Online alcohol sales and home delivery: An international policy review and systematic literature review

Colbert, Stephanie; Wilkinson, Claire; Thornton, Louise; Feng, Xiaoqi; Richmond, Robyn

doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.07.005

Cited by 34 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The survey was conducted one year after COVID-19 restrictions were enacted across the US, and several participants noted this as a reason for purchasing products online. As rates of e-commerce have been shown to have increased during the pandemic 13,14,33 , we expected similar findings here, though the magnitude is unclear due to the nature of this study. Concerns noted among those who had not purchased online related to legality, safety, and quality.…”

Section: Concernssupporting

confidence: 71%

“…First, e-commerce sales in the US have increased at double-digit rates for the past two decades and have significantly outpaced brick-and-mortar retail growth 12 . Second, this study was conducted in April 2021, following widespread brick-and-mortar closures due to the global pandemic, which may have limited in-person tobacco and nicotine purchases and increased e-commerce 13,14 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Price, convenience, the buying experience, and other motivations for purchasing tobacco and e-cigarettes online

Jensen¹,

Rebentisch²,

Tripp³

et al. 2022

Tob. Induc. Dis.

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INTRODUCTION Consumers have shifted to online purchases for many products, including tobacco and e-cigarettes. These shifts have occurred alongside internet tobacco purchasing restrictions being proposed and enacted across the US. The aim of this study was to identify motivations for and against purchasing tobacco and e-cigarettes online, to better understand potential impacts or loopholes. METHODS We surveyed 463 US adults who reported ever purchasing tobacco or e-cigarettes in April 2021, using Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Participants who reported purchasing tobacco or e-cigarettes online were asked to describe their reasons for doing so. Those who reported never purchasing online were asked to describe their reasons. Responses were triple-coded and thematically analyzed. RESULTS Most respondents (n=330; 71.3%) had purchased tobacco or e-cigarettes online. We identified 14 reasons for purchasing tobacco or e-cigarettes online across four themes: price (cheaper online, discounts, bulk purchases, avoiding taxes), product characteristics (availability, quality), buying experience (convenience, time, COVID-19 concerns, avoiding shame, discretion, avoiding salespersons, reading reviews), and curiosity. We identified 13 reasons for not purchasing tobacco or e-cigarette products online across seven themes: buying experience (convenience, time, discretion, seeing the product), concerns (legality, safety, quality), consumption, price, supporting local, unaware, and uninterested. CONCLUSIONS Both online and offline purchasers stated price and convenience motivated their choice to purchase tobacco or e-cigarettes online. Though few participants mentioned purchasing illicit products, concerns about legality and quality of online purchases were raised, and there was some awareness that online purchases attracted lower taxation.

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Section: Concernssupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Price, convenience, the buying experience, and other motivations for purchasing tobacco and e-cigarettes online

Jensen¹,

Rebentisch²,

Tripp³

et al. 2022

Tob. Induc. Dis.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Still, preventing further rises in availability may halt the normalisation of alcohol in everyday life, and it may have a role to play in reducing harms as part of a package of wider policy measures, most of which are not under local control. 19 Further limitations in the evidence around the role of online availability, 35,36 availability relative to a person's place of work or daily travel, and interactions between availability and price 9 may also give rise to expanded areas of focus for public health efforts. It may well be that the impact of public health stakeholders on the licensing system will take a long time to emerge, and/or that demonstrably unsuccessful public health efforts will lead to improvements in the licensing system, especially where a public health objective has been set for licensing but is not being achieved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How public health teams navigate their different roles in alcohol premises licensing: ExILEnS multistakeholder interview findings

et al. 2022

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Background In England and Scotland, local governments regulate the sale of alcohol by awarding licences to premises to permit the sale of alcohol for consumption on or off the premises, under certain conditions; without such a licence, alcohol cannot be legally sold. In recent years, many local public health teams have become proactive in engaging with alcohol licensing, encouraging licensing authorities to act in ways intended to improve population health. Objective This research aimed to explore and understand the approaches and activities of public health stakeholders (i.e. NHS staff and other public health professionals) in seeking to influence local alcohol licensing policy and decisions, and the views of licensing stakeholders (i.e. licensing officers/managers, police staff with a licensing remit, elected members and licensing lawyers/clerks) on the acceptability and effectiveness of these approaches. Participants Local public health teams in England and Scotland were directly informed about this multisite study. Scoping calls were conducted with interested teams to explore their level of activity in alcohol licensing from 2012 across several categories. Twenty local authority areas with public health teams active in licensing matters were recruited purposively in England (n = 14) and Scotland (n = 6) to vary by region and rurality. Fifty-three in-depth telephone interviews (28 with public health stakeholders and 25 with licensing stakeholders outside health, such as local authority licensing teams/lawyers or police) were conducted. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically in NVivo 12 (QSR International, Warrington, UK) using inductive and deductive approaches. Results Public health stakeholders’ approaches to engagement varied, falling into three main (and sometimes overlapping) types. (1) Many public health stakeholders in England and all public health stakeholders in Scotland took a ‘challenging’ approach to influencing licensing decisions and policies. Reducing health harms was felt to necessitate a focus on reducing availability and generating longer-term culture change, citing international evidence on the links between availability and alcohol-related harms. Some of these stakeholders viewed this as being a narrow, ‘nanny state’ approach, whereas others welcomed public health expertise and its evidence-based approach and input. (2) Some public health stakeholders favoured a more passive, ‘supportive’ approach, with some reporting that reducing availability was unachievable. They reported that, within the constraints of current licensing systems, alcohol availability may be contained (at least in theory) but cannot be reduced, because existing businesses cannot be closed on availability grounds. In this ‘supportive’ approach, public health stakeholders supplied licensing teams with data on request or waited for guidance from licensing teams on when and how to get involved. Therefore, public health action supported the licensing team in their aim of promoting ‘safe’ and ‘responsible’ retailing of alcohol and/or focused on short-term outcomes other than health, such as crime. (3) Some public health stakeholders favoured a ‘collaborative’ approach in which they worked in close partnership with licensing teams; this could include a focus on containing availability or responsible retail of alcohol, or both. Conclusions In engaging with alcohol licensing, public health stakeholders adapted their approaches, sometimes resulting in a diminished focus on public health goals. Sampling did not include lower-activity areas, in which experiences might differ. The extent to which current licensing systems enable achievement of public health goals is questionable and the effectiveness of public health efforts merits quantitative evaluation. Study registration The study is registered with the Research Registry as researchregistry6162. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in Public Health Research. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

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“…During the pandemic, alcohol consumption increased among those who were already drinking excessively ( 3 ). Alcohol sales quickly adapted to the closure of points of sale through the expansion of online sales and home deliveries ( 4 ). This situation potentially created a new norm for drinking at home, within the family and alone, with consequences that are yet to be assessed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of the Pan American Health Organization digital health specialist on alcohol use

Monteiro

Pantani

Pinsky

et al. 2022

Front. Digit. Health

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IntroductionOn 19 November 2021 the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) developed and deployed the first-ever digital health worker dedicated to alcohol-related topics, named Pahola. This paper describes this developmental process and the first results of its uptake and interactions with the public.MethodsPAHO secured a non-exclusive worldwide license with a technology company to use their Human OS ecosystem, which enables human-like interactions between digital people and users via an application. Google Digital flow ES was used to develop the conversations of Pahola on topics related to alcohol and health, screening of alcohol risk using the AUDIT and providing a quit/cut back plan to users, along with additional treatment services and resources in each country of the Americas. A communication campaign was also implemented from launching date until 31 December 2021.ResultsPahola attracted good attention from the media, and potentially reached 1.6 million people, leading to 236,000 sessions on its landing page, mostly through mobile devices. The average time people effectively spent talking to Pahola was five minutes. Major dropouts were observed in different steps of the conversation flow.DiscussionPahola was quickly able to connect to a large worldwide population with reliable alcohol information. It could potentially increase the delivery of SBI and improve alcohol health literacy. However, its preliminary results pointed to much needed changes to its corpus and on its accessibility, which are being currently implemented.

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Online alcohol sales and home delivery: An international policy review and systematic literature review

Cited by 34 publications

References 7 publications

Price, convenience, the buying experience, and other motivations for purchasing tobacco and e-cigarettes online

Price, convenience, the buying experience, and other motivations for purchasing tobacco and e-cigarettes online

How public health teams navigate their different roles in alcohol premises licensing: ExILEnS multistakeholder interview findings

The development of the Pan American Health Organization digital health specialist on alcohol use

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