The two most powerful forces affecting the world economy and commerce today are the increasing rate of globalisation and advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs). While it is clear that there are many tangible and intangible benefits from developing ecommerce for both firms and consumers, but there are many difficulties in the way to success. One of the most challenging issues is the e-commerce adoption barriers and methods of transferring existing offline consumers to new online channels. This research is trying to identify direct environmental barriers of online grocery shopping and the relative importance of each entity, and also simultaneously proving that current offline loyal consumers are more ready to be transferred to new online channels. The case selected for the research is SHAHRVAND chain stores of Tehran. A conjoint analysis resulted from an structured interview from SHAHRVAND managers indicated that the “consumers” entity is the most important direct environmental barrier among the other entities (competitors, business owners and physical stores). A survey analysis of 131 SHAHRVAND offline consumers proved that loyalty attribute has a direct linear relationship with “Transferability” attribute among the respondents of research sample. Since loyal consumers are more ready to adapt to new online purchasing channel, the SHAHRVAND managers are recommended to identify, promote and retain their current offline loyal consumers in order to prepare them shift to their online store. Any marketing and promotion campaign for online store should be designed considering the current offline loyal consumers.
Author: Mombeini, Saeed
Source: Luleå University of Technology
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