Assessment of customer satisfaction with their online shopping experience, including their point of purchase, inventory picking and delivery quality as well as a comparison of their online versus in-store shopping experiences. / To establish an online grocery shopping service and to attract customers to it is an expensive operation. In order to recoup those expenses, and ultimately make a profit, an online retailer needs to ensure that customers remain loyal and make repeat purchases for as long as possible. Although customer satisfaction does not guarantee loyalty, dissatisfied customers generally take their business elsewhere at the first opportunity. This study investigates the overall level of satisfaction amongst a small sample of Woolworths’ online customer base. In pursuit of this, a multi-dimensional model was developed for assessing customer satisfaction in various areas, highlighting those which may require improvement. The impact of certain key demographic data on these dimensions was also investigated. Since satisfaction is not enough to guarantee loyalty, an assessment of the perceived value in making purchases online is also undertaken in an attempt to ascertain purchase intentions. The key findings of this study revealed a relatively high level of customer satisfaction as well as significant perceived value in shopping online when measured against the sacrifices made. However, a main area for improvement is to enhance the customer’s perception of the value they receive. The demographic variables of age, gender and language had no significant impact on any dimension, while the customer’s connection type was found to have a significant impact on their satisfaction pertaining to the performance of the Web site. Finally, it was established that there is a strong association with the Woolworths brand and corporate image, even though the online shopping initiative was launched as a separate brand.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

Coupons are one of the most popular and attractive tools of promotion. Redeeming coupons makes shoppers feel that they are doing something good for their family's budget, because coupons offer 'savings.' On the other hand, a coupon might have several negative effects on purchase behavior as well, which might 'devalue' the promoted product in the consumer's perception. But a review of the literature shows a lack of attention afforded to the above-mentioned aspects of coupon redemption. In addition, the consumer's coupon redemption behavior is moderated by several factors drawn from research in the fields of market pricing, economics and psychology, each of which have contributed to the current study in their own way. Finally, there does not exist any substantive research as to why coupon redemption rates have been on the decline, despite an increase in distribution of coupons. Therefore, this research not only fills existing gaps in the literature but also enriches it by synthesizing views from different academic disciplines. This dissertation concentrates on grocery products. Data is collected from about 2500 adults, primarily residing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The conceptual framework is based on the theory of reasoned action, which suggests that an individual's beliefs influence his/her attitude towards the consequences of actions, and attitudes, in turn, influence the individual's actions. Toward this end, the model incorporates intention to redeem coupons, intention to keep or spend savings and intention of how to spend savings from coupon redemption as the dependent variables, and several other independent variables. Behavioral independent variables are measured using items borrowed from established scales, as well as those developed exclusively for the current study. Standard statistical tools such as factor analysis and accepted measures of reliability and validity (Cronbach's alpha) are applied and reported, while structural equation modeling has been used to re-validate certain findings. Multivariate regression is applied for testing the hypotheses. Results indicate that several psychological (e.g. arousal-seeking, novelty-seeking tendency), socio-economic (e.g. income effect, opportunity cost) and behavioral factors (e.g. savings propensity, switching behavior) influence the individual's intention to redeem a coupon. The current research offers several academic and managerial implications, while providing promising prospects for further studies.

Assessment of customer satisfaction with their online shopping experience, including their point of purchase, inventory picking and delivery quality as well as a comparison of their online versus in-store shopping experiences. / To establish an online grocery shopping service and to attract customers to it is an expensive operation. In order to recoup those expenses, and ultimately make a profit, an online retailer needs to ensure that customers remain loyal and make repeat purchases for as long as possible. Although customer satisfaction does not guarantee loyalty, dissatisfied customers generally take their business elsewhere at the first opportunity. This study investigates the overall level of satisfaction amongst a small sample of Woolworths’ online customer base. In pursuit of this, a multi-dimensional model was developed for assessing customer satisfaction in various areas, highlighting those which may require improvement. The impact of certain key demographic data on these dimensions was also investigated. Since satisfaction is not enough to guarantee loyalty, an assessment of the perceived value in making purchases online is also undertaken in an attempt to ascertain purchase intentions. The key findings of this study revealed a relatively high level of customer satisfaction as well as significant perceived value in shopping online when measured against the sacrifices made. However, a main area for improvement is to enhance the customer’s perception of the value they receive. The demographic variables of age, gender and language had no significant impact on any dimension, while the customer’s connection type was found to have a significant impact on their satisfaction pertaining to the performance of the Web site. Finally, it was established that there is a strong association with the Woolworths brand and corporate image, even though the online shopping initiative was launched as a separate brand.

The goal of this study was to develop a demographic profile of food co-op shoppers and to assess the relationship between policy importance ratings and two measures of shopper involvement. A survey measuring co-op shopper demographic characteristics, ratings of co-op environment and ratings of the importance of 13 co-op policies was completed by 283 food co-op shoppers in the fall of 1983 at the Food Conspiracy Co-op in Tucson Arizona. Overall, the strongest distinction between working members and non-members was a tendency for members to spend more at the food co-op. The two groups were similar demographically and similar in their ratings of the quality of food co-op atmosphere. Both groups rated range of co-op policies as important factors in store selection. These co-op policies were equally important to both members and non-members, and the importance ratings were largely unaffected by length of involvement with the organization.

The purpose of this master thesis is to identify factors influencing consumer’s intention to use Internet when buying food online. The focal aspects of the study will be service and product quality in order to assess their influence on the consumer’s intention to buy food online.

Thesis (M.C.R.P.)--University of Oregon, 2008. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-75). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Aug. 3, 2009). "School of Economic Sciences." Includes bibliographical references.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine what kind of factors that can influence consumers’ intention and how do Swedish consumers evaluate these factors to purchase grocery products through the Internet. Background: E-commerce has been a widespread environment for consumers and online shopping also becomes more and more popular nowadays. However, in Sweden, although there is huge amount of online users, online grocery shopping is still in an early stage. Theory: For this paper the Theory of Planned Behavior was used, as well as a range of factors that are commonly used in existing literature on this field of research. Method: Both quantitative and Qualitative method were used to collect primary data and semi- structured interviews were conducted with participants with similar demographics. Conclusion: Combined with previous literature, questionnaire and interviews conducted, relevant factors are brought up to be analyzed. Situational factors which include perceived product quality, perceived product price, weather, perceived potential risks, delivery cost, delivery time, types of product, and time saving. The study shows that above factors all have impact on online consumers’ purchasing intention with different levels.

This dissertation comprises of three essays that examine different aspects of e-commerce. Given that e-commerce is growing exponentially around the globe, these essays makes contributions to the literature that might continue to spur this growth.