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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 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 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 explore tactical planning in grocery retailing and propose how process and integration mechanisms from sales and operations planning (S&OP) can enhance retail tactical planning.

This work follows an explorative design with case studies from the grocery retailing industry in Finland, Norway, and the UK.

The tactical planning process focuses on demand management and securing product availability from suppliers in order to reach sales targets. Less attention is directed toward balancing supply and demand or toward providing a single plan to guide company operations. Planning appeared to be functionally oriented with limited coordination between functional plans, but it did include external integration that improved forecast accuracy.

The study involves grocery retailer cases with variable levels of S&OP maturity. The propositions need to be investigated further through action research or additional case studies to confirm their validity.

The study proposes a design of an S&OP process in retailing and propositions for improving tactical planning integration.

The study complements research on retail tactical planning by taking planning process and integration viewpoints. The research suggests that retailers would benefit from a formal and company-wide S&OP process to unify different market-oriented plans to a single set of numbers, thus better balancing supply and demand without sacrificing the emphasis on demand planning.

Despite retail digitisation and research efforts focussed on online and omnichannel shopping, there is insufficient knowledge regarding retail patronage formation in the grocery category, where in-store sales dominate. This study analyses the retail patronage formation in grocery in-store fill-in shopping.

The authors designed a questionnaire to measure retail patronage behaviour, consumer satisfaction (CS), store attributes evaluation and e-retail usage. Then, the authors analysed the path structure for retail patronage behaviour formation using structural equation modelling. Additionally, they performed a mediation analysis using the bootstrap method and a moderation analysis based on a chi-square difference test.

This study provides three main findings. First, the authors' model has two ways to increase Share-of-Wallet (SOW). One is to increase Share-of-Visits (SOV) and another is to increase CS amongst non-users of e-retailing. Second, the results of the moderation analysis suggest the influence of customers' use or non-use of e-retailing on SOW formation. Third, service evaluation plays an interesting role in the overall model: the lower the assessment of service, the higher the SOV; the higher the evaluation of service, the greater the CS; the greater the CS, the higher the SOV.

The authors proposed the framework for the relative retail patronage formation in grocery fill-in shopping to examine the relationship between two relative patronage indicators (SOW and SOV) in the path structure and the mediating effect of CS and the moderating effect of e-retailing usage on retail patronage formation.

Examines the cross‐shopping patterns of 300 US consumers for five different grocery formats including conventional supermarkets, supercentres, warehouse clubs, convenience stores and limited line discount stores. The extent to which each channel extracts customers from every other channel is assessed and analysed in light of continuing structural change in grocery retailing. As a fairly new retail format in the US market, supercentres have moved quickly in attracting customers from each of the other formats. Discusses major players in the supercentre phenomenon in light of these changing market conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the influence of shopping experience on consumer satisfaction shown in non‐food retail sectors has a similar effect in food retailing, specifically with large‐scale grocery retailers. The paper also investigates differences in shopping experience and its effect across different retail settings.

An empirical study of a customer satisfaction database combining satisfaction with store attributes across several large‐scale grocery retailers in the specialty, traditional, and discount sectors. Hierarchal regression is used to meaure the effect of a composite shopping experience index on overall satisfaction, after controlling for basic economic factors of food shopping such as product quality, assortment, availability, and prices.

There was support for three hypotheses, suggesting that: food shopping experience effects overall consumer satisfaction for grocery retailers; shopping experience varies across different grocery retail settings; and the effect of food shopping experience on consumer satisfaction varies across grocery retail settings.

Data report a single point in time and aggregate measures. Guidance is provided for food retailers wanting to further develop shopping experience to impact consumer satisfaction.

The paper gives important empirical support for the influence of shopping experience on customer satisfaction for large‐scale grocery retailers and across various retail settings.

Assesses the evolution of retail brands within British grocery retailing over the past 25 years. Highlights key issues in defining retail brands which contribute to our understanding of their role and impact upon company strategy, and then explores how British retailers have managed the evolution of these product ranges. Identifies key factors as the changing basis and use of retail power in the distribution channel, the centralisation of management activities, and the appreciation of what constitutes retail image. Argues that British grocery retailers have successfully managed these factors to create a retail brand which is now regarded by customers as being at least equal to, if not better than, the established manufacturer brands.

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 takeover of Asda by US retail giant Wal‐Mart has created a great deal of speculation by business analysts and the media. Wal‐Mart is recognized as the world’s largest retailer and its move into the UK is creating interest in its future plans for Europe. Some consider that the move will cause a complete realignment of grocery chains across Europe and that the move will be revolutionary. Others consider that the move will simply augment and accelerate current retailing trends but will not completely change the face of supermarket retailing. This issue brings together a variety of viewpoints. First, Paul Whysall reviews and analyses the press coverage. He provides insights into the possible outcomes of the deal. The second piece is an industry insight prepared by Retail Intelligence, which is followed by an overview of the Institute of Grocery Distribution’s research document Wal‐Mart in the UK. Finally, we present a number of abstracts that offer further thoughts on the subject.