More consumers using online grocery stores, study shows

ATHENS, Ga. -- Consumers seem to be growing more and more comfortable with buying their groceries online, according to one of the first academic studies of online grocery shopping.

"Not only did we see a dramatic change in an 18-month period in the number of experienced online grocery shoppers. We also saw a huge change in the number of shoppers who are willing to buy all of their groceries online, including such items as produce and meat," said Dr. Brenda Cude, chair of the Housing and Consumer Economics Department at the University of Georgia.

Cude and co-author Dr. Michelle Morganosky of the University of Illinois, will present their findings Thursday, April 5, at the annual meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interests in Washington, D.C. The presentation will occur at 3:45 p.m. at the Washington Marriott Hotel on 22nd Street.

"In our original survey, only 14 percent of the respondents had purchased their groceries online for six months or longer compared with 43 percent in our second survey," Cude said. "The percentage willing to buy all of their groceries online changed from 48 percent in the first survey to 79 percent in the second."

Likewise, the percentage who are willing to purchase all of their grocery items online changed.

"In our original study, nearly a third of the respondents said they would not buy meat or produce online," Cude said. "In our second study, that figure had dropped to 15 percent."

In their study, Cude and Morganosky worked with a traditional grocer in St. Louis, Mo., that has introduced an online grocery service. "One of the difficulties in learning about online shopping behavior is determining how to conduct this sort of research," Cude said.

"We developed a survey that was linked to the grocer's website. After shoppers had finished their order, they were asked to participate in the survey by clicking on the link."

In their original study, Cude and Morganosky collected information from 243 online shoppers. In their second, they received surveys from 412 shoppers.

Grocery shopping is one of the most intricate forms of online commerce due to a number of variables.

"Consumers are concerned about a lot of things when it comes to online grocery shopping," Cude said. "To begin with, there's the organization of the website: Can they find the products they want? Then, there are issues regarding produce and meat. Will the person actually selecting these items choose the freshest tomatoes and the roast with the least amount of fat? What happens when the store doesn't have the exact item a shopper selected? Will the substitute be acceptable? Can alcohol and cigarettes be purchased online? "Next, there are the issues of delivering the groceries," Cude continued. "Will the groceries be delivered at the appointed time? Will the eggs be broken? If they're broken, how do you get them replaced? All of these issues factor into whether a consumer chooses to shop online."

Despite all these variables, grocers -- both those associated with brick-and-mortar stores and warehouse grocers -- are pursuing on-line customers for one reason, the bottom line.

Which leads to a final finding of the study: 30 percent of the respondents said that prior to shopping online, they had purchased their groceries at a competing brick-and-mortar store.

"The U.S. food retailing market is highly competitive and has notoriously low profit margins," Cude said. "That means that online shopping doesn't have to become mainstream to have an impact."

WRITER: Denise H. Horton, 706/542-8014, [email protected]