A Comparative Study on Consumer of Sainsbury’s and Ocado’s (GC01502)
Acknowledgement
I am very much thankful for my Course Instructor—name—- for his/her kind cooperation and suggestions for the improvement of this research project.
Moreover, I am thankful to those persons whose support and cooperation helped me to accomplish this task properly.
Thanks again to all of them.
Abstract
This research has been conducted to scrutinize factors that impact customer buying behavior in-store and online retail shops in the UK and to explore the deep understanding of the drivers of consumer buying behavior in the UK context by focusing on Sainsbury’s and Ocado’s’s’s customer. Therefore, this study has selected positivism research philosophy, deductive approach, descriptive research design, survey strategy, simple random sampling method. Using a closed-ended research questionnaire the researcher has collected information from the customers of Sainsbury Plc and Ocado. Then, the researcher has analyzed data collected using SPSS software.
The research finding discloses that Sainsbury provides higher quality products to the customers. The service quality of Sainsbury is sufficient to attract customers. Sainsbury is committed to improving product quality continuously. Customers feel more security while shopping in Sainsbury as they can purchase a product by inspection. Moreover, they have a lot of options to purchase the product in offline. Therefore, it has been found that product quality, service quality, convenience, and trust and safety have played a significant role in an offline purchase decision. Convenience, website features, time-saving, and online trust and safety are significant factors of online grocery shopping. These factors play a vital role to make an online purchase order and purchase decision. Demographic factors also impact the customer’s purchase decision.
The study has found that female consumers are less motivated to purchase the product online, whereas male consumers are more motivated to purchase the product online. However, the researcher did not find any clear relationship between age and customer purchase decision on online and offline retail grocery shopping, education and customer purchase decision on online and offline retail grocery shopping, and income and customer purchase decision on online and offline retail grocery shopping. The finding of this study shows that increasing age of the customers intended to offline shopping, but it is not clear as at some points it has also found that increasing age of the responders increases online shopping. In the case of education, it has been found that a highly educated person has more knowledge about online shopping.
Therefore, it is essential to identify what customers want from the retail organization. It has been found that customers expect higher product quality, service quality, trust, security, convenience etc. in case of offline shopping. Therefore, Sainsbury must ensure this issue to retain customers for a long period. Sainsbury has also been providing service to customers online. Convenience, website features, safety, trusts, and times saving are important factors of online shopping. It is essential to make customers happy. As customers intend to save time to get the product online, Ocado must ensure quick delivery of the product. As the returns of the online ordered products have complexity and hassle, it is best to ensure product specification with order product to make customers satisfied.
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Research topic
Drivers of consumer buying behavior in store-based retailers and online retailers in the UK: A comparative study on Consumer of Sainsbury’s and Ocado’s
1.2 Research background
Consumer buying pattern has been changing over time. Different factors have contributed a lot to change the consumer buying pattern. It has become a predominant issue in the present marketing context. According to Kotler and Keller (2012), consumer buying behaviour is critical as it has a direct impact on the overall performance of the business. On the other hand, Lancaster et al. (2002) stated that studying consumer buying behavior is essential to bet fierce market competition and get a competitive advantage. Due to the advancement of technology traditional buying behavior has been changed drastically. It has transformed from “high-touch and low tech” personal encounters to “high tech and low-touch”. Retail stores have offered multi-channel service to the consumers.
Sivaraman (2010) stated that assortment of products, brand choices; product quality, store ambience, credit availability and store image had determined consumer shopping from any retail outlet. On the other hand, Hameedunissa (2013) stated that consumer psychology an influential factor to determine consumer shopping from any outlet. He stated that how consumers felt, thought, perceived and believed about a supermarket or retail shop is significant. Srivastava (2013) argued that the branding of retail outlets is an influential factor in the retail shopping behavior of consumers. Therefore, Pandey and Vipin (2014) have found in their study that branding, product quality, prices, product display, cleanliness, hygiene, variety, service quality and ambiance have determined the consumer buying behavior of retail stores.
According to the study by Gopal and Jindoliya (2016) stated that origination of the internet had created a new experience for the consumers. It enabled consumers to gather important product-related information, compares competitive product price and quality. He stated internet had played a vital role in consumer purchase behavior in a retail shop. Chen (2009) argued that perceived use of use as well as trust has played a pivotal role in the online shopping of a consumer. He also stated cost reduction as an important consideration of online shopping. On the other hand, Benbaset (2006) argued that exogenous variables regarding consumer behavior such as consumer traits, situational factors, product characteristics, previous online shopping experience and trust towards online shopping played a vital role to the basic perception and intention of consumers to online consumer buying behavior.
It has been seen that some factors are influencing the consumer buying behavior in store-based retailers and online retailers. In the UK, Sainsbury’s brand is built upon a heritage of providing customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food. Sainsbury’s stores have a particular emphasis on fresh food, and we strive to innovate continuously and improve products in line with customer needs. On the other hand, Ocado Group plc is a UK -based online grocery retailer. The company’s principal activities are grocery retailing and the development and monetization of Intellectual Property (IP) and technology used for the online retailing, logistics and distribution of grocery and consumer goods, derived from the UK. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the drivers of consumer purchase behavior towards store-based retailers such as Sainsbury and online retailers such as Ocado. So, this underlying research is based on identifying drivers of consumer buying behavior in store-based retailers and online retailers in the UK from the perspectives of Sainsbury and Ocado.
1.3 Research Rationale
Some researchers have been conducted on this issue to analyze the drivers to consumer buying behavior in-store as well as the online retail industry. Due to the advancement in technology, consumer buying pattern has been changed significantly. Before online shopping opportunity consumer would like to shop based on brand image, product quality, price, store assortment, core competency, store environment, service quality etc. However, evolving online shopping has changed consumer buying behavior. The consumer is considered about inherent risk, perceived ease of use, delivery of the product, service availability etc. to shop online. Katawetawaraks and Wang (2011) have found that convenience, informational efficiency, available product as well as service, cost and time efficiency determined consumer buying behavior.
However, they also stated that security, the intangibility of online product, social contact and dissatisfaction with online shopping impede consumers from online shopping. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the drivers of consumer buying behavior in store-based retailers and online-based retailers. So, the research light shed on to scrutinize factors that impact customer buying behavior in-store and online retail shop in the UK and to explore the deep understanding of the drivers of consumer buying behavior in UK context by focusing on Sainsbury’s and Ocado’s customer.
1.4 Research Problem
Srinivasan and Moorman (2005) stated that traditionally consumer would like to shop primarily based on taste, convenience and price. These factors are regarded as conventional drivers of consumer buying behavior. Research conducted by Deloitte revealed that the sequence of ‘sprouting drivers’ has become a growing feature of the consumer’s buying decision. Though online buying behavior of consumers does not only depend on the geographical presence and socio-economic conditions but also depends on personality, shopping experience and other situational factors.
It has been found that there are many retail stores in the UK that are on the verge of closing down the business or experiencing an extreme slowdown in sales. Therefore, it is essential to discover the phenomenon in the UK retail sector. Research showed that female consumer purchase five times more than male consumers. However, this is not only the factor, there are many factors presumably affecting consumer buying behavior online and offline which need to be explored. Considering the existing literature and empirical evidence on consumer buying behavior in online and physical-store, concentrating on Sainsbury’s and Ocado there are almost non-existent apparent evidence or specific knowledge in the area. Therefore, it is essential to find out the drivers to online and offline shopping.
1.5 Research Aim
The main aim of this study is to scrutinize factors that impact customer buying behavior in-store and online retail shop in the UK and to explore the deep understanding of the drivers of consumer buying behavior in the UK context by focusing on Sainsbury’s and Ocado’s customer…………..
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