Triggered or evaluated? A qualitative inquiry into the decision to start using e-grocery services

ABSTRACT

This qualitative paper examines the importance of both situational factors and adoption constructs in the decision to use online grocery services for the first time. To that end, we have conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with (one or more representatives of) 15 households in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium), who all use Collect & Go, Belgium’s most popular online grocery service. The content analysis shows that adoption is often induced by situational factors (such as health problems or changes in family circumstances), but not in isolation from an evaluation of technology adoption constructs (such as performance expectancy and social influence). Indeed, we find that immediately or soon after the emergence of the initial trigger, consumers start thinking of the service in terms of innovation characteristics. Moreover, unlike what the literature suggests, adoption is not discontinued when the initiating trigger disappears.

KEYWORDS:

• E-commerce
• online grocery shopping
• technology adoption
• situational factors
• qualitative research
• time saving

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This is the number of online shoppers who ordered groceries online in 2017, not in 2018 as for the other countries. For the Netherlands there is a break in the Eurostat time series.

2. The topic guide is available upon request from the lead author.

3. Every two weeks, Collect & Go selects five products/brands, the purchase of which results in the service cost being waived. For example, if a consumer buys twelve bottles of water of a certain brand, he or she does not have to pay the service cost of €5.50.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ellen Van Droogenbroeck

Ellen Van Droogenbroeck(Doctor in Applied Economics: Commercial Engineer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2018) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Applied Economics (APEC) of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences & Solvay Business School at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel  (Free University of Brussels). Her current research interests include online grocery shopping, e-commerce, technology adoption, and color marketing.

Leo Van Hove

Leo Van Hove is a Professor of Economics at the Department of Applied Economics of the Vrije Universiteit Brus­­sel (Free University of Brussels), where he teaches courses in monetary economics, research methods, and economics of information. He is also a visiting research professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. His current research interests include payment instruments, network effects, e-commerce, and access to finance. He can be contacted at [email protected]