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The structure of the UK food manufacturing industry is highly fragmented and consists of some 5,000 firms. Of these, however, the ten largest companies are estimated to account for one‐third of all sales. The importance of the 100 largest private sector firms has traditionally been relatively high within the industry and in 1975, for example, they produced 55 per cent of the food sector's net output, compared with the 40 per cent provided by a similar sample in the total manufacturing sector. Similarly, evidence from both Ashby and Mordue demonstrates that during the 1970s the average size of food manufacturers/processors overtook that of manufacturers as a whole in terms of numbers employed. By the same measure, businesses with more than one hundred employees continued to expand at a faster rate in food than the average for all manufacturers, so that the mean employment size of these larger food enterprises in the late 1970s was more than one‐third greater than in all manufacturing. Smaller establishments, by contrast, are relatively under‐represented in the UK food, drink and tobacco sector, both in comparison with the average for all manufacturers and internationally.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the beliefs of local grocery retailers about online grocery retailing. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the study explores the outcome, normative and control beliefs held by the local grocers about online grocery retailing which would eventually translate into behavior. Factors influencing local grocers intention to participate or refusing to participate in the online grocery retailing was investigated.

In total, 20 in-depth interviews with local grocery retailers were conducted ranging from small to large sized retail stores from a city in the western part of India. The sample included two groups of local grocers – first, grocers who partnered with online retailers as suppliers. This group included those retailers who had partnered but discontinued later and second, grocers who had not partnered with online retailers. In-depth interviews with the local grocery retailers were conducted using TPB as a basis to uncover local grocers’ beliefs toward online grocery retailing and predict their behavior.

The outcome beliefs were classified into five broad heads – business expansion; gaining visibility and reputation; customer expectations; inventory management; and margins, costs and technical issues. The normative belief was that the actions and response to online grocery retailing would be governed by their referent group – the consumers. The main control belief was that partnering with online grocery retailing would result in loss of control regarding their business operations.

The results indicated that in a country like India especially in small to medium size towns, online grocery retailers would have to think of creative ways to involve the local grocery retailers to grow their business. The local grocers due to their size were able to adapt to the requirements of their referent consumers without any additional cost. They were unlikely to give up control regarding how they run their business. The main limitation of this study was the exploratory nature of this study which makes it difficult to prioritize the importance given to each belief. The study sample was restricted to one city in India, and future studies could include other cities.

The findings have practical implications for online grocery retailers who wish to expand into emerging markets like India. It provides understanding about the local grocery retailers who were the major competitors of online grocery retailers. It provides direction to integrate and partner with the local grocers and utilize them for mutual benefits.

Given the absence of academic literature in the public domain, this study provides a platform for future studies in this area. This paper is a systematic attempt to uncover the underlying beliefs of local grocery retailers who were the key players in the grocery retailing business.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of completed case studies of two major multi‐channel grocery retailers in South Africa. The aim of the research was to establish the potential that online grocery retail has to undermine traditional retail by decreasing foot traffic and undermining rental income.

The growth of online shopping in the retail sector is a matter of concern for those involved in the development and management of shopping centres. Non‐probability convenience sampling was employed to interview shoppers in the five largest regional shopping centres in Cape Town tenanted by the two major grocery “e‐tailers” in South Africa.

The findings show that the online grocery market is an expanding market segment. Furthermore, diminished foot traffic is likely to affect the ability of smaller retailers to pay turnover rentals. Miller's revised rent model is adapted and used to illustrate the potential savings that may be generated by changing the rent models currently in use.

Future research into exactly what consumers buy online from food retailers needs to be undertaken in order to establish the maximum potential reduction in foot traffic attracted by food anchors.

It is concluded that the South African retail industry is heavily reliant on traditional retail centres and although the loss in rentals resulting from online grocery sales is not currently considerable, it does represent a potential future threat.

The paper speculates about the effects of growth in online buying on rental agreements in shopping centres. The paper would appeal to property investors, property developers and facilities managers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine shelf management practices of grocery retail chains and their category captains (CCs) in the marketing of consumer packaged goods.

This is a qualitative, exploratory study that is set in a duopoly retail environment in the Asia-Pacific region. The study employed 18 in-depth interviews with executives and managers of two umbrella retail organisations and their suppliers/manufacturers. The method of data analysis employed was content analysis.

Despite CC input in merchandising decisions, it is the retail chains that have the final say on shelf matters. There is no risk of strategic loss of power in employing CCs to manage store product categories on behalf of, or in partnership with retailers provided the retail chains closely monitor the activities and decisions/recommendations of the captains.

The paper is developed from data obtained from the grocery retail industry of one economy. Future research would need to extend this study to other economies with similar as well as different conditions.

The research offers reassurance to grocery retail practitioners who may be contemplating lessening the burden of managing all their store categories by themselves and switching to CC arrangements. The reassurance is that the reported risk associated with loss of power is manageable.

The paper has created a typology termed the “category captain arrangement/grocery retail concentration matrix” and specific directions for further research.

This paper aims to explore the applied context of grocery retail pricing practice to understand how pricing executives approach “regular price” decision-making (as opposed to promotional pricing). The study seeks to inductively develop a model of regular price decision-making in grocery retailing.

The research uses an inductive methodology involving interviews with pricing executives working for grocery retailers that account for approximately 85 per cent of the UK, and 64 per cent of USA, grocery market retail sales. The approach is appropriate given the underdeveloped research insights into regular pricing within food retailers.

It is found that regular pricing is undertaken with little sophistication, typically, on the basis of simple, inflexible rules that result in conflicting goals. A typology of three pricing roles was identified, although all share an underdeveloped understanding of the effects of price changes on customer demand and the implications of competitor reactions. These contexts, causes and conditions lead to a range of consequences; notably, a degree of pricing inertia, “customer-less” pricing and “enforced symbiosis” – coping outcomes. Taken together, a theory of “passivity” pricing is identified.

The research presents a contribution to new knowledge in the field of retail marketing by developing theory in retail pricing. In contrast to much extant research on grocery pricing, this paper accesses the insights and opinions of the pricing executives themselves. It exposes the realities of regular price decision-making across two developed retail markets and offers managerial insights.

The advent of grocery sales through online channels necessitates that bricks-and-mortar retailers redefine their logistics networks if they want to compete online. Because the general understanding of such bricks-and-clicks logistics systems for grocery is still limited, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the internal logistics networks used to serve customers across channels by means of an exploratory study with retailers from different contexts.

A total of 12 case companies from six European countries participated in this exploratory study. Face-to-face interviews with managers were the primary source for data collection. The heterogeneity of the sample enabled the authors to build a typology of logistics networks in grocery retailing on multiple channels and to understand the advantages of different warehousing, picking, internal transportation and last-mile delivery systems.

Bricks-and-mortar grocery retailers are leveraging their existing logistics structures to fulfill online orders. Logistics networks are mostly determined by the question of where to split case packs into customer units. In non-food logistics, channel integration is mostly seen as beneficial, but in grocery retailing, this depends heavily on product, market and retailer specifics. The data from the heterogeneous sample reveal six distinct types for cross-channel order fulfillment.

The qualitative analysis of different design options can serve as a decision support for retailers developing logistics networks to serve customers across channels.

The paper shows the internal and external factors that drive the decision-making for omni-channel (OC) logistics networks for previously store-based grocery retailers. Thereby, it makes a step toward building a contingency and configuration theory of retail networks design. It discusses in particular the differences between grocery and non-food OC retailing, last-mile delivery systems and market characteristics in the decision-making of retail networks design.

This research aims to fill the research gaps regarding customer preferences for digitalisation to create value for retailers and customers, as well as focus on retail change and shopping behaviour in grocery retail stores in the emerging market.

This paper contributes to the research in this area by evaluating customers' and retailers' attitudes towards digital transformation in retailing through interviews. Methodologically, 200 questionnaires were gathered, and data were analysed with the partial least squared structural equation modelling method.

The findings of this study reveal that the effect of digital transformation in the retail industry will be more apparent in an emerging market.

The paper's originality consists in understanding the future retail structure in an emerging market. Notably, focussing on business-to-consumer businesses appears helpful in distinguishing between behavioural (buying) intention and online buying behaviour (actual usage) in an emerging market.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how grocery retailers configure their online fulfilment centres (OFC) as they move towards an omni-channel structure and what contextual factors influence their decisions.

An exploratory case study with three grocery retailers in the Nordic countries was conducted. The study investigates the current OFC configurations and identifies nine important contextual factors.

This study shows the importance of understanding the changes that omni-channel retailing entails for an OFC configuration. Nine contextual factors were identified. Several of the factors are found in previous theory, but this paper extends the knowledge of how they affect the configuration of an OFC in grocery retail. The changes in, for example, order characteristics create different requirements for picking, packing, sorting and shipping when compared with traditional distribution centres (DC). Although representing a separate flow for online fulfilment, OFC configuration depends on how the other logistics flows from the DC to stores are designed.

To support further theory development, nine contextual factors and their relationship to OFC configurations are proposed.

This study provides managerial value in two ways. First, grocery retailers with one or more OFCs can benchmark existing solutions using the empirical case descriptions. Second, the findings provide grocery retailers with knowledge of how to configure an OFC.

The literature lacks a holistic approach towards how grocery retailers configure their OFCs and what factors affect these decisions. This study provides the first in-depth analysis of how the omni-channel context affects the configuration of all the aspects of an OFC.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a comparative study of order lead times for firms operating in the UK and Greek food retail markets with the UK one being regarded at the forefront in terms of logistics efficiency.

The main research instrument is a survey of managers employed by the major food multiple retailers operating in the UK and Greece. Statistical analysis is employed to illustrate the variances and differences between these retailers.

The study illustrates that total lead‐time is longer than the sum of the components. This implies that there are non‐value‐added time delays that are occurring between the components and there is still room for improvement. It is also shown that any differences in lead‐time between Greek and UK grocery retailers have been effectively eliminated as the entrance of retail multinationals in Greece has forced domestic retailers to improve their logistics systems.

There is a scarcity of papers in the logistics field that cross‐examines the logistics performance of national grocery supply chains. This is addressed via the current paper that reports the results of a comparative study of order lead times for firms operating in two European food retail markets, the UK and Greece. The paper will be beneficial to the strategic thinking of retail logistics managers and will support further empirical research work in that academic field of study.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the risks, innovations and technological enablers or barriers to the efficiency of the supply chain risk management (SCRM) implementation in the retail sector of South Africa.

This study applied a qualitative research approach by conducting interviews with grocery retail store managers. Through convenience sampling, 12 representatives from 12 stores (1 representative per store was interviewed at each of the 12 stores) were interviewed.

This study mainly found that most of the grocery retail stores experience late deliveries, damaged stock, theft, high fuel costs and expired stock from their respective suppliers. It was found that firms are faced with similar supply chain risks. In addition, innovations and technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and social media are making an impact in wider industrial change.

Adaptation of efficient and effective SCRM has had implications for practice related to improvements in the retail stores’ supply chain, the profitability of retail stores, marketing, promotions and consumer experiences.

This study is unique as it provides new insight into variables that affects the quality of service in the retail sector; customer service in the retail sector; innovations and technology help mitigate SCRM experienced in the retail sector from a developing country perspective.