Abstract
Today's global world is constantly changing and evolving. In light of the current events, and in particular the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, this trend is intensifying and accelerating. Recent events have brought a huge turnaround in many aspects of our lives, and shopping behavior has undoubtedly been one of them. Parts of our lives have had to be transferred to the online environment, and this may have affected how we shop. This chapter therefore aims to identify the main factors influencing the purchasing behavior of consumers when buying online in the category of groceries on the Czech market to determine the profile of typical consumers who tend to use online shopping platforms and to find out what effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on general shopping patterns of Czech consumers.
TopIntroduction
Research suggests that traditional retail formats are still preferred by customers over online platforms in regard to grocery purchases (Kim & Wang, 2021; Berg & Hendriksson, 2020). There are some barriers related to the online environment, such as not being able to see and touch the products, expensive delivery costs or bad quality. These barriers have not yet been overcome, as customers tend to seek online products rather than products that pose little risk when shopping. Sing & Rosengren (2019) argue that e-retail cannot dominate traditional brick-and-mortar retail for all types of products and services because customers prefer the physical aspects of shopping for some products. Thanks to the appearance of new technologies, these barriers can be reduced and overcome; however, thus far, a major motivation for doing so has been missing.
Previous research on online shopping has revealed that the impetus for buying food online can be a situational factor. This impulse can be, for example, the birth of a child or the development of health problems; however, it has been found that many customers stop buying food online as soon as the initial trigger disappears or a service problem occurs (Hand et al., 2009). Other typical situational factors include the distance of the potential customer's residence from the traditional supermarket, the day of the week (weekend or holiday), the weather, or the size and composition of the purchase (Arce-Urriza and Cebollada, 2013). Moreover, the choice of the shopping channel may depend on the shopping motives. It appears that users with utilitarian motives prefer online shopping channels, mainly due to money savings, product assortment and convenience. On the other hand, customers who are driven by hedonic factors are attracted to shopping in brick-and-mortar stores (Cervellon et al., 2015). Customers who buy food online shop with a certain shopping goal in mind, which corresponds more to a utilitarian shopping motive. Researchers focusing on motives for online grocery shopping suggest that product quality, product range, quality of service, customer-perceived value, food warranty, convenience, service cost, perceived risk, social standards, and the design of the online platform have significant impacts as well (Osman & Hwang, 2016; Haridasan & Fernando, 2018). Within the technology acceptance model for online food purchasing, several other factors have been tested that may affect customer behavior, namely, entertainment, perceived time constraints, perceived comfort, perception of the offline retailers, positive past experiences, situational factors and social influence (Driediger and Bhatiasevi, 2019).
While online grocery shopping represented a rather small percentage of online purchases before 2020, COVID-19 and forced free-movement restrictions have provided the necessary impulse for consumers to seek new ways of acquiring products. However, groceries represent a specific category of goods, and many consumers may hesitate before trying to buy food online. In this chapter, we analyze the motives for and barriers to online grocery shopping in the context of the Czech market. First, based on previous research, we identify potential factors that could have an impact on user behavior regarding the online purchase of groceries. Subsequently, we outline the characteristics of the Czech e-commerce market and the Czech mentality according to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. To support the secondary findings from the national surveys, primary data were acquired via an online survey including both open questions and scales. Finally, factor analysis was conducted to establish which motivators and barriers have the main influence on opting for an online shopping platform rather than shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.
Key Terms in this Chapter
E-Commerce: Electronic trading is a form of trading that substantially uses modern electronic means of communication to carry out business transactions (with its own organizational units, with suppliers, and with customers). The basic infrastructure is the internet; however, other electronic means are often used, such as e-mail, telephone or payment cards.
Delivery Service: A courier or delivery service is a service aimed at delivering a shipment to a destination; it is similar to a postal service. Compared to the postal service, there is a significant difference in the speed of transport, which is usually faster, the method of loading and the price of transport. This transport allows considerable flexibility in changes in the delivery address or in the volume of transported goods. The courier service consists of the immediate collection of the consignment from the sender and the subsequent handover of the consignment to the addressee.
Behavioral Pattern: Behavioral patterns are supposed to simplify our lives; they allow the brain to not learn the same thing over and over again, i.e., one would not be able to devote oneself to the things on which one needs to focus one's conscious attention if this were not the case. We distinguish patterns of behavior into those that are innate, those acquired through evolution and learned, and those acquired through the environment in which we live. From an evolutionary point of view, there is a distinction between three levels in the development of behavior: biological, psychological, and social. Thus, the pattern of behavior is the behavior that we subconsciously follow in our daily lives.
Green E-Commerce: Green e-commerce includes all activities carried out to conduct and facilitate all online transactions aimed at satisfying human needs and desires with minimal harmful impact on the environment.
Customer Behavior: Behavior that characterizes a person in acquiring, using, and discontinuing the consumption of a particular product or service. The frequency of purchase, the attitude toward the product and the reasons for purchase (or reasons why the respondent stopped using the product or service) are most often monitored.
Online Grocery Shopping Platform: An online store that offers an assortment of groceries and beverages that the customers may order online and have delivered to their home without having to go to a brick-and-mortar shop.
Pandemic Lockdown: The pandemic lockdown describes the restrictions of the free movement of persons and the range of services imposed by individual governments around the world in response to the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021.