An Exploratory Study on Consumer Attitude

Towards Online Grocery shopping

Chandini A. V. and Nagendra
Faculty of Management and Commerce, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore 560 054
Contact Author E-mail: chandini.ashwath62@gmail.com

Abstract
In the changing world of buyers market, identifying the needs and wants of the customers and understanding the
consumer attitude is the challenging task. This research is aimed to carrying out a study to identify the factors that
influence consumers to go for online grocery shopping and their attitude towards it. Online grocery shopping is a
way of buying food and other household necessities using a web-based shopping service. A consumer can order for
groceries from companies, such as Big Basket.com, Grofers, Peppertap and others, which will ship the items to
ones home. A questionnaire has been developed and primary data collected with 209 samples. The study included
a survey which was carried out in the area of Vijayanagar, Bengaluru, India, by meeting people and administering
the questionnaire. Analysis was carried out using Chi square hypotheses test, and frequency test to check the
demographic profile of the respondents.
The survey revealed that it is the females, undergraduates and employed people who are shopping for groceries
online. The survey also revealed that nearly 87% of the respondents are open to online grocery shopping, positive
attitude towards the information is in detail with respect to groceries online and almost all the respondents prefer to
shop from a trustworthy website. The findings of the research also show that there is no significant impact of return
policy on shopping consumer attitude towards online grocery. Further, the result shows that there is no positive
influence of website design on the consumers who shop for groceries online.

Key Words: Consumer Behaviour, Grocery Online Shopping, New Product, Attitude, Perception,

1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 SUMMARY OF LITERATURE

The E-commerce sector in India is rapidly growing
at a very quick pace in the new days and up to this
present day. This relentless growth of E-commerce
is changing the way people assume, search, perform
and bring up a yield. Most consumers are adopting
new technologies in shopping and with many of
them being liberal thinkers, want fast and efficient
shopping while also considering other shopping
attributes. Majority of companies in the small scale,
medium scale and large scale sectors own a website
in order to improve their business and they do so by
employing online advertisements, online
promotional events/activities thus taking a digital
leap in the business cycles. The convenience, needs,
wants and comfort of the consumers and their
buying behaviour and the process of buying is the
source of the relentless growth of E-commerce.
Online shopping is growing very rapidly in present
days. People are changing the way they shop for
goods or services. There has been a tremendous
shift from traditional shopping to online shopping.
When it comes to online grocery shopping, due to
consumers busy work schedule, the innovative
shoppers or early adopters are finding ways for the
changing technology to help them in newer ways of
shopping. The emerging online grocery shopping is
being increasingly adopted by many consumers in
urban areas.
There are many factors which encourage people to
shop for groceries online, but it is not known what
factors influence them to go for online buying of
groceries.
REVIEW
The review of literature showed that studies (Ch. J.
S. Prasad and D. Raghunatha Reddy 2007),
(Christian Seitz (2013) has been done on measuring
the psychographic dynamics of the consumers
where in to identify the psychological factors which
are influencing the consumers to shop for food and
groceries online. But there is a lack of study to be
done in order to find out who are the online grocery
shoppers with respect to demographic profile.
There are studies (Emmanuel Cimana and Nakkarin
Phoosangthong 2013),
(Michelle A. Morganosky and Brenda J. Cude
2014), Jayendra Sinha and Jiyeon Kim (2012) with
regard to identification of factors that influence
consumers to go for online grocery shopping. With
the help of these studies it has been found that, there
is a need to identify which factor is influencing
consumers to go for online grocery shopping.
3.0 GAPS IDENTIFIED FROM
LITERATURE REVIEW
The work of other researcher in relevant study
focused on psychographic dynamics in food and
grocery retailing (Ch. J. S. Prasad and D.
Raghunatha Reddy, 2007). Every person has a
different opinion in their daily life. There is a need
to study the consumers attitude towards online
grocery shopping which could result in purchase.
The present research is concentrated on studying the
attitude of consumers towards online grocery
shopping.

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4.0 OBJECTIVES
To identify demographic profile of online
shoppers in South Bangalore.
To analyse the factors influencing return policy
with respect to online grocery shopping.
5.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Through questionnaire the primary data of 209
sample size is collected to analyse the consumer
attitude towards online grocery shopping.
6.2.2 Website design
Website features and the information available on
the website influence the perception of the
consumer of online buying.
6.2.3 Time saving
Time saving is one of the most influencing factors
of online shopping. Browse or search an online
catalogue can save time and patience.

Chi square and frequency test are carried out to

study the demographic profile of consumers.
Chi square test has been done to check the
significance value of the hypotheses
Frequency test has been done to check the
demographics and influence of factors on
consumers.
6.0. RESEARCH DESIGN
Theoretical Framework
6.2.4 Security of transactions
Security of transactions is another dominant factor
which affects consumers to shop online.
6.2.5 Return policy
Return policy of the company is also one of the
factors in online grocery shopping.
6.2.6 Customer support
A good customer support is always an influential
Place of research Bengaluru-Vijayanagar

Total population (in 36077

nos)According to
Bangalore
Governance
Observatory (2015)
Sample size (in nos) 209

Sampling Convenience sampling

Tests applied Chi square hypotheses test and

Frequency test.

factor that impresses consumers.

7.0. DATA ANALYSIS

Following are the tools used for Data Analysis:
Chi square Test
The theoretical framework has been developed Frequency Test
based on identifying the gaps in literature.
7.1. CHI SQUARE HYPOTHESES TEST:
6.1. Demographic Profile
In this research as a part of demography study 7.1.1 Hypotheses 1
the consumers gender, age, occupation and H0a: The company return policy does not have a
positive impact on buying behaviour for online
educational qualification has been analysed to
purchase of grocery products.
identify who are the online grocery shoppers.
Asymp. Sig (2-
6.2. Attitude Pearson Value df
Sided
Guangping Wang, W. D. (2006) defines attitude as a Chi-Square
13.96 9 0.124
psychological tendency that is expressed by
Table 1. Chi square test
evaluating a particular consumption-related to some
The significance value is greater than 0.5. Hence,
degree of favour or disfavour.
we accept the null hypotheses and reject the
alternative hypotheses.
6.2 Factors that influence consumers to go
for online grocery shopping 7.1.2 Hypotheses 2
H0: The website does not have positive influence on
6.2.1 Convenience the consumers who shop for groceries online.
Convenience factor means it is easy to browse the Asymp. Sig (2-
Likelihood Value df
information through online rather than the Sided
traditional retail shopping. Ratio
3.74 8 0.880
Table 2: Chi square test

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 between 39-45 years.
The significance value is greater than 0.5. Hence,
we accept the null hypotheses and reject the
7.2.3 Education
alternative hypotheses.
Valid
7.2 Frequency test to check the influence of Cumulativ
Frequency % Perce
e Percent
demographic profile of online grocery nt
shoppers Under
83 39.7 39.7 39.7
Graduate
7.2.1 Gender Graduate 62 29.7 29.7 69.4
Postgra
64 30.6 30.6 100
duate
Valid
Cumulativ 100.
Frequency % Perce Total 209 100.0
e Percent 0
nt
Table 5 Education profile
Male 89 42.6 42.6 42.6
Female 120 57.4 57.4 100
Total 209 100 100

Table 3 Gender profile

Figure 4 Education profile

Out of the overall survey it is revealed that the

majority that is 39.7% of the respondents were
Undergraduates.

7.2.4 Employment
Figure 2 Gender profile Vali
d Cumulative
Out of the overall survey, it is revealed that majority Frequency %
Perc Percent
that is 57.4% are female respondents and 42.6% are
ent
male respondents. Self
Employed
39 18.7 18.7 18.7
7.2.2 Age Employed 49 28.4 23.4 42.1
Valid Student 39 18.7 18.7 60.8
Cumulativ
Frequency % Perce Home
e Percent 49 18.4 23.4 84.2
nt Maker
18-24 23 11 11 11 Others 33 15.8 15.8 100
25-31 34 16.3 16.3 27.3 Total 209 100 100
32-38 45 21.5 2.15 48.8
39-45 50 23.9 23.9 72.7 Table 6 Employment profile
46-52 37 17.7 17.7 90.4
>52 20 9.6 9.6 100
Total 209 100 100

Table 4 Age profile

Figure 5 Employment status

Figure 3 Age profile Out of the overall survey it is revealed that
there is 28.4% of the total respondents were
Out of the overall survey it is revealed that
employed.
majority that is 23.9% of respondents age
14

8.0. DISCUSSIONS & CONCLUSION
8.1. Suggestions
Suggestions are based on the consumers
feedback and data analysis:
The e-grocers must provide clear and very
detailed information about products so as to
facilitate consumers with the ease and feeling
of getting the product that they are looking for.
The respondents felt that they cannot buy
products at any point of time and the reasons
they mentioned were: late or no delivery at mid
nights at all, the particular website does not
function smoothly sometimes due to website
traffic and they feel it is not so satisfactory to
buy products 24/7.
People are finding it difficult to compare
between and among competing products. So it
is suggested that, the websites should allow the
consumers to compare between and among
products according to their convenience and
affordability.
The companies should make sure that their
consumers get the products what they have
ordered for and if not at least make sure that
the consumers can return the products as
quickly as possible without any inconvenience
It is suggested to the online grocers that,
consumers should be allowed to place their
orders though telephones
The proper promotional strategy has to be
implemented and lot of awareness has to be
brought in to other demographic profiles.
For example: the aged people who may find it
difficult to physically go to traditional grocery
instead can adopt online grocery shopping
8.2. LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The limitation during the research was searching the
women respondents who shop grocery products
along with the experience of online shopping.
The limitation during the Market research was that
research was done in a limited geographical area of
Vijayanagar
9.0. CONCLUSION
The study focused on the consumers attitude
towards online grocery shopping. The factors that
were considered were such as conveniences, website
design, time saving, security return policy and
customer support. The study revealed that there is
no significant impact of return policy on consumer
attitude towards online grocery shopping and there
is also no positive impact of website design on
consumers shopping for groceries online. The study
revealed that, it is the females who are shopping for
groceries online in majority and those who are under
the age category of 39-45 years, undergraduates and
employed professionals.
Thus, it can be said that, the online grocery
shopping in Bengaluru is in rapid growth and huge
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acceptability by the consumers and that there is also
much wider scope for it to acquire even more
consumers in future.
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