CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW
ChapterChapter Literature
Literature

Introduction:

The present chapter gives an overview on the available literature which was referred
to by or studies to have a deep understanding of the topic of research. OGS sector is at
its nascent stage in India and creating an impact on human life on day to day basis, so,
it is very important to study this topic deeply. To understand the Indians’ consumers’
attitude towards OGS completely and in a better way, related literature pertaining to
the same has been reviewed. All the possible books, journals, research papers, thesis
available from different sources were reviewed. This is very new sector in India and
too much literature is not available, so literature to some other developed countries
like UK, Australia, USA, France, Switzerland, Germany ,Malaysia etc. where the
research work that has been made in relation to consumers’ attitude and purchase
intention towards OGS were reviewed.

2.1 Electronic commerce:

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is one of the major business operations
advancements developed computer technologies and utilizing information (Kurnia,
2007). (Chaffey and Smith, 2008) have viewed e-commerce as an operation primarily
selling online or enabling to transact online. This includes e-tailing, online banking
and shopping which involve transactions where buyers actually buy and shoppers
actually shop. However, some suggest that e-commerce includes all online
transactions such as a responding to an enquiry or an online catalogue search (Kurnia
2007). In brief, e-commerce is about conducting business transaction electronically
which can range from servicing customers online, collaborating with business
partners to exchange business information and transaction execution over an
electronic network (Kraemer 2005).

The most prominent and potential benefits of e-commerce are its ability to boost
productivity and reduce transaction costs. It can also help organizations disseminate
information, reduce paperwork and decrease human errors (Turban,2005;
Kurnia,2007). Additionally, the networking capabilities of the internet allow firms to
improve flexibility and responsiveness in the face of competition, encourage new and

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more efficient intermediaries, expand market access, reduce time to market by linking
orders to production and improve internal coordination (Qureshi, 2005). As the
shopping habits of consumers have become more advanced by adopting new
technology, e-commerce is now the preferred method of shopping for many products.
Therefore, it is very important for the competitiveness of a company to have an own
web portal where it is possible to offer products and services to remote customers
(Bruzzone et al., 2010).

The e-commerce sector of India is small when compared globally but it is growing
rapidly. A survey by Internet and Mobile Association of India(IAMAI) revealed that
the e-commerce market in India rose from U.S. $3.9 billion in 2009 to U.S. $12
billion in 2013 and poised to be U.S. $100billion by FY2020 (Source: Goldman
Sachs) Another study by Crisil Research displays that e-tailing industries in India are
expected to grow 50-55% annually. Although, online food and grocery industry forms
an insignificant part of the Rs 2700 crores e-tailing market of India, It is growing
approximately 25-30% year on year. This category will add significantly to the total
online retail market of India in the next ten years. Thus, it is great opportunity for
businesses men aspiring to open retail stores online, especially online grocery stores.
(Shafqatajaz, 2015) commented that the electronic retailing (e-Tailing, e-Retailing,
internet retailing etc.) is the model of selling of retail goods using electronic media, in
particular, the internet. E-Retailing is a subset of e-commerce (Electronic Commerce).
E-Retailing accounts for about 10% of the overall growth of e-Commerce market. The
growth in the e-Retailing market is driven by the need to save time by urban India. It
is estimated that 2.5 billion internet users, access to internet has played a significant
role in growing the business markets. The Internet gives retailers an instrument for:
broadening target markets, enhancing consumer relationships, extending product
lines, improving cost efficiency, improving consumer communications, and delivering
customized offers. Changing demographics (youthful India), changing lifestyles and
exposure to the developed markets give a fillip to e-Retailing industry. E-Retailers
serve 24 hours x 7 days in a hassle free manner to consumers.

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2.2 Consumers’ perception and attitude towards e-tailing and online grocery
shopping.
Numerous studies have attempted to explain consumers’ perceptions and the
acceptance of online grocery shopping (Eastlick and Lotz 1999; Christensen and
Tedlow 2000; Morganosky and Cude, 2000). The attitudes of existing online grocery
shoppers (Morganosky and Cude, 2000; Raijas, 2002) and consumers’ behavioural
intentions to perform an online grocery purchase on the basis of their adoption have
also been considered by (Verhoef and Langerak, 2001). Research in social
psychology has shown that behaviour can be predicted by an individual’s attitude and
perception (Hui and Wan, 2009). In other words, a consumers’ perception of online
grocery shopping needs to be understood to encourage a consumers’ actual usage of
online grocery shopping. Consumers’ attitude towards online grocery shopping also
needs to be explored to identify the behavioural intention. Furthermore, more recent
studies have begun to employ several models and theories as one underlying
framework for understanding behaviours of online grocery shoppers, such as the
technology acceptance model (TAM) and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB).
TAM serves as a valuable framework to the core psychological aspects associated
with technology use, so this model is widely employed to predict an individual’s
intention when using a particular information system (IS) in technology adoption
studies (Hui and Wan, 2009). For example, (Kurnia and Chien, 2003) explored
consumer perception of online grocery shopping in order to identify various factors
affecting the acceptance using TAM. The research revealed that perceived usefulness
and perceived ease of use of online grocery shopping have positive impacts on the
attitude towards using online grocery shopping. Likewise, this attitude, in turn,
influences behavioural intentions and actual usage. (Ramus and Nielsen, 2005) tested
TPB (Ajzen, 1985), which is one of the most widely used social psychology theories
in analyzing the relationships between attitude and behaviour, to investigate
consumers’ perceptions about internet grocery shopping: why people use or abstain
from using the internet for shopping groceries. (Hansen, 2005) has also mentioned
that TPB is a well suited theory to investigate and predict consumer online grocery

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purchase intentions. Some of the exiting studies concerned with consumers’

perceptions and attitudes towards online shopping is further discussed.

Schuster and Sporn (1998) conducted a study on Potential for Online Grocery
Shopping in the Urban Area of Vienna at Vienna University of Business &
Economics. The results presented in this paper include demographics and shopping
habits of interviewees, computer equipment and Internet experience of households,
online shopping plans and market potential for the Vienna urban area. This study
shows that there is a potential market for selling groceries over the Internet in the
Vienna urban area. With the steady diffusion of telecommunication infrastructure in
this region, increased computer equipment and Internet access of households, cheaper
telephone rates, more experience of customers with stores delivering goods, and
marketing efforts of companies in the grocery business informing customers about
new services, online shopping could become an attractive and lucrative alternative for
buying and selling groceries in the near future.

Bawa and Ghosh (1999) conducted a study on A model of household grocery

shopping behaviours at Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University
and found that the shopping trip to the grocery store is one of the most basic elements
of consumer behaviour. The authors seek to provide an understanding of the factors
that account for variations in shopping behaviour across households. They present a
model of shopping behaviour that assumes that households seek to minimize the
travel cost associated with shopping and the cost of holding goods in inventory. As in
the classic EOQ model, observed shopping behaviour reflects the manner in which
households balance these costs while meeting their consumption needs. A number of
propositions derived from the model are tested using data on shopping trips made by
households over a one-year period. The results support the model and indicate that the
relationship between household characteristics and shopping behaviour can be fairly
complex for some households shopping may have a recreational aspect while for
others it may compete directly with wage-earning activity.

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The study conducted by Morganosky and Cude (2000) on Consumer response to

online grocery shopping at The University of Georgia, Athens, USA. He concluded
the reports a preliminary assessment of consumer response to and demand for online
food retail channels. Data were collected from 243 US consumers who currently buy
their groceries online. The majority of online users was younger than 55 years of age,
female, and reported annual incomes of $70,000 or more. Over 70 percent reported
convenience and saving time as their primary reasons for buying groceries online but
15 percent cited physical or constraint issues that made it difficult for them to shop at
grocery stores. Of the respondents, 19 percent bought all of their groceries online. The
paper also reports demographic and online shopping variables that are significantly
related to the primary reason for shopping online, willingness to buy all grocery items
online, perception of time spent shopping online vs in the store, and experience with
online grocery shopping.

Miyazaki and Fernandez (2001) conducted a study on Consumers’ perceptions of

privacy and security risks for online shopping at University of Miami, Coral Gables,
FL. and concluded that Government and industry organizations have declared
information privacy and security to be major obstacles in the development of
consumer-related e-commerce. Risk perceptions regarding Internet privacy and
security have been identified as issues for both new and experienced users of Internet
technology. This paper explores risk perceptions among consumers of varying levels
of Internet experience and how these perceptions relate to online shopping activity.
Findings provide evidence of hypothesized relationships among consumers’ levels of
Internet experience, the use of alternate remote purchasing methods (such as
telephone and mail-order shopping), the perceived risks of online shopping, and
online purchasing activity.

James and Corbett (2001) conducted a study that “Is Online Grocery Shopping
Increasing in Strength” in the Bostan area of America and found that there can be
little doubt that some of online grocery shopping is viable in the Boston area in future.
He found that grocery business is noted having high costs as very low profits,
resulting in very thin profit margins. The key ingredient could be the demographics,

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which comprise the highly populated Boston trading area. One of the more important
risk factors to online grocery shopping may be perceptions, and this may be difficult
to overcome.

The study was conducted by Anckar et al.(2002) on “Creating Customer value in

online grocery shopping” at Abo Akademi University,Finland and argued that there
are four different ways in which customer value can be treated in electronic grocery
shopping, but that the choosen business model will set limits to whether- and to what
extent-the firm will be able to offer value-adding services for consumers. In contrast
to what has been commonly proposed and predicted, the customers who shop for
groceries online purely the reasons of convenience tend to be surprisingly few, the
overwhelming majority of the customers are the elderly and disabled and who shop
online by necessity.

The study was conducted by Brown et al. (2003) on Buying or browsing? An

exploration of shopping orientations and online purchase intention at University of
Queensland, Australia and gave the findings that despite the widespread belief that
Internet shoppers are primarily motivated by convenience, the authors show
empirically that consumers' fundamental shopping orientations have no significant
impact on their proclivity to purchase products online. Factors that are more likely to
influence purchase intention include product type, prior purchase, and, to a lesser
extent, gender.

Geuens et al. (2003) conducted a study on Food retailing, now and in the future: A
consumer perspective at University of Brussels. According to the author some
predicted that electronic shopping will account for 15–20% of the retail market by
2004, others hold a more conservative opinion. The objective of this study is two-fold.
A first question pertains to how consumers perceive current grocery shopping. A
second question deals with the consumers’ preferred future grocery shopping
alternative. The results of a qualitative study show that on the one hand, consumers
are not fond of the way they do grocery shopping at the moment. On the other hand,
consumers seem to prefer that retail stores evolve in retailing superstores, rather than

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choosing for the more revolutionary alternative of online shopping which indicates
that the predictions of the future success of online retailing may be inflated and that
the experiential aspect of high-touch products such as groceries should not be
underestimated.

Kurnia and Chien (2003) conducted a study on The Acceptance of Online Grocery
Shopping at University of Melbourne, Australia and found that the applicability of the
Technology Acceptance Model in assessing the acceptance of the Online Grocery
Shopping in Australia, as an example of B2C electronic commerce enabled
technology application. The perceived Usefulness of Online Grocery Shopping is
influenced directly by Perceived Ease of use. In addition, these two constructs do
positively affect on the Attitude towards using Online Grocery Shopping and this
attitude, in turn, influences the Behavioural Intention and Actual Usage of OGS. In
addition, this study has showed that the visibility of Online Grocery Shopping has
indeed a positive impact on the attitude towards using OGS. Intriguingly, perceived
risk, which has been found one of the major obstacles to the adoption of e-commerce
technologies (Ostlund,1974; Kurnia and Johnston,1999), and social influence were
discovered to have no influence on the attitude. One possible reason for this finding is
that Online Grocery Shopping is still a relatively new for grocery consumers in
Australia. As a result, many consumers do not have a high level understanding of the
risks involved and there is no strong social influence to motivate them to use OGS.

A multitude of opinions has been propounded by Doherty et al. (2003) in the

study of An analysis of the factors affecting the adoption of the Internet in the UK
retail sector and explained that how the Internet can be exploited by commercial
organizations. For the most part they are speculative, visionary or promotional. This
work seeks to redress the balance by reporting on an empirical research project that
has recently been conducted into the adoption of the Internet within the UK retail
sector. In this paper It has been shown that certain factors are far more
significant than others, in influencing the adoption decision. In particular, it has
been demonstrated that operating in an appropriate market sector and having a
positive view of the viability of the Internet are of particular significance.

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Furthermore, the importance of developing a coherent and integrated Internet strategy,

the need for senior management commitment, and the presence of an appropriate
infrastructure and development capability are also highlighted.

Andrew and Currim (2004) conducted a study on Behavioural differences between

consumers attracted to shopping online versus traditional supermarkets: Implications
for enterprise design and marketing strategy at Graduate School of
Management,University of California, USA. This study uses data from both
traditional supermarket scanners and an online supermarket to test expected
differences in choice behaviours of such consumers. For two product categories,
statistically significant differences are found between consumers attracted to shopping
online versus traditional supermarkets with regard to the parameters describing the
choice process. Compared to traditional supermarket consumers, online consumers
are less price sensitive, prefer larger sizes to smaller sizes (or at least have weaker
preferences for small sizes), have stronger size loyalty, do more screening on the basis
of brand names but less screening on the basis of sizes, and have stronger choice set
effects.

Ogenyi (2005) conducted a study on “UK Consumers’ Adoption of the Internet for
Grocery Shopping” at London South Bank University. In this study Attitude theories
relating to grocery shopping online have been used to evaluate the UK grocery
shoppers’ use of Internet for grocery purchases. Given study was theoretically based
empirical research on online shopping that has focused primarily on factors associated
with consumer behaviour regarding the use of the Internet in terms of ease of use and
fun in evaluating the shopping behaviour. Specifically, the focus here was on the link
between attitude and intention and between intention and behaviour. The review
shows that the future success of the Internet will mostly depend on the extent to which
current shoppers accept and use the internet as a medium for grocery purchasing.

Ramus and Nielsen (2005) conducted a study on online grocery retailing: what do
consumers think? at Aarhus School of Business, Denmark. During this study seven
focus group interviews, four in the United Kingdom and three in Denmark, were

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conducted among consumers with different degrees of experience with internet

grocery shopping. This diversification of respondents was chosen to capture a broad
range of the consumer beliefs that predict intentions to buy groceries online or not.
The TPB framework was used to construct the interview guide that was followed in
all focus groups. An unexpected result of the explorative study was that the seven
groups consisting of more or less experienced internet shoppers differed only little in
their pool of beliefs (outcome and control beliefs). Beliefs about internet grocery
shopping, positive as well as negative were remarkably congruent across groups. In
the minds of consumers, internet grocery shopping is an advantage compared with
conventional grocery shopping in terms of convenience, product range and price.
Disadvantages, which could act as mental barriers, are, for instance, the risk of
receiving inferior quality groceries and the loss of the recreational aspect of grocery
shopping.

Kervenoael et al. (2006) conducted a study on Exploring value through integrated

service solutions: The case of e-grocery shopping. The purpose of this paper is to
demonstrate the need for an improved understanding of consumer value for online
grocery purchases and to propose the notion of “integrated service solution” packages
as a strategy for growing and successfully sustaining the channel to guide both
marketing strategy and policy. This paper offers an alternative approach to allow e-
grocery to become a mainstream retail channel in its own right and not to compete
with the in-store offerings. The research demonstrates the need for a progressive
approach that follows contemporary consumer needs and habits at the household
level. The research provides a practical framework for both retailers and policy
makers on how the “next generation” of online services can be developed using a
“bottom up” consumer perspective. This paper also advocates a non-technological
bias to e-grocery retailing strategy.

George et al. (2006) investigates the factors to determine the e-consumers re-
purchasing behaviour in the e-business to consumer market in his study “E-
consumers’ attitude and behaviour in the online commodities market” The Theory of
Planned Behaviour (TPB) is used as a theoretical framework to interpret consumers’

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behaviour in the online environment and to study the antecedents of e-purchasing

decisions. This study adopted a quantitative methodological approach within the
context of the online CD, Books, music, magazines and DVDs purchasing industry,
surveying 211 consumers with prior purchasing experience in this range of products.
The survey’s results (n=211), revealed that consumers’ attitude towards past e-
purchases had significant impact on their intent to re-purchase and that the
consumers’ experience with an e-brand significantly affected their beliefs regarding
the importance of trust, security and convenience in the online environment.

Huang and Oppewal (2006) conducted a study on Why consumers hesitate to shop
online: An experimental choice analysis of grocery shopping and the role of delivery
fees at Monash University, Australia. The purpose of this study was to find out if and
how delivery charge and three other situational factors affect consumers' grocery
shopping channel choice. Respondents were asked to indicate their preference for
shopping online or in-store in each described situation. Each respondent was
presented with two hypothetical grocery shopping scenarios characterized by four
situational factors. The results show that all four situational factors affect consumers'
shopping channel preference. It was further established that, though of influence,
delivery charges are not the most important factor.

Wilson-Jeanselmen and Reynolds (2006) investigated shoppers who have never

used the internet to buy groceries, in order to understand the strategies required to
acquire shoppers. They focused their study on consumers’ perceptions and
expectations of online grocery buying rather than actual experience. According to
their findings, the two main determinant attributes for offline shoppers to shop online
are ordering time and quality. This could be due to a fear of spending too much time
placing an order whilst not being familiar with the websites and a fear of not getting a
quality as good as that which might be personally selected by them. Therefore, quick
and easy purchase process especially for a first time buyer and ensuring that best
quality items are provided would improve the customer acquisition rate.

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Clark and Wright (2007) conducted a study on Off their trolley – Understanding

online grocery shopping behaviour at University of York, UK. Under this study a
framework has been developed for modeling online consumer behaviour and in this
paper this framework is used to develop a survey of online grocery shopping in the
UK. Analysis of the survey reveals several issues of concern, particularly
dissatisfaction with product search capabilities and a conflict between the online
consumers’ desires for both empowerment and experimentation.

Hansen (2008) conducted a study on Consumer values, the theory of planned

behaviour and online grocery shopping at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.
During the study author took a hierarchical value-attitude-behaviour approach. This
study empirically tests relations of consumer personal values, attitude, social norm,
perceived behavioural control (PBC) and willingness to buy groceries online. The
study distinguishes three groups of consumers: consumers who have not yet bought
anything on the Internet; consumers who have bought something on the Internet – but
not groceries; and consumers who have bought something on the Internet – including
groceries. Data were collected from an online survey of Swedish consumers
(n = 1058) using self-administered questionnaires. The findings suggest that
consumers may link personal values to attitude towards online grocery buying – but
also that this relation may be moderated by whether the consumer previously has
carried out an online purchase or an online grocery purchase.

Sahney et al. (2008) conducted a study on Consumer attitude towards online retail
shopping in the Indian context at The Icfai University and the objective of the study
here is to look into the various aspects of online shopping in modern day environment
and to identify those factors that affect the development of attitudes towards online
shopping. The study also aims at identifying customer requirements with respect
to online shopping, giving certain conclusions to ensure the success of an online
shopping site. This study is descriptive, diagnostic and exploratory in nature, and is
aimed at identifying critical parameters in online retail shopping, tapping consumers'
feelings and attitudes towards online shopping, and establishing attitudinal differences
across demographics. It reaches a logical conclusion through the identification of key

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design areas. It helps one to understand what consumers expect from an online
retailing store for their satisfaction and delight. Online retailers may also use the
findings of this study as a resource, while constructing, managing, and evaluating
their marketing strategies in Indian context.

Hand Chris et al. (2009) conducted a study on Online Grocery Shopping: the
influence of situational factors at Kingston University Business School, Kingston,
UK. During the study a two-step research process was employed. First, exploratory
qualitative research was carried out, with the purpose of gaining an in-depth
understanding of consumers online grocery shopping behaviour and A postal survey
was used to quantify and amplify the findings from the focus groups and survey was
conducted on 1320 persons. The analysis of these statements as specific triggers in the
decision to start or to stop shopping online for groceries is the main focus of this
paper. The study was to confirm the role of situational variables in the adoption
process of online grocery shopping. Both qualitative and quantitative results establish
the importance of situational factors, such as having a baby or developing the health
problem as triggers for starting to buy the groceries online. Many shoppers are found
to discontinue the online grocery shopping as the initial trigger has disappeared or
they have experienced the problem with service.

Tong (2008) conducted a study on Strategies for success in E-grocery industry and
found that US e-grocers have been testing different business models with varying
results. This research conducted a meta-analysis of six online grocers (Peapod, Tesco,
Safeway, FreshDirect, Webvan and Streamline) to identify the pattern of strategies
that contribute to their performance. Each company's management capabilities,
expansion and market selection strategy, order-picking method, delivery method,
website design and Customer Relations Management (CRM) are explored and
compared to identify the factors that provide these businesses with a greater chance of
success. The findings suggest that knowledge of and experience in the grocery
business play an important role in the success of an online grocer. Using a cautious
and slow expansion strategy helps an e-grocer stay in the game. The store-pick model

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is suitable for most markets, while warehouse-pick may be used for markets with high
customer demand. Each business model allows for strategic variations.

Jones Vera (2009) conducted a study on Issues Relating to Online Grocery Shopping
at University of Wales, Newport. The study was based on the Literature review and
has attempted to describe the current situation and trends in online grocery shopping
framed largely within three broad perspectives i.e. the experience of online as
opposed to in-store grocery shopping, the specific or even unique aspects of grocery
as opposed to ‘non-food’ shopping, and finally on the systemic features of the process
itself. Outcome has come that consumers’ attitudes towards online grocery shopping
are negative.

Coupey et al. (2009) conducted a study on Grocery Shopping and the Internet:
Exploring French consumers’ perceptions of the “hypermarket” and “cyber market”
formats at University Francois Rabelais, Tours, France and found various motivating
and inhibiting factors cited by consumers towards online shopping behaviour for food
and grocery items. In general, respondents perceive numerous inhibiting factors to
online grocery shopping and few motivating factors. Interestingly, contrary to other e-
commerce sectors, the grocery sector suffers from a very bad price image while
consumers have a high price sensibility for food purchase. Motivating factors were
Time saving, Shopping at any time, A Physical impossibility to shop in a store
(pregnancy, disability), an allergy to the hypermarket format and on the other side
Inhibiting factors were home delivery constraints, costs, waiting time ,uncertainty on
the quality of products, the ‘best- before- date’ problem, not being able to choose the
products and having trust the cyber market operators, high prices, limited choices,
loss of social ties and opportunities to see people, costs or fears of learning something
new.

Jun and Noor (2011) conducted a study on Consumers’ Attitude towards Online
Shopping in China. In this study, perceived usability, perceived security, perceived
privacy, perceived after-sales service, perceived marketing mix, and perceived
reputation were used for analysis. This research was conducted by using the primary

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data source, and the survey method was employed in the research. This research
found that there were relationships between the perceived usability, perceived
security, perceived privacy, perceived after-sales service, perceived marketing mix,
perceived reputation and consumers’ attitude to adopting online shopping in China.
However, only marketing mix and reputation were found to significantly influence
consumers’ attitude to adopt online shopping. The findings help us in understanding
consumers’ online purchase behaviour.

Noor et al. (2011) conducted a study on Online Grocery Shopping: The Affect of
Time Availability on Malaysian Consumer Preferences at Universiti Teknologi
MARA, Malaysia Given study examines the perceptions and preferences of
Malaysian consumer toward OGS. It examines the time availability and convenience
of the OGS. Consumers who have experience in online food retail and those who have
used internet to purchase product or services were targeted sample. The study took
consideration of the ethnic breakdown in Malaysia consisted the three main races :
Malay, Chinese and Indians with a ratio of 50:40:10 It was found that most of the
respondents disagree that they have enough time to search online grocer and to place a
purchase order and then wait for the confirmation of order.

Sultan and Uddin (2011) has conducted a study on Consumers’ Attitude towards
Online Shopping: Factors influencing Gotland Consumers to shop online. The
research was conducted on sample size of 100 respondents with convenience
sampling technique. The author’s findings indicated that among the four factors
selected for this research the most attractive and influencing factor for online shoppers
in Gotland is Website Design/Features, following convenience the second most
influencing and thirdly time saving. Results have also showed that security is of
important concern among online shoppers in Gotland. The research has also found
that there are some other factors which influence online shoppers including, less price,
discount, feedback from previous customers and quality of product. For the second
research question i.e. who are online shoppers in term of demography: the correlation
results for the age and attitudes towards online shopping has showed that elderly
people are not so keen to shop online. Whereas for education it is concluded that

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higher education makes online shopping less attractive, for the income the correlation
results are so weak hence we could not conclude anything out of it. It is expected that
this study will not only help retailers in Gotland to devise successful strategies for
online shoppers but it will also provide a base for similar studies in the felid of
consumer attitudes towards online shopping.

Pozzi and Andrea (2012) conducted a study on Shopping Cost and Brand
Exploration in Online Grocery. This paper compares consumers' brand exploration
when shopping online versus in a brick-and-mortar store. He used a new scanner
dataset to compare the behaviour of households shopping online and in-store at the
same chain, for identical items and prices. The author found that brand exploration is
more prevalent in-store. His model quantifies the role of features of e-commerce, like
the existence of “favorites lists” and the difficulty in verifying item quality. Limited
exploration online implies higher barriers to entry on the Internet channel.
Counterfactual exercises suggest that online advertising could make the Internet
channel more competitive. This study attempts to identify the convergent factors that
highlighted from 35 empirical researches regarding online shopping behaviour. The
cumulative results might support organizations and web designers to understand better
their visitors and respond more effectively to their customers' demands, and thus
become more effective. The profound research outcomes are undoubtedly useful for
online vendors for better understanding online shoppers and acquire enough valuable
information to set and develop a better infrastructure. Convergent focuses on online
marketing show a shift from traditional means of store frame marketing to internet
based marketing. With increasing competition in online business, business needs to
devise strategies that are based on sound consumer demographics and psychographics
recognized by consumer behavioural research.

Rainu Tan veer Singh (2012), he had undertaken the project in Nirala Imex Inc. in
Taiwanese market in selling of Indian grocery items to the local retailers &
wholesaler in the Taiwanese market. The project first studied the attitude of customers
towards online shopping, also determining the factors which influence the consumer
to purchase goods and service. The second half of the project depicted the attributes

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of online shopping influencing the purchase decision by the respondent. It also

determined the issues regarding the online shopping. The third part of the project
determines the purchase decision with respect to grocery. It determined the place
preference of grocery shopping with respect to price, quality, variety, proximity and
offers/ discounts. The project also recommended the business operational plan which
works with contracting dealership with the local Kirana stores.

Mattila (2013) conducted a study on Online Shopping Adoption Factors at Laurea

University of Applied Sciences, Espoo, Finland. During the study the data was
collected by means of a questionnaire mailed to 2500 households in the capital region
of Finland. The sample of 2500 households was stratified so that one third of them
was statistically. Non-users of electronic grocery shopping, one third was New users
of electronic grocery shopping who had just recently started shopping online, and one
third was Old users of electronic grocery shopping who had shopped online for the
past two, three years all the while. After a follow-up mailing a total of 1210 usable
responses were received (response rate 48.4%). The survey results were further
confirmed with 20 in-depth interviews. From a pragmatic standpoint, this study
contributed to the existing literature in a number of ways. From a theoretical
viewpoint, six factors affecting the adoption of electronic grocery shopping were
examined. This study also showed that consumers valued several factors in electronic
grocery shopping such as wide range of and familiar products and brands, freedom
from time and place, time saving, and as stated, convenience.

Seitz (2013) conducted a study on E-Grocery as New Innovative Distribution Channel

in the German Food Retailing at Slovak University of Agriculture, Slovak Republic.
The main objective of this paper was to understand customers’ motives behind
grocery shopping online and offline. The paper first researches into the German food
retailing with its market characteristics and the Status Quo of e-grocery in Germany
by researching data from market research institutes and official bodies. The paper
then examines the customers’ perceptions of grocery shopping online as well as
offline in a survey. Given study concluded that within three to five years, the e-
grocery business will remain a market for niche providers and only a small number of

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consumers will regularly shop groceries online. But due to a large market potential,
the e-grocery business promises high growth rates and online food retailing will
emerge as a highly innovative distribution channel.

Belkud (2013) conducted a study “Developing a new Internet Grocery retail shop
concept for the Indian consumers’ In this study the motivation for a research in
developing a new grocery store service for Indian customers arises from the author’s
own experience of the grocery purchases from the grocery stores. The author
experienced many inconveniences during his grocery shopping experience. The
inconveniences are related to the carrying the grocery items from the grocery store to
home. The weight of groceries is around 10 - 15 kilograms, so the author found it
extremely difficult to carry the grocery items from the grocery store to his home. The
author finds the climatic conditions in Finland to be extreme. So during winter, when
the temperatures go below zero degrees centigrade, shopping for groceries seems like
a very difficult task. This feeling is shared by most customers of the Indian grocery
stores. Furthermore, the author believes that the grocery stores should deliver the
groceries to the customers‟ homes. For this to be possible there should exist tools
which enable the customers to buy the groceries without visiting the stores
themselves. The online portals such as website and mobile shopping applications
enable the customers to buy the groceries without leaving their homes. The outcome
of the thesis is a new grocery retail shop concept for the Indian customers.

Sharma et al (2014) conducted a study “Patterns in Online Grocery shopping in

India: An Empirical Study” and tried to understand the patterns of online grocery
shopping in India; and explores the factors & trends influencing the online grocery
shopping. This research study focused to identify various patterns of buying grocery
online and factors affecting the process of buying. Authors observed that Worldwide
there are studies conducted on online grocery shopping, however very limited studies
are highlighting on Indian online grocery market. Therefore looking at this niche
segment and potential of upcoming vibrant market, authors tried to understand
Customer perception on such services. This trend requires different insight to
understand and analyze how online shopping is considerably different from store-

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based shopping. Marketers have huge opportunity to explore this field as Customers
are buying & spending more time online as compare to old times. This study would
help exploring this new dimension of online grocery shopping.

Fong Soo H (2014) conducted a study “A Study on Consumers’ Attitude towards

Online shopping on Penang Famous Fruit Pickles “in Malaysia. The author specified
that Online shopping is no doubt the future trend. Online shopping on sectors such as
fashion and accessories, electronic/electrical goods and books are growing in
Malaysia. Many researches claimed that online shopping is still at the early stage of
development in Malaysia and the potential for growth is inevitable. However, little is
known about the acceptance of online shopping on localized products such as Penang
famous fruit pickles and the factors which influence consumers’ attitudes purchasing
it online. The purpose of this study is to identify the potential of online sales on
Penang fruit pickles by investigating consumers’ attitudes towards purchasing Penang
fruit pickles through online shopping as an alternative to visiting the physical shop. It
also investigated the influence of factors (demographic profile, previous online
shopping experience, perceived benefits, consumers’ lifestyles, and perceived
merchants’ trustworthiness) towards attitude. In total 55 valid responses were
gathered through self-administered questionnaire survey consisting of a total of 34
questions. Pearson‘s Correlation and 1-way ANOVA were used to test hypotheses and
determine the significance and degree of relationship between dependent and
independent variables. The results and findings show that consumers exhibited
positive intention to make an online purchase in future and attitude is positively and
strongly correlated with behavioural intention. The study also concluded the
perceived benefits of online shopping, perceived merchant’s trustworthiness,
consumers’ lifestyle and consumers’ prior ecommerce experience have direct
influence on attitude. On the contrary, demographic profile, online shopping
frequency and duration of daily internet usage found to have no impact on attitude.
The research model applying Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) can effectively be
used to achieve the primary purpose of this study.

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Kramer (2015)in Netherland conducted a study The Unraveling of Apparel : Online

Shopping Behaviour The focus of this research is to obtain a better understanding in
the determinants of online shopping for apparel and the interaction between
consumers' use of the internet for information search and their choice of channel (i.e.
brick-and-mortar stores or the internet) for their final purchase. Questionnaires were
distributed to over 212 students and the data was analysed with SEM. Firstly, the
model applied for both men and women. No interaction was found between in-store
shopping for apparel and e-shopping or internet search. Results showed that the
Fishbein's Theory of Reasoned Action Model (1975) helped explaining e-shopping for
apparel with a few alterations. Attitudes towards e-shopping were mediated by
internet search instead of having a direct relation on e-shopping intention.
Furthermore, subjective norm not only had an effect on the intention to shop online,
but also turned out to affect attitude towards e-shopping. Above all, the internet
search component is a critical concept in the behaviour of online shopping for apparel.
Opinions of friends and family turned out to be twice as important for men than for
women. Overall, the model explained 67.5% of the variance in e-shopping for apparel
for women and 71.5% for men.

2.3 Consumers’ attitude towards e-tailing and OGS in Indian context:

In the previous section an insight has been given to the available literature on OGS in
different countries. As we have seen, there are numbers of studies done on the OGS
sector in foreign study however there are very few studies found in the Indian context,
however, there is no specific research on the consumers’ attitude towards OGS in
northern states of India. The concept of OGS is in its nascent stage. So in this section,
it was necessary to understand the consumers’ attitude towards e-tailing before going
specifically into the OGS in the Indian context.

Agarwala, R. Rastogi, & Mehrotra (2009) conducted a study on “Customers’

perspectives regarding e-banking in an emerging economy” and determined that the
factors affecting customer perception and attitude towards and satisfaction with e-
banking was an essential part of a bank's strategy formulation process in an emerging

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economy like India. To gain this understanding in respect of Indian customers, they
conducted study on the respondents taken from northern part of India. The major
findings depict that customers were influenced in their usage of e-banking services by
the kind of account they hold, their age and profession, attach highest degree of
usefulness to balance enquiry service among e-banking services, consider security &
trust most important in affecting their satisfaction level and find slow transaction
speed the most frequently faced problem while using e-banking.

Mishra & Mathew (2013) conducted a study on “Analyzing Perceived Risks and
Website attributes in E-Retailing: A Study from India”, and examines the behaviour
of online consumer in India in terms of internet usage, perceived risks, and website
attributes influencing online users. Further, they studied influence of perceived risks
on intent to do online purchase in future. A structured questionnaire was administered
to 600 online consumers using field and online survey mediums. Results show that
Indian online users had high level of perceived risks, highest fear being related to the
delivery of products purchased online. Information quality, product range and after
online sales service are most preferred website attributes which influence Indian
online users.

Raut.V and S. Walvekar (2014) conducted a study on E-tailing: Analysis of

Customer preferences towards Online Shopping in Pune Region. The objective of this
study is to identify whether professions, that is entrepreneurs or working class has any
impact on preference for online shopping. Moreover, whether consumer purchase
though the web base retailing, has any significance to social economic status and
education. Primary data is collected from 50 respondents in Pune region. The
observation is analyzed with the help of Chi-Square test, and Conjoint Analysis. The
outcome of the study revealed that entrepreneur prefers to buy online in comparison
to that of working class customers. Furthermore, demographic factors like education
and socio-economic status of customer take the advantage of technology and prefer to
purchase through online shopping. However, there are some factors Security,
Reliability & Service, and References, that has to be considered if the marketer want
to motivate their customers for online purchases.

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Kumar, & Verma (2014) conducted a study on “E-Retailing in India: A Long Term
Pan India Reality or a Short Term Urban Phenomenon? effort to check the reality of
e-retailing in India. The urban infrastructure or infrastructure of Metropolitan cities
was much better than the rural one. The level of education, income, needs of the
people and the platform which was required to catapult e-retailing is in consonance
with urban infrastructure and its demographic aspirations. But with hinterlands of pan
India, the stark difference comes out. Be it infrastructure or electricity or level of
income, needs of the people and last but not the least education. Everywhere you see a
stark difference.

Ranadive (2015) conducted a study on An Empirical Study on the Online Grocery

Shopping: Intentions of Consumers in Vadodara City at Navrachna University,
Vadodara. In this study to evaluate the attitude towards online grocery shopping a
survey was conducted on the total of 290 respondents who usually use the internet for
the online shopping .The overall findings of the study highlighted that there is a weak
but positive intention articulated by the respondents of the study towards buying
groceries online. It also highlighted the consumers’ wants and preferences for the
online grocery shopping. In this way companies can accordingly formulate strategies
for penetrating the markets by expanding their geographical reach.

Sathiyaraj S, et al (2015) conducted a study “Consumer Perception towards online

grocery stores, Chennai”. The researcher in this study emphasize that if online
retailers know the factors affecting Indian consumers’ buying behaviour, and the
associations between these factors and type of online buyers, then they can further
develop their marketing strategies to convert potential customers into active ones. The
main objective of the study is to determine the customer perception towards online
grocery shopping in Chennai. The sources of data used in this project report are both
primary and secondary data. Descriptive research type is used for this research.
Primary data consists of original information gathered from sample size of 200
respondents residing in Chennai, Tamil Nadu through Google forms, which is posted
in social networking sites. Survey method is used to collect the primary data. The
major findings of the study are 29% of respondents quoted the reason for choosing the

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online shopping is to purchase unique and special articles, and they want to find the
best price of the product. The outcome of the research paper also revealed that the
demographic variables, such as gender, age group don’t have influence of the factors
of customer satisfaction.

Baheti .V and L. Kaushal (2015) conducted a study on “The analysis of consumers’

attitude towards online grocery shopping- A case study in Indian Context”. This study
has been carried out to examine the impact of varied attributes on the consumers’
attitude towards online grocery shopping. Perceived Cost, Convenience, Risk and
Enjoyable are the four attributes examined in the study. Sample of 100 respondents
was collected and the consumers were asked for their demographic traits, awareness
of online grocery shopping and usage behaviour of online grocery shopping. The
findings for perceived cost show that there was no significant difference among the
various demographic traits of the consumers. However, significant difference was
found in the customers who are aware and not aware of online grocery shopping.

Banerjee. A and T. Banerjee (2016) conducted a study on “Web Content Analysis

of Online Grocery Shopping Web Sites in India” In this paper the authors evaluate
online grocery shopping web sites catering to customers primarily in India. The
process of evaluation has been carried out in 3 parts; by comparing the web content
on their homepages, analysing customer reviews and also analysing their business
performance as summarized on public web sites that use search optimization tools and
analytical processes. This paper aims to study attributes from structured and
unstructured data that lead to success of online grocery business in India. The results
of this study indicate that Happiness with the experience of using the online grocery
web site is positively correlated to delivery of groceries. The correlation is stronger
when the delivery of the grocery is done timely. The income per day in dollars made
by the e-tailers of grocery online is strongly correlated to number of visitors on the
website, number of page views and web sites‟ worth in dollars. It is not affected by
Alexa ranking, images on the website, the time taken by the pages to load and the
traffic source via organic search engines.

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2.4 Key determinants of consumers’ attitude when choosing grocery online:

In the previous section we have an insight into the various studies which have been
carried out to examine the impact of varied attributes on consumers’ attitude towards
online grocery shopping. In this section, an attempt has been made to review the
available literature on consumers’ determinant factors when choosing grocery
shopping channel. This review has provided considerable knowledge, information and
deep understanding of the research topic and helps to define the conceptual
framework for the research hypothesis.

The existing studies which have focused on the various factors affecting consumers’
shopping channel choice behaviour for groceries are explained in terms of each factor.

2.4.1 Consumers’ lifestyles and current purchasing behavior:

Consumers’ lifestyle is defined as a person’s pattern of living (Shwu-Ing, 2003). (Kim
& Nielson, 2005) found a consumer whose lifestyle is more net-oriented will perceive
more benefits and fewer risks to online shopping. Similarly as concluded in their
study, consumers who are more time-oriented will perceive more benefits to buying
goods online than less time-oriented ones. (Haque et al., 2006) found that weekly
internet use among Malaysian internet users have significant relationship with their
overall attitude towards online shopping. However, in contrast, (Razinah et al.,2009)
found that Malaysian part-time students are not in favor of online shopping although
they are expected to be occupied with working and studying life concurrently.
Similarly, (Zuroni & Goh, 2012) found that there is no significant relationship
between hours spent on internet and attitude towards online shopping among the
respondents in Ipoh.

2.4.2 Prior E-commerce/online shopping experience:

According to a literature review by (Ana Teresa Machado,2005) regarding the drivers
of shopping online, concluded that prior online shopping experiences have a direct
impact on Internet shopping attitude. Similarly, (Monsuwé et al., 2004) also reviewed
researches on what drives consumers to shop online concluded that satisfactory
previous experiences decreases consumers’ perceived risk levels associated with

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online shopping but only across low-involvement goods and services. The findings
are consistent with earlier researches by (Shim et al., 2001), who also concluded that
consumers that evaluate positively the previous online experience are motivated to
continue shopping on the Internet. (Limayem et al., 2003) found that online shopping
experience was the factor with the second highest effect size upon attitude toward
OGS. In Malaysian context, (Haque et al.,2006) concluded that customers who
experienced shopping a product or they were satisfied previously, have stronger
confidence to do online shopping in future. This can be explained as suggested by
(Syed Shah Alam et al., 2008), when individuals have more experience with online
buying, information gained from experience over time undoubtedly has the potential
to modify future intentions of online buying. All the above-mentioned findings are
consistent with traditional attitude-behaviour models (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993) which
asserted that past behaviour is a predictor of future behaviour. However, in contrast, if
the past experiences are judged negatively, consumers may become reluctant to
perform any online shopping in future. As such, online retailers must take good care
of the online customers so that they may return for future online purchases.

2.4.3 Perceived usefulness (PU):

PU is defined as “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system
would enhance his or her job performance” (Davis, 1989). In point of view of online
shopping, perceived usefulness is customer’s perception that when they purchase
products online their shopping performance would be increase (Bhattacherjee, 2001).
The introduction of Online Grocery Shopping has the potential to reduce the time
spent on the grocery shopping by consumers and, thus, increase the convenience
(Morganosky and Cude 2000). (Aylott and Mitchell, 1998) found crowding and
queuing are the major stressor when buying groceries at the supermarket or grocery
store. Thus, convenience is related to forms of non-monetary costs like time, stress
and effort and psychological cost (Aylott and Mitchell, 1998). Similarly, study
conducted by (Morganosky and Cude, 2000) state that convenience and times saving
are the two major reasons for the consumers to purchase groceries online. Similar
study conducted by (Ramus and Neilson, 2005) shows that online grocery shopping

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relieves the customers from the burden of carrying heavy groceries home from
supermarket.

2.4.4 Perceived ease of use (PEOU):

“Perceived Ease of use” is defined as the individual’s perception that using the new
technology will be free of effort (Davis, 1989, 1993). Applying this to our research
context, “ease of use” is the consumers’ perception that shopping on the Internet will
involve a minimum of effort. (Chaffey and Smith, 2008) have suggested that usability
and accessibility are two key approaches of an effective website designs and ease of
use is number two of the key factors that makes consumers return on the websites. In
terms of website, easy-to-use means good navigation, the internet allows consumers
to browse product/service extensively, locate information, download information,
compare prices, buy products, place/change orders, and receive feedback without
travelling to a shopping centre (Pavitt, 1997). A study conducted by (Nadim &
Noojahan, 2008), indicated that perceived ease of use was considered to be a positive
factor for consumer when planning to purchase their grocery online. Thus, if a
consumer perceives easy to use a system the probability of actually of adopting and
using that system will positively increase (Nadim & Noojahan, 2008). Further, the
time required and action needed to get the desired results is also considered to be
important for consumer (Flavian et al., 2007). Additionally, a study conducted by
(Raijas, 2002) of electronic grocery consumers revealed that “easiness to order
groceries” might have a positive influence on consumers’ preference to select an e-
grocery store. If the consumers find what they are looking for but fail to carry out the
transaction, they are likely to cancel their order (Odekerken-Schroderand
Wetzels,2003)

2.4.5 Delivery factors (DF):

The cost of using OGS services varies, depending on the individual’s retailers and
services required. Some retailers offer free delivery for orders above a certain
minimum order amount. (Morganosky and Cude 2000) According to (Kamarainen et
al.2001), consumer prices in e-grocery shopping are often estimated as higher than in

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traditional supermarkets. It is assumed that these high prices result from the e-grocery
home delivery operation which must deal with different preservation temperature
requirements, tight order-to-delivery lead times and delivery time windows (Punakivi
and Saranen, 2001). Therefore, the expensive refrigerated delivery systems to enhance
the quality of products may require a minimum level of customers per region in order
for such systems to be economically feasible (Grunert and Ramus, 2005). However,
(Punakivi and Saranen, 2001) found that an e-grocery delivery service can actually be
as much as 43 per cent cheaper compared to the current costs of a household customer
visiting the store using their own car and spare time.

2.4.6 Add on Services (AOS):

(Baohong Sun, 2005) had obtained that promotion makes consumers switch brands
and purchase earlier or more. He proposed a dynamic structural model with
endogenous consumption under promotion uncertainty to analyze the promotion
effect on consumption. (Gautam Gowrisankaran.et al., 2007) brought out a dynamic
model of consumer preferences for new consumer durable goods. Most new consumer
durable goods are characterized by relatively high initial prices followed by rapid
declines in prices and improvements in quality.

According to (Gardner and Strang, 1984) the field of sales promotions has grown in
importance as increasingly large budgets are allocated to its use. An understanding of
how consumers respond to promotions is important in developing effective strategies
for sales promotions and other associated elements of the communications mix.

2.4.7 Mode of Payment (MOP):

Raghubir and Srivastava (2008) examined spending behaviour as a function of
payment mode only. Whether the difference in spending behaviour can be attenuated
by altering the difference in transparency level, essentially extending the Soman
(2003) study. Thomas et al. (2011) conducted a complex set of studies into payment
mode influence on food purchases and in one study that uses supermarket data they
report that expenditure is related to card. Studies by Klee (2004) in the US and Bounie
and Francois (2009) in France also use grocery store data, and show that the payment

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mode choice is related to total amount of the transactions, with card and cheque use
dominating in high cost transactions. Borzekowski et al. (2006) report that several
studies in the US that use various versions of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)
all show that debit card users are younger, well-educated and more likely to be
female. Klee (2004) links card use to total spent in a single grocery purchase situation.

2.4.8 Social Influence (SI):

According to the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen 1985; 1991), a person’s
behavioural intention is affected by subjective norm concerning the behaviour. The
effect of subjective norm on behavioural intention was also proposed by (Davis et al.,
1989) in accordance with the extended TAM. Subjective norms, which reflect the
perceived opinions of referent others that are a person or group whose beliefs may be
important to the individual, are then affected by normative beliefs and motivations to
comply (Ajzen 1985). A normative belief is the individual's perception of a referent
other's opinion about the individual's performance of the behaviour. Motivation to
comply is the extent to which the person wants to comply with the wishes of the
referent other (Mathieson 1991).

2.4.9 Perceived internet grocery Risks (PRisks):

Despite the benefits of online commerce over traditional commerce and optimistic
predictions for future growth of online shopping, negative aspects associated with this
shopping method are also becoming critical (Ko et al., 2004). Perceived risk is
defined as the potential for loss in pursuing a desired outcome while engaged in
online shopping; it is a combination of uncertainty with the possibility of serious of
outcome (Ko et al., 2010). Perceived risk reduces the willingness of consumers to buy
goods over the internet (Barnes et al., 2007). Previous studies have argued that the
following types of risks are usually involved in purchase decisions: financial risks,
product risk, convenience risk, health risk, quality risk, time risk, delivery risk, after-
sale risk, performance, psychological, social, and privacy risk. Website design style
and characteristics, and trust in the web site affect significantly online consumers’
purchasing behaviour (Martin and Camarero, 2009; Tasi and Yeh, 2010; Almousa,

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2011; Javadi et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2012). (Bhatnagar and Ghose, 2004b) argued
that product risk has the most significant negative impact on shoppers’ online
purchase intentions. However, (Eggert, 2006) found that compared to product risk,
perceptions of privacy risk have greater impact on willingness to purchase on the
Internet. The higher perceived online risk is often deemed to be caused by the
unexpected and potentially undesirable outcomes or the negative consequences as a
result of their online buying behavioural decisions (Lim, 2003). In other words, a high
perceived risk might result in not only consumers’ reduced opportunities to physically
examine the products prior to the purchase on the internet but also their concerns
regarding the security of online shopping, such as payment and personal information
risk (Jarvenpaa and Todd 1997; Hansen 2006), costs and legality of transactions, and
the lack of reliable information (Bartel and Hoy, 2000).

2.4.10 Perceived Technical Barriers (PTB):

In comparison to traditional retailing channels, buying over the Internet represents a
shopping innovation (Dholakia and Uusitalo, 2002). (Ram and Sheth, 1989)
theoretical framework of existing barriers, which refers to consumers’ resistance to
adopt innovation, provides a conceptual starting point for identifying possible barriers
in the online shopping environment. The authors distinguish between two categories
of barriers, functional and psychological, both of which can paralyze consumers’
desire to adopt innovation. Functional barriers are likely to emerge if consumers
perceive significant changes from adopting an innovation. Functional barriers can be
divided into Usage, Value and Risk barriers. Usage barriers exist in areas where the
online shopping process is not compatible with consumers’ current shopping habits
and require substantial changes in consumers’ current buying and consumption
routines (Ram and Sheth, 1989). Buying on the Internet puts some distinct
requirements on the individual because the shopping process is quite different from
traditional shopping channels. Instead of being served by sales personnel, internet
users are required to register before purchasing and must employ search
functions/menus to shop online.(Raijas and Tuunainen,2001) Online shoppers also
need to have access to high speed internet and credit cards (Hammond, 2001). Thus

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low income consumers who lack internet access and credit cards are effectively
eliminated from online channels.

2.5 Attitudes and Online Purchase Intention:

In the previous section literature was reviewed in Indian context to understand the
consumers’ attitude towards using the online sales channel for other products as well
as for the grocery items. As online grocery sales channel is at its nascent stage so very
few studies have conducted so far in this area. In this section we will review the
relationship of attitude and actual purchase intention for the online shopping.

According to (Chiu et al., 2009) and (Mojtaba Nourbakhsh et al., 2012), research on
consumers’ attitudes and behaviour towards online shopping has been the main focus
in e-commerce recently. This may be due to an individual’s attitude towards
consuming a product is one of the most important antecedents for predicting and
explaining consumers’ choices across products and services, including food products
(Voon et al., 2011). Attitude as defined by (Jung, 1971) and (Voon et al., 2011) is a
psychological construct which represents an individual’s readiness to act or react in a
certain way. (Allport, 1935) and (Asiegbu et al., 2012) defines attitude as a mental
and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or
dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with
which it is related. According to (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975; Asiegbu et al., 2012),
attitude is a learned predisposition to respond or react in a consistently favorable
(like) or unfavorable (dislike) manner with respect to a given object/situation. In a
simpler definition, (Pickens, 2005) defines attitude as a mind-set or a tendency to act
in a particular way due to both an individual’s experience and temperament and the
reactions/responds include the tri component of feelings (emotions), thoughts (beliefs)
and actions (behaviours). It is consistent with (Gordon W. Allport, 1935; Wilsonet al.
2006), who theorized that the attitude-behaviour relationship was not uni-dimensional
as previously thought, but multidimensional. Allport viewed attitudes as complex
systems made up of the person’s beliefs about the object, his feelings toward the
object, and his action tendencies with respect to the object. Peter et al. (2002) see

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attitude as a person’s overall evaluation of a concept and it can range anywhere on the
continuum from extremely negative to extremely positive. Generally, attitudes are
developed from personal experiences and learning with reality, as well as from
information, from friends, sales people and news media. They are also derived from
both direct and indirect experiences in life. In short, consumers’ perceptions of the
product and service would determine their readiness to accept and adopt the product
and service or otherwise. Many previous studies have investigated the influence of
attitudes in the adoption of online shopping and indicated that attitudes is important in
predicting online shopping intentions or behaviours. In the study by (Delafrooz, 2009)
showed that the level of online shopping intention was relatively high and direction of
attitude towards online shopping was positive among the postgraduate students in
Malaysia. (Jarvenpaa et al.,2000) assessed consumers’ intention to shop online
indicated that consumers’ intention to shop online is positively associated with
attitude towards internet buying, and influences their decision-making and purchasing
behaviour. Previous researches by (George, 2004; Mojtaba Nourbakhsh et al. 2012)
have revealed attitude towards online shopping is a significant predictor of making
online purchases and purchasing behaviour. According to (Shwu-Ing, 2003), the
group with more positive attitude towards online shopping should be the target market
as attitude is believed to influence online purchase decisions directly. In particular,
attitude serves as the bridge between consumers’ background characteristics and the
consumption that satisfies their needs (Shwu-Ing, 2003). According to (Na Li & Ping
Zang, 2002), in the context of online shopping, the first dimension of attitudes for
investigation is the consumers’ acceptance of the Internet as a shopping channel. The
second dimension for investigation is the consumer attitudes toward a specific
Internet store (i.e., to what extent consumers think that shopping at this store is
appealing).

2.6 Summary and Critical Analysis of Literature:

This review of literature has provided considerable knowledge and information on the
concept OGS and consumers’ attitude. But many of these studies are either from
abroad or from any other e-tailing sector like banking, online shopping for other

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products etc. Some of the existing consumer researches have investigated the factors
affecting consumer decisions of online channel to shop for groceries. Primarily, the
reasons for buying online are hatred of grocery shopping or grocery stores, an
inability to avoid impulse buying, and the fact that the respondents do not like
queuing (Morganosky and Cude, 2000). As the other reasons, wider selection of
retailers, unlimited opening hours, ease of comparing product and price offerings are
enumerated. Nevertheless, the most important reasons to purchase groceries online are
convenience-related, such as the ability to shop from home, have products delivered
and shop at any time, and time saving (Morganosky and Cude 2000; Verhoef and
Langerak 2001; Raijas 2002; Tanskanen et al. 2002; Ramus and Nielsen 2005). That
is, it can be said that the combination of easy internet ordering and home delivery has
enough appeal to the consumers who demand convenience (Grunert and Ramus
2005). Moreover, this fulfillment will make the internet a profitable and
complementary market channel (Lim et al. 2009).

In terms of perceived issues and risks within consumer choice behaviour is that
limited empirical research has been conducted into the effects of situational factors on
consumers’ channel choice (Raijas and Tuunainen 2001; Verhoef and Langerak 2001;
Huang and Oppewal 2006). (Hand et al., 2009) found that situational factors and
lifestyle changes were emerged as the key triggers for the adoption of e-grocery
shopping (Anckar et al. 2002; Riley et al.2007). Another approach was made by
(Morganosky and Cude, 2000) to look specifically at the reasons for consumers to
shop online in the grocery area. They noted that convenience was a particularly
relevant motive when there were situational constraints, such as ill health or the
presence of small children in the household. Also, if consumers have negative
experiences with the quality of service, such as unsatisfactory deliveries and incorrect
orders, the frequency of online shopping for groceries would be diminished or
discontinued (Hand et al. 2009). Other worries which can be raised by consumers
pertaining to the service issue include bad picking and packing of goods, and
perishables being too near to sell-by-dates or not being kept properly chilled in
delivery vans.

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Generalization of related results from these studies is not necessarily appropriate, as

OGS sector in India is still on its growing stage, however, due to technological
innovation online shoppers are increasing for other products and services.
Consequently, the scope of previous academic research related to online shopping and
consumer behaviour has seldom addressed the grocery retail market, with the few
existing studies from the developed countries focusing only on consumers’ adoption
and general attitudes and motivations towards online grocery shopping ( Morganosky
& Cude, 2000; Verhoef & Langerak, 2001; Hansen, 2005). As a result not much is
known about how exactly consumers shop online for groceries. However, this study
intends to contribute to the growing body of knowledge of the consumers’ attitude
and intention to buy in online grocery shopping environments and an attempt has been
made to identify the facilitating factors, issues and technical barriers influencing the
consumer’s attitude for the acceptance of online grocery channel for the grocery
shopping in the Northern States of India.

2.7 Conceptual Framework of Research Model:

The literature review in the previous section has provided considerable knowledge,
information and deep understanding of the research topic and helps to define
conceptual framework of research model and hypothesis. Though various frameworks
and models have been developed to explore determinants of technology acceptance
and adoption in the previous researches. However, the Technology Acceptance Model
(TAM) is chosen as the theoretical basis to develop a conceptual model for testing
consumers’ attitude and behavioral intention in this research for the following
reasons. Firstly, it has a solid theoretical foundation that provides a better prediction
of attitudes than the Theory of Planned Behavior. Secondly, many subsequent
empirical studies on the Technology Acceptance Model have numerous proven
records to show that it has both reliability of the measures and validity of the
constructs. Thirdly, the Technology Acceptance Model enjoys a rich base of academic
acceptance. Fig 2.1 depicts conceptual framework of OGS in this study. The main
constructs namely ‘Perceived Usefulness’ and ‘Perceived Ease of Use’ derived from
TAM Model, This study however, was also carried out with the extended theory of

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reasoned action which stated that attitude, social influence and past purchasing
behvaiour are some variables influencing attitude and behavioural intention (Supanat
Chuchinprakarn,2012). So ‘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 Technical Barriers.

Fig 2.1: Research Model

Perceived Perceived Perceived

Usefulness Ease of technical
Use barriers

Delivery
Factors

Attitude towards
Add on Intention to
online grocery
services start
shopping using/continue
OGS

Social
Influence

Mode of Perceived
Payment Risks

Next chapter of this thesis contains research methodology which is followed in the
thesis that represents the flow activities ranging from problem formulation to research
design, development of questionnaire study.

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