Katrin Zulauf and Prof. Dr. Ralf Wagner investigates whether this effect also exists online. The paper examines the relationships between motivation for therapeutic online shopping, crisis-coping shopping, and therapeutic shopping in crisis situations. It explicitly addresses the research question of how online shopping motivation and crisis coping Shopping influence therapeutic purchases. Empirical findings were obtained in Europe and Latin America. We used partial least squares models and multigroup analysis to 
to compare consumers' culturally based responses to crises.
The effect of crisis-responsive shopping is nearly three times as strong as the effect of the therapeutic shopping motivation on therapeutic shopping. This study explores concepts of hedonic shopping and retail therapy in online environments and disruptive situations by examining therapeutic shopping.
Cultural differences are highlighted in relation to shopping for mood regulation during a crisis. Finally, this study examines the role of therapeutic motivation in retail and crisis-managing online shopping and discusses implications for consumers, managers, and future research.

Katrin Zulauf & Ralf Wagner (2021): Online Shopping Therapy: If
You Want to Be Happy, Shop around, Journal of International Consumer Marketing, DOI:  10.1080/08961530.2021.1955425