Digital consumer spirituality

Abstract

Technology is increasingly changing consumers’ relationship with spirituality. This chapter develops the concept of digital consumer spirituality. Digital consumer spirituality is defined as the interrelated practices and processes consumers engage in when consuming digital market offerings (products, services, spaces) that yield spiritual utility. This chapter brings together existing consumer research addressing digital consumer spirituality and reveals four practices that consumers engage in to access spirituality via the digital: (i) prosuming online spiritual communities, (ii) sacralizing brands, products, and services through digital worship, (iii) searching digitally for the spiritual, and (iv) constructing spiritual identities via the digital. Based on this analysis, an ambitious future research agenda is set out, suggesting significant research questions for each practice identified. Finally, this chapter identifies key emerging digital technologies and suggests how they will shape the growth of digital consumer spirituality, namely (i) transhumanism and (ii) robots and other advanced machines.