Consumer attitudes toward online shopping: An exploratory study from Jordan

Copyright © 2014, IGI Global. In the era of the diffusion of e-commerce and its services offered to the consumers over the Internet, the Internet is commonly used by both consumers and businesses to buy and sell their goods and services worldwide. This study focuses on the factors influencing customers' decisions and attitudes toward adopting online shopping in Jordan. The study found that online shopping in Jordan is still not very common, due to challenges and barriers that affect the diffusion of online shopping: delivery barriers, such as the lack of prepared transportation and mapping infrastructure, lack of reliable delivery system for delivering bought goods to the customers caused by the lack of postcode system; and lack of knowledge and awareness about the benefits of e-commerce among retailers and consumers. A structured questionnaire was distributed among 50 participants (university students, employees/professionals etc.), and then the collected data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences Version 18.02 (SPSS). The results show that attitudes toward online shopping and intention to shop online were affected by lack of human resources, such as low level of experience in using the Internet and shopping websites for shopping, lack of developed IT infrastructure, trust in e-retailers, and online payment and delivery service concerns. However, Jordanian consumers are willing to adopt and recommend online shopping for others as an alternative way for shopping

Analisi e confronto di diverse strategie di supply network design per l'e-grocery

L'e-commerce è un canale di vendita sempre più diffuso in tutto il mercato mondiale. Di recente anche il mercato alimentare si è interessato all'espansione di questo fenomeno, soprattutto durante l'emergenza pandemica da COVID-19, quando la spesa in e-grocery è notevolmente aumentata. Inoltre è rimasto un canale di vendita diffuso anche successivamente, nello stato non emergenziale. Per soddisfare questa specifica domanda di mercato, le catene di supermercati si trovano ad affrontare la necessità di un re-design con una nuova prospettiva logistica. Un negoziante può adempiere ad ordini online in diversi modi; può elaborarli direttamente nei negozi utilizzando il personale per fare la spesa dagli scaffali durante le ore non di punta. In alternativa, alcuni negozi minori possono essere chiusi alla clientela e dedicati all'evasione degli ordini online (negozi scuri). Un'altra strategia consiste nell'effettuare ordini online da un unico centro di distribuzione (e-hub). Infine, gli ordini online possono essere completamente gestiti da multi e-hub. Questo lavoro illustra alcune strategie per adempiere a tali esigenze

Strategies for success in the e-grocery industry

US e-grocers have been testing different business models with varying results. This research conducted a meta-analysis of six online grocers (Peapod, Tesco, Safeway, FreshDirect, Webvan and Streamline) to identify the pattern of strategies that contribute to their performance. Each company\u27s management capabilities, expansion and market selection strategy, order-picking method, delivery method, website design and Customer Relations Management (CRM) are explored and compared to identify the factors that provide these businesses with a greater chance of success. The findings suggest that knowledge of and experience in the grocery business play an important role in the success of an online grocer. Using a cautious and slow expansion strategy helps an e-grocer stay in the game. The store-pick model is suitable for most markets, while warehouse-pick may be used for markets with high customer demand. Each business model allows for strategic variations

Electronic commerce logistics in developing countries: The case of online grocery shopping in Jordan

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Docter of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Online grocery shopping is one of the Internet business applications that received much attention in the last few years. Online grocery shopping has grown at a fast scale in the developed countries, where customers and retailers have benefited from it. However, this service remains in its infancy stage in developing countries. Groceries are one of the most difficult objects to sell online mainly, because of sensory and delivery issues. Online customers still worry about product quality, and they demand optimum logistical services, convenience, reliability and timely delivery service. Therefore, retailers have to respond to these expectations by developing convenient logistical services while keeping this process cost-efficient as much as possible. The main aim of this research is to design an e-commerce logistical decision support system for grocery retailers in Jordan as a case study of applying online grocery shopping in a developing country. Grocery retailers will be exposed to this model, and will be able to determine the most suitable logistical delivery system in the future. In order to achieve this aim, the designed system incorporates a web ordering system to collect customer orders, embedded map source (Google Maps) and a database system. The collected data then exported to one of the available routing and scheduling online solutions in order to identify, analyze and statistically compare the cost efficiencies of the available delivery alternatives. Moreover, two specially designed questionnaires were distributed among a group of customers and grocery retailers in Jordan, asking about their attitudes towards online grocery shopping and its delivery service. The results from analyzing the questionnaires data statistically were also used as input parameters for the designed system evaluation process. The findings from the questionnaires data statistical analysis indicated that Jordanian customers and retailers have positive attitudes towards online grocery shopping. The results also showed that customers and retailers have serious concerns towards the delivery service in Jordan. Customers are mainly worried about the availability of a suitable delivery service, while retailers are worried about the market size for the delivery service. The findings from implementing and statistically testing the proposed model over three delivery alternatives showed that there are differences between the mean values of the delivery alternatives among their key performance indicators (cost, distance and time). The questionnaire respondents indicated that they both prefer the pickup point service after home delivery for customers and after shop pickup for retailers. Depending on the level of investments that grocery retailers would like to implement and according to the experiment results, it could be concluded that pickup point solution is the best logistical strategy for retailers to start with.Jerash Private University, Jordan

Implementação de um sistema de monitorização operacional utilizando ferramentas Lean

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia IndustrialA presente dissertação foi desenvolvida no âmbito do mestrado em Engenharia Industrial, ramo de especialização em Gestão Industrial, da Universidade do Minho. O principal objetivo desta dissertação foi o desenvolvimento um sistema de monitorização operacional da Modelo.com. A atividade desta empresa foca-se na preparação e entrega aos clientes de encomendas realizadas na página online do Continente. O projeto realizado neste contexto nasceu da necessidade de aumentar a produtividade dos colaboradores responsáveis pela recolha dos produtos das prateleiras (pickers) e reportar os indicadores certos, na hora certa, da forma certa aos supervisores de loja. A metodologia de investigação usada nesta dissertação foi a metodologia Investigação-Ação. Para os problemas inicialmente detetados na fase de diagnóstico desta metodologia, que incluíam a produção de informação em excesso, dispersa construída com layouts e designs desadequados, e ainda um elevado número de colaboradores que não cumpriam o objetivo diário estipulado, foram desenvolvidas duas propostas distintas. A primeira proposta consistiu num dashboard mensal, que continha todos os indicadores chave numa folha A4, apresentados através de gráficos e com recurso a indicadores visuais, de forma a facilitar a leitura e a comparação entre lojas. A segunda proposta consistiu num dashboard em tempo real que despoletasse alertas em tempo real aproximadamente, de 5 em 5 minutos, de colaboradores sem atividade por um determinado número de tempo, dando também indicação da percentagem do objetivo diário já cumprida até ao momento. Em termos de resultados, apesar de as propostas não tirem sido implementadas devido a limitações de tempo e capacidade da base de dados, houve um aumento na satisfação da utilização do dashboard mensal quando comparado com os relatórios já existentes. Houve também uma diminuição de cerca de 25 minutos no tempo despendido cada vez que é necessário consultar os indicadores. Através do desenvolvimento do dashboard em tempo real foi dada uma prova de conceito, tendo sido verificado que através da leitura dos dados da base de dados era possível obter alertas em tempo real, ou muito próximo disso.The present dissertation was developed as part of the Master in Industrial Engineering, specialization in Industrial Management, of the University of Minho. The main objective of this dissertation was the development of an operational monitoring system of Modelo.com. The activity of this company focuses on the preparation and delivery to customers of orders placed on the Continente website. The project in this context was born from the need to increase the productivity of the employees responsible for collecting the products from the shelves (pickers) and to report the right indicators, at the right time, to store supervisors. The research methodology used in this dissertation was the Action-Research. For the problems initially detected in the diagnostic phase of this methodology, which included the information overproduction, disperse and built with inappropriate layouts and designs, and also a large number of employees that did not meet the stipulated daily objective, two distinct proposals were developed. The first proposal consisted in a monthly dashboard, which contained all the key indicators on an A4 sheet, presented through graphs and using visual indicators, in order to facilitate the reading and comparison between stores. The second proposal consisted in a dashboard in real time that triggered real-time alerts approximately every 5 minutes of employees without activity for more than a determined period of time, also indicating the percentage of the daily goal already fulfilled. In terms of results, although the proposals were not implemented due to the limitations of time and capacity of the database, there was an increase in the satisfaction of the use of the monthly dashboard when compared to the existing reports. There was also a decrease of about 25 minutes in the time spent each time it is necessary to consult the indicators. Through the development of the real-time dashboard was given proof of concept, and it was found that by reading the data from the database it was possible to obtain alerts in real time, or very close to that

Supply chain effects in creation of omnichannel customer experience in grocery retail

Online sales have changed the retail industry during the past decade, and the technological developments shape the business blending the digital and physical worlds together. Customers use different channels interchangeably during their buying process. The objective of the study is to identify and analyze the factors affecting this omnichannel customer experience in grocery retail, focusing in the supply chain effects. The empirical part searches for answers from the Finnish grocery industry. The literature review develops an understanding on three domains in this research: omnichannel, grocery industry's distinct features, and supply chain characteristics in omnichannel grocery retail. The academia introduced omnichannel as a term about five years ago. Omnichannel retail means the different sales channels work seamlessly for the customer, and inside the company as well. Omnichannel and supply chain aspects in grocery retail are scarcely researched, since the earlier literature has had a stronger focus on customer motivations. Grocery retail is distinctive field in omnichannel retail due to perishability, low-margin and low-involvement products, frequency and volume of shopping and significance of the downstream supply chain operations. Order picking and delivery demand manual work are identified as the most critical parts of the supply chain. The literature review finishes by offering a framework for the research adapted from four academic research articles. This study is conducted as a qualitative case research. As omnichannel is a new phenomenon in grocery retail especially, and no existing theories prevail, an inductive case study is a suitable method for theory building. Data is collected by interviews from Finnish online grocery professionals, as well as secondary sources like news articles, case studies, media announcements, websites etc. Data analysis aims at explanation building and validating the theoretical framework created from the literature. The research confirmed the significance of the downstream supply chain operations. Order picking and delivery are the most critical aspects in grocery sales through online channels since they are additional steps in the supply chain process, and mostly conducted manually. Only the most developed omnichannel grocers are able to invest in automation technologies but all are streamlining their operations to find cost reductions through efficiencies. Another important aspect in omnichannel grocery retail is the consistency between all sales and media channels. To enable the omnichannel retail, though, the company must have their information supply chain in order. If the sales channels are not working seamlessly in the background, the customer experience can never become seamless, either. The Finnish grocers have improvements to make in their information supply chains but mostly in the consistency and coherence between the different media and sales channels

Electronic commerce logistics in developing countries : the case of online grocery shopping in Jordan

Online grocery shopping is one of the Internet business applications that received much attention in the last few years. Online grocery shopping has grown at a fast scale in the developed countries, where customers and retailers have benefited from it. However, this service remains in its infancy stage in developing countries. Groceries are one of the most difficult objects to sell online mainly, because of sensory and delivery issues. Online customers still worry about product quality, and they demand optimum logistical services, convenience, reliability and timely delivery service. Therefore, retailers have to respond to these expectations by developing convenient logistical services while keeping this process cost-efficient as much as possible. The main aim of this research is to design an e-commerce logistical decision support system for grocery retailers in Jordan as a case study of applying online grocery shopping in a developing country. Grocery retailers will be exposed to this model, and will be able to determine the most suitable logistical delivery system in the future. In order to achieve this aim, the designed system incorporates a web ordering system to collect customer orders, embedded map source (Google Maps) and a database system. The collected data then exported to one of the available routing and scheduling online solutions in order to identify, analyze and statistically compare the cost efficiencies of the available delivery alternatives. Moreover, two specially designed questionnaires were distributed among a group of customers and grocery retailers in Jordan, asking about their attitudes towards online grocery shopping and its delivery service. The results from analyzing the questionnaires data statistically were also used as input parameters for the designed system evaluation process. The findings from the questionnaires data statistical analysis indicated that Jordanian customers and retailers have positive attitudes towards online grocery shopping. The results also showed that customers and retailers have serious concerns towards the delivery service in Jordan. Customers are mainly worried about the availability of a suitable delivery service, while retailers are worried about the market size for the delivery service. The findings from implementing and statistically testing the proposed model over three delivery alternatives showed that there are differences between the mean values of the delivery alternatives among their key performance indicators (cost, distance and time). The questionnaire respondents indicated that they both prefer the pickup point service after home delivery for customers and after shop pickup for retailers. Depending on the level of investments that grocery retailers would like to implement and according to the experiment results, it could be concluded that pickup point solution is the best logistical strategy for retailers to start with.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceJerash Private University, JordanGBUnited Kingdo

An assessment of the sustainability of E-fulfilment models for the delivery of fast moving consumer goods to the home

Online retail sales are growing rapidly and have captured a significant proportion of the retail market in many countries. Although companies are under mounting pressure to reduce their environmental impact, the environmental effect of the different online distribution strategies remains unclear. Most previous studies of this subject have only included partial effects and consequences. To enable a more holistic understanding, this study proposes a more inclusive framework of environmental assessment based on life cycle analysis. This was applied to fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). Previous studies have shown that the last mile delivery contributes significantly to the environmental impact of online retailing, mainly because of the nature of the home delivery operations, including narrow time windows and short order lead times. If consumers were to buy products online on a subscription basis and give the supplier more control over the replenishment process there might be less need for fast deliveries, creating opportunities to improve the efficiency of home deliveries and reduce their environmental impact. The study classified different forms of subscription arrangement, assessed their relative attractiveness to consumers and examined their likely impact on the supply chain. Consumer views on subscriptions were surveyed by means of focus group discussions and interviews. To assess the likely supply chain impacts of subscriptions, the literature on vendor-managed inventory was consulted. A Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) model was built to quantify and compare the environmental impact of various e-fulfilment models for FMCG products in the United Kingdom. This study reveals that the method of execution have a large influence on the environmental impact. In store-based retailing, the energy consumption within the supermarket is a significant contributor to the total greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, some forms of home delivery, involving for example the use of parcel networks with no pre-agreed time-slots and relatively high rates of delivery failure and customer collection, are also carbon-intensive. This contribution of consumer trips to the total footprint is much smaller in case of van-based deliveries where pre-agreed time-windows are used. Regardless of the business model, the total carbon footprint per item depends heavily on the number of items per delivery. Consequently, companies or consumers looking to decrease the environmental impact of online shopping should maximise the number of items per delivery. The study concludes with an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and possible environmental improvements of each of the efulfilment methods, taking account of the possible role of subscriptions