Benefits and Pitfalls of Online Grocery Shopping as Perceived by the Consumers: Evidence from the Czech Republic

Abstract

Over the last decade, online grocery shopping has been a growing e-commerce area, currently representing a multi-billion business. While research has been carried out outlining different aspects of consumers’ general online shopping behavior, grocery shopping has its specificity in its mundanity and everydayness. As a mundane and routine practice, it affects consumers’ everyday lives, as well as other larger-scale issues such as food waste. This paper strives to explore this intersection between online shopping behavior and everyday life. Based on qualitative research, it outlines four behavioral alterations consumers exhibit when switching from offline to online grocery shopping. It then outlines how they fit into and affect their lived experience, creating perceived benefits and/or pitfalls of online grocery shopping.

Keywords

• online supermarket
• e-commerce
• consumer behavior
• qualitative research
• consumer benefits
• Czech Republic