Adoption of Online Grocery

Grocery shopping is an activity that every person will conduct at some or other time in hisor her lifetime. Over the past few centuries, shopping has always been done in thetraditional way, where customers go physically to stores to purchase the products thatthey require. With the advent and extensive adoption of the Internet, the face of groceryshopping has changed and a new animal in the form of Online Grocery Shopping hasemerged as a potential service that offers significant benefits to both users and retailers.The purpose of this research was to firstly indentify the typical demographical andbehavioural profile of a South African that would use an Online Grocery ShoppingService (OGSS). The second aim was to review the factors identified from previousresearch that could potentially affect the adoption of such a service and to then testwhether such factors were applicable to the South African market.Data was collected via online and email questionnaires that were sent to potentialrespondents, as well as paper questionnaires that were physically administered at theentrances to certain grocery stores. A total of 175 surveys were collected, of which 132responses were fully completed and were used for the analysis. The demographical andbehavioural profiles were analysed and discussed using graphs. A confirmatory factoranalysis was employed and applied to the data collected, to determine whether thefactors identified were pertinent to the South African consumer.It was found that the South African that is most likely to use an OGSS was between theages of 30 to 49, would have a tertiary qualification and would earn at least a nethousehold income of R10 000. The behavioural characteristics of the potential SouthAfrican OGSS user was found to be that they would have larger families of at least 4members, have one to two children, have access to the Internet, would be the majorgrocery shopper in the family and would normally spend a significant amount of timeconducting the grocery shopping activity.It was concluded from the confirmatory factor analysis that the five factors identifiednamely, perceived benefits, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, visibility and socialinfluence, were indeed factors that would affect the adoption of an OGSS in South Africa.iiFrom the perceived benefits aspect, users perceived the time saving, convenience andassisting the old and elderly elements to be the prime benefits offered by an OGSS. Theperceived ease of use highlighted that the OGSS offered must be simple to understandand easy to follow for it to be initially adopted. The perceived risk factor was also foundto be a critical element that influenced the adoption of an OGSS. Primary reasons of riskrelated to credit card fraud, potential robbery, incorrect products being delivered andpoor quality of products. The visibility and social influence factors were found to beessential to the adoption of an OGSS, especially during the growth phase. The reasonprovided for this was that the visibility of the service being used and the social pressureby others contributed to new users adopting or rejecting such a service