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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 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.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the need for an improved understanding of consumer value for online grocery purchases and to propose the notion of “integrated service solution” packages as a strategy for growing and successfully sustaining the channel to guide both marketing strategy and policy.

This paper integrates and synthesises research from retailing, consumer behaviour and service quality literatures in order to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the value of e‐grocery shopping to aid practitioners to address the critical needs, expectations and concerns of consumers for the development of grocery shopping within the online environment.

This paper offers an alternative approach to allow e‐grocery to become a mainstream retail channel in its own right and not to compete with the in‐store offerings. The research demonstrates the need for a progressive approach that follows contemporary consumer needs and habits at the household level. The conjecture is that shopping for fast‐moving consumer goods follows a learning path that needs to be replicated in the online context. Moreover, it is suggested that consumer resistance to the adoption of the new channel should be addressed not only from a technological perspective but also from the social aspects of online shopping.

The research provides a practical framework for both retailers and policy makers on how the “next generation” of online services can be developed using a “bottom up” consumer perspective. This paper also advocates a non‐technological bias to e‐grocery retailing strategy.

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 add to current knowledge of online customer experience (OCE) by examining various drivers and outcomes of online grocery shopping experience that can help researchers and retailers answer the pressing question: “Why do online grocery customers stay or switch?”

This study applied netnography and critical incident analysis to a pool of 1,004 reviews captured from forum and review sites dedicated to online grocery shopping.

Two broad dimensions of OCE, four attributes and 13 factors corresponding to shoppers’ psychological states and their utilitarian and hedonic orientations emerged from the data analysis. The proposed framework, containing these four attributes and corresponding 13 factors, captures the consumers’ intention to stay with the current retailer or switch.

The study contributes to existing knowledge of OCE by providing a dynamic and yet holistic framework that encompasses experiential states and utilitarian or hedonic orientations in an online grocery context. Although its contributions are valuable to both researchers and practitioners, further quantitative analysis is needed to validate the findings.

In addition to providing superior customer experience by implementing the various drivers of OCE identified here, online grocery retailers can use the study findings as a strategic guide toward building a frictionless and pleasurable shopping experience.

The study employs netnography and critical incident technique to identify experiential attributes such as reliability, responsiveness, return and refund, which are unique OCE attributes in online grocery, a relatively unexamined field of retailing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how e‐grocers develop their e‐fulfillment strategies to satisfy product‐specific customer needs for their grocery shopping on the internet. Findings from this paper are used to propose sustainable e‐fulfillment strategies for online grocery retailers.

Based on metrics of product information, customer service and e‐business quality, this paper conducted web content analyses of US grocery retailers in a longitudinal manner.

The research findings delineate a significant transition of e‐fulfillment strategies among grocery retailers. Evidence is found for the development of service metrics as well as strategic shifts in retail operations.

The use of a longitudinal approach provides insights into sustainable marketing strategies for online retailers to enhance consumers' perceived relative advantage and compatibility, and reduce perceived complexity in online grocery shopping.

In recent years, the concept of gamification is one of the fastest-growing trends in the field of marketing to persuade, motivate and manipulate customer behavior. The application of gamification has become a priority for marketers as a new way of exploiting customers. Despite the increasing use of gamification mechanisms in marketing activities, there remain limitations. Although there is extensive literature in the field of customer experience and gamification, few studies have empirically examined how gamification influences customer experience by considering the mediating role of brand engagement in the online retailing context.

To obtain this aim, a cross-sectional survey was used. The statistical population was customers of online grocery retailers. The convenience sampling technique was used as a sampling technique. Out of 402 received questionnaires, 384 were selected for analysis. Structural equation modeling approach was applied to test the research hypotheses using AMOS 24 and SPSS 22 software.

The results indicated that all research hypotheses were supported. Gamification has a significant and positive impact on customer experience, gamification has a positive and significant effect on user customer brand engagement and customer brand engagement has a positive and significant impact on customer experience. Also, it revealed that customer brand engagement mediates between gamification and customer experience.

A review of the digital marketing literature reveals that there are few empirical studies, which adequately examined significant effective factors of customer experience in online grocery retailing; despite, the majority of researchers consider customer experience as the most important concept in digital marketing. The main contribution of this study is to examine the role of gamification on customer experience through the mediating role of customer engagement in the online grocery context. It adds value to the digital marketing and online retailing literature by providing new insight about determinants of customer experience in online grocery.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the expansion and development strategies used by retailers based in the UK for creating sustained competitive advantage in online grocery retailing.

The objectives of this research were addressed by using a qualitative research strategy consisting of two specific methods of data collection: primary and secondary data collection.

The study suggests that retailers have tended to follow an incremental approach towards the development and expansion of their online service provision. This route to expansion involves the trialling of new ideas, keeping close watch on the competition while endeavouring to introduce innovative new services to capture consumer interest and deliver customer benefits.

The major limitation associated with this study is with respect to its heavy reliance on secondary sources. Consequently, assumptions have had to be made about the retailers' strategic thinking, as we were not able to secure any first hand accounts. However, in terms of the research implications, this study has both demonstrated the value of secondary data sources, and highlighted the benefits of adopting a resource‐based analysis.

The findings highlight the importance of viewing an organisation's web‐based IT resources, as being only one element of its e‐commerce strategy.

This study makes a major contribution in two ways. First, it has mapped out the strategic pathways followed by the UK's five leading grocery retailers, in terms of their adoption of e‐commerce during the first complete decade of online retailing. Second, the paper has demonstrated how the resource‐based theory provides a very useful lens through which these pathways can be viewed and ultimately explained.

Consumers worldwide are increasingly ordering groceries from grocery delivery platforms (GDPs). This study aimed to explore the role of brick-and-mortar (B&M) retailers and GDPs in online grocery shopping (OGS) experience, attitude and continuous purchase intention under the platform model of online grocery retailing.

This study used a mixed method approach. A qualitative analysis was conducted based on 30 in-depth interviews and relevant literature to identify key attributes of the OGS experience. Then, data from 352 online grocery shoppers was used to examine the associations between service attributes, attitude and continuous purchase intention using a structural equation model.

The authors identified six key attributes of the OGS experience related to B&M retailers and GDPs. The quantitative study results showed that customer service, price value and instant delivery significantly impact attitude towards GDPs, while product quality, product assortment, customer service, price value and attitude toward GDPs positively impact online attitude toward B&M retailers. Online attitude toward B&M retailers significantly influences continuous purchase intention.

B&M retailers and GDPs should strengthen cooperation and joint oversight.

This study identified key attributes of the OGS experience associated with B&M retailers and GDPs under the platform model, giving a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the OGS experience and behavioural intention when B&M retailers collaborate with GDPs.

To use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework to explore in depth the range of beliefs held by consumers about internet shopping in general and internet grocery shopping in particular.

Seven focus group interviews, four in the United Kingdom and three in Denmark, were conducted among consumers with different degrees of experience with internet grocery shopping. This diversification of respondents was chosen to capture a broad range of the consumer beliefs that predict intentions to buy groceries online or not. The TPB framework was used to construct the interview guide that was followed in all focus groups.

An unexpected result of the explorative study was that the seven groups consisting of more or less experienced internet shoppers differed only little in their pool of beliefs (outcome and control beliefs). Beliefs about internet grocery shopping, positive as well as negative, were remarkably congruent across groups. In the minds of consumers, internet grocery shopping is an advantage compared with conventional grocery shopping in terms of convenience, product range and price. Disadvantages, which could act as mental barriers, are, for instance, the risk of receiving inferior quality groceries and the loss of the recreational aspect of grocery shopping.

An important potential limitation of this research is the choice of focus groups as research methodology, which can prevent the elicitation of certain types of beliefs. If important beliefs concern issues of a more sensitive, personal character they are not likely to be mentioned in a focus group. Another limitation is the explorative nature of the research, which makes it impossible to attach weights to the importance of the elicited beliefs in predicting internet shopping behavior.

The findings could be used to direct attention to consumer beliefs about internet grocery shopping which have the potential of acting as barriers to this line of e‐commerce.

To shed some light on the role of consumers in an underperforming and understudied branch of internet retailing. Barriers in the consumers' minds to shop for groceries online are identified using an established theoretical framework.