engleski

ROLE OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS IN SOCIAL SUPERMARKETS IN CROATIA

Social supermarkets emerged as the answer to economic crisis across Europe. Their main purpose is to serve those groups of customers which have low income or which are in severe material deprivation. They, mainly, collect donations in money, food and toiletries from traditional supply chains and distribute it for free or at extremely discounted prices to people in need. Holweg and Lienbacher (2011) define social supermarkets, narrowly, as food oriented retailers who sell food (not giving it for free) to a restricted group of people living in poverty. On the other hand, Maric and Knezevic (2014) emphasize that social supermarkets are a form of non-profit organizations which use the workforce of volunteers and generated income (if there is any) is used for charitable activities. The purpose of social supermarket is twofold: (1) the poverty reduction trough distribution of food and toiletries to needy people and (2) reduction of inefficiency in traditional (dominantly food) supply chains trough removal of surpluses of produced food (and other goods). Even though, the very purpose of social supermarkets is different in comparison to traditional retailers, their basic characteristics can be compared to traditional retail formats such as convenience shops, supermarkets and discount stores (for more details refer to Maric and Knezevic, 2014). Intensive communication with users and donors increases operational efficiency of social supermarkets. The penetration of Internet and mobile phones within population in Croatia is in line with EU-28 average. Therefore, digital communication could become the vital part of communication mix in social supermarkets. According to data available in Smigielska et al. (2016), digital communications already plays a significant role in promotional activities of social supermarkets. However, in literature, the scope and role of digital communication usage in social supermarkets is not adequately analyzed and described. Especially two types of digital communications are important for social supermarkets operation ; those are web sites and social media. The aim of this paper is to show how social supermarkets use digital communications for interaction with interested publics, primarily, users and donors. The primary research will include analysis of good practices in social supermarkets in Croatia. Firstly, the structure of social supermarkets’ websites will be analyzed and compared. Secondly, the performance and the level of interactivity through social

digital communication, social supermarkets, web, social media, non-profit organizations

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