Methodology

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A case study approach is used to explore the supermarket online shopping model. The two largest U.K. supermarkets—Sainsbury and Tesco—are chosen, because the two companies use different picking-up models, which significantly distinguish the two types of online grocery shopping. The study is based primarily on secondary data source, largely from the two companies' websites, company internal reports and consultants' reports.

The study on the consumer's perception on traditional and online supermarket shopping is based on a questionnaire survey that is conducted primarily in three cities in the South of England. The questionnaire was distributed electronically (via email) to 210 contacts of the authors. The criteria for selecting the sample was that the person contacted owns a PC and/or had ready access to the Internet. One hundred and sixty valid responses were received which represents a 76 percent response rate. The questionnaire was initially piloted on 10 persons to ensure clarity and reliability. The results from the pilot study are excluded from the analysis. The demographic profile of the respondents is given in Table 1.

Table 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents

Age Range

Frequency

%

Male

%

Female

%

Average weekly spending in grocery shopping (£)

Under 25

83

51%

58

36.3%

25

15.6%

23.19

26–35

48

30%

29

18.1%

19

11.9%

39.47

36–45

14

9%

11

6.9%

3

1.9%

63.92

46–55

9

6%

5

3.1%

4

2.5%

63.33

Over 56

6

4%

4

2.5%

2

1.3%

41.66

Total

160

100%

107

67%

53

33%

 

The authors acknowledge that the sample seems biased toward a younger age and male dominated group. However, as De Kare-Silver (2000) indicates, these people are usually confident in the use of new technologies. The dominant male in the sample (67 percent) is consistent with the argument that one of the key challenges of World Wide Web-based shopping is the male-dominated user base although primary household shoppers are predominantly female (Jarvenpaa & Todd, 1997; Morganosky & Cude, 2002). Care was taken to include females in the sample since they are a specific target group for Internet shopping by the grocery retailers. For example, Tesco has invested 12 million pounds over three years in a website aimed at the more mature women with a family who might be tempted to do their shopping at home (Financial Times, 2000).

The sample's weekly spending on grocery shopping confirms the age range of the respondents, i.e., the relatively young, and perhaps without families, group spends less than 20 pounds, and the more elderly age groups tend to spend more. 97.5 percent of the sample had access to the Internet, as shown in Table 2. One third of the respondents access the Internet from home. The other two popular access routes to the Internet are from a working place and the university/colleges.

Table 2: Access to the Internet

Access to the Internet

Frequency

% Percentage N = 60

Home

50

31.3

College

39

24.4

Work

30

18.8

Internet Cafes

17

10.6

Library

12

7.5

Other

8

5.0

Total

156

97.5

The findings are reported in the next two sections.



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Advanced Topics in End User Computing (Vol. 3)
Advanced Topics in End User Computing, Vol. 3
ISBN: 1591402573
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 191

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