Similar to traditional focus groups, online focus groups comprise participants from the target of interest who log on to conferencing software at a pre-arranged time. During online discussions, participants interact with each other as well as the moderator in real time to generate deeper insights about the topic. Key benefits of online focus groups are:

  • Ability to engage participants from multiple geographic locations in one virtual place at one time
  • Access to hard-to-reach or over-accessed research populations
  • Reduction in travel expenses and logistics
  • Greater perceived “anonymity” for discussing sensitive or controversial topics