Triggered or Consciously Evaluated? A Qualitative Inquiry Into the Decision to Start Using E-Grocery Services

This qualitative paper examines the importance of both situational factors and adoption constructs in the decision to use online grocery services for the first time. To that end, we have conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with (one or more representatives of) 15 households in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), who all use Collect & Go, Belgium's most popular online grocery service. The content analysis shows that adoption is often induced by situational factors (such as health problems or changes in family circumstances), but not in isolation from an evaluation of technology adoption constructs (such as performance expectancy and social influence). Indeed, we find that immediately or soon after the emergence of the initial trigger, consumers start thinking of the service in terms of innovation characteristics. Moreover, unlike what the literature suggests, adoption is not discontinued when the initiating trigger disappears