A Study on Consumers Attitude towards online Grocery Shopping in Selected States of Northern India

Abstract

newlinevii newlineABSTRACT newlineShopping on the internet has been developing rapidly, covering most of the important spheres of marketing. Online grocery shopping has been noted of being a relatively young but promising area of electronic commerce. However, only a sparse number of studies have been focusing on consumers attitude to purchase grocery products through online in developed countries. newlineThis study seeks to understand the consumer s attitude towards online grocery shopping and to identify some factors that may foster or hinder its acceptance. The main constructs namely Perceived Usefulness Perceived ease of use Perceived Risks derived from TAM Model, Social Influence derived from the Theory of Reasoned Action. Therefore, this study proposed a theoretical model that modifies and expands the TAM by incorporating four additional constructs, namely Delivery Factors, Mode of Payments, Add on Services and Perceived Technical Barriers. newlineA self-administered Questionnaire was developed and distributed to the 600 online shoppers in three states viz. Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh of Northern India through snowballing techniques and then collected data was analysed through one way ANOVA, factor analysis and multiple regression statistical tools. The results suggest that among socio-economic variables consumers attitude towards OGS is independent of marital status and gender, however, age, income and behavior dimension related to education, working member in the family, current purchasing habits, previous e-commerce experience can help online marketers to develop positive tendency to online grocery shopping. Further, to test the relationship and dependency of consumers attitude towards OGS with various key determinants of consumers attitude, multiple regression analysis was used and results indicates that Perceived Usefulness, Perceived ease of use, Social Influence, Perceived issues/risks determinants were found to have significant relationship with consumers attitude towards OGS. Though other determinants Delivery Factors, Mode of Payments, Add on Service and Perceived Technical Barriers however, don t have a significant relationship with the attitude towards using online grocery shopping. Further, convenient option among the Perceived Usefulness, time slot option among Delivery Factors, mobile apps among the Add-on Services and user friendly website among Perceived Ease of Use construct are the most influencing variables for the newlineviii newlinerespondents. However, consumers are also more concerned about the quality of products among the Perceived Risks factors related to online grocery shopping. Social influence factors have least importance, albeit customer review has moderate weightage. In terms of Technical Barrier compulsion of user id creation was the significant factor. Moreover, the results also indicate that, even though customers are skeptical of using the internet for grocery products, they intent to start using/continue using service. newlineKeywords: Grocery Shopping, Online Shopping, Consumers Attitude, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Risks, Perceived Ease of Use.