Consumer adoption of online grocery shopping In the Cape Metropolitan Area, South Africa

Abstract

The growth and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) such as the Internet across the globe, has been phenomenal. For both businesses and consumers, the Internet birthed new and highly effective and efficient avenues for communicating and transacting. The use of the Internet as a business trading platform known as e-commerce became popular in the 1990s and has inevitably led to the mushrooming of online retailers. The growth of this non-store retail segment poses a threat to traditional brick and mortar retail stores, although retail experts now view online retailing as an evolution rather than a revolution. Previously, non-grocery merchandise was the predominant commodity that was being sold online, but there is now growing evidence of online grocery shopping (OGS). Most developed nations such as UK, USA, France and Finland are considered to have well-developed online grocery markets, yet developing countries such as South Africa are still at an infancy stage. Most research about OGS had a Eurocentric view, and there are limited studies that focus on other parts of the world such as Africa. This research study took a consumer-centric perspective to understand consumer adoption of OGS, with the specific aim of determining factors that influence consumers’ behavioural intention to adopt OGS in the Cape Metropolitan area of South Africa. This study followed a quantitative research approach and a statistically derived sample size of 455 respondents was used. These respondents were conveniently selected at shopping malls in the Cape Metropolitan area. Of the questionnaires that were distributed, 391 questionnaires were usable and were captured on Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 for the purpose of data analysis. The findings of the study showed that most respondents were black single females aged between 26 and 45 years with a diploma education level. The study also showed that 84.9% (n=391) of respondents had not adopted OGS, which indicated that most respondents were still accustomed to in-store grocery shopping. Using the Generalised Linear Model to determine which factors influenced consumers’ behavioural intention to adopt OGS, only Perceived Cost (PCo) had a significant influence on consumers’ behavioural intention to adopt OGS. Other factors such as Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Visibility (VIS), Perceived Risk (PR), Perceived Image Barrier (PIB) and Social Attractiveness (SAT) had an indirect influence on consumers’ behavioural intention to adopt OGS. Based on the findings of the study in order to improve consumer adoption of OGS, the following recommendations have been made. Firstly, that online grocery managers and e-marketers should market OGS emphasising the usefulness and cost effectiveness of using it while at the same time factors such as PU, PEOU, VIS, PR, VIS, PIB and SAT should also be integrated into the communication campaigns. Secondly, that further research can be done to find ways that grocery retailers can use retain online grocery shoppers.