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By Vanessa Virgo
Despite online grocery shopping options during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers still prefer to shop in person, according to a new University of Guelph study. Among shoppers opting for online service, the study found, more women prefer to pick up their groceries in person, while men prefer direct home delivery.
Dr. Kimberly Thomas-Francois, Post-Doctoral Fellow, and Drs. WooMi Jo and Simon Somogyi, professors in the School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management in U of G’s Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, aimed to better understand Canadian consumers’ use of virtual grocery shopping (VGS) services during the pandemic.
In the early months of the pandemic, they used a tool called the model of goal-directed behaviour (MGB), which predicts purposive behavioural intentions.
“Consumer behaviour is a complex phenomenon,” says Thomas-Francois. “Furthering our understanding of this and the factors that drive the desire to take up online grocery shopping is essential to the growth of this channel and the formulation of business strategies.”
Using the MGB, the researchers integrated consumers’ attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural controls, and positive and negative emotions toward VGS services, to provide insight on consumer desire to embrace online grocery shopping.
In a hypothetical study, 1,028 Canadian consumers were given $100 and asked to allocate funds based on their preferred mode of grocery shopping. On average, $72 was spent in-store and $18 was spent on VGS.
Despite the potential health risks posed by in-store shopping amid the pandemic, researchers found that consumers still opted to do most of their grocery shopping in person.
“This data is consistent with the fact that consumers prioritize the sensory aspect of grocery shopping,” says Jo. “Consumers prefer having the ability to touch, smell and see their food before purchasing it.”
The study also discovered gender-based differences in online shopping preferences.
The data so far suggests that women were more likely to opt for “click-and-collect” services, which allow customers to purchase groceries online and collect them in person. Men, however, preferred direct delivery to their homes.
“Online grocery shopping is a very new trend, and lots of people don’t know they have such options,” says Thomas-Francois. “It’s a very infant stage of the trend we’re studying, and there’s a lot more for us to learn about consumers’ approach to online grocery shopping.”
The researchers say additional studies are needed to learn more about consumer behaviour and VGS services.
As this study was conducted in the early months of the pandemic, the results accounted for initial responses of consumers to the virus. For future studies, the researchers suggest focusing on the effects of multiple subsequent lockdowns on Canadian consumers’ attitudes toward VGS services.
This research project was supported by the University of Guelph’s COVID-19 Research Development and Catalyst Fund.