Analysis of factors that influenced consumers' decision to online shop organic food during Covid-19

Maja Ćirić,Sandra Brkanlić,Dragan Ilić,Nikola Puvača,Svetlana Ignjatijević

doi:10.5937/aaser2151011c

Abstract

There is a significant amount of research in the world on the factors that influence consumers' decision to buy organic food using traditional sales channels. There is also a lot of research related to the factors that influence consumer decision to online shop groceries. However, to our knowledge, there is an extremely modest amount of research on how and why consumers decide to online shop organic food. The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increase in consumer propensity to shop online, so this topic has gained in importance. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to determine the factors that most influenced consumers' decision to online shop organic food during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The survey was carried out in Serbia by using a questionnaire developed specifically for this purpose, based on questions from 9 relevant surveys in the world. Factor analysis and standard multiple regressions were used to analyze the data obtained from the survey. Four factors have been identified that influenced the online shopping organic food during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The first and most important factor is the Attributes of organic food and deterrents for purchasing. The second important factor is the advantages of online shopping, Covid-19 Pandemic consequences, and organic food labeling. While the third factor (Website characteristics and satisfaction with online shopping) and the fourth factor (Safety of online shopping) are of minor importance. At the end of the paper recommendations for improvement marketing strategy for online selling organic food are given.

Highlights

There is a significant amount of research in the world on the factors that influence consumers’ decision to buy organic food using traditional sales channels
The order of action of the predictor variables in the model is shown below: The first predictor F1 explains with 29.4% (Adjusted R Square = 0.294) online shopping organic food; when we introduce the second predictor F2 into the model, a total of 63% is explained and each subsequent predictor increases the explanation of variability in about the online shopping organic food during Covid19 by only 1%
The first factor indicated that in the online shopping organic food, consumers were guided primarily by the characteristics of the organic food themselves and the benefits they can achieve by consuming organic food compared to conventional food

Summary

Introduction

There is a significant amount of research in the world on the factors that influence consumers’ decision to buy organic food using traditional sales channels. The aim of this paper was to determine the factors that most influenced consumers' decision to online shop organic food during the Covid-19 Pandemic. A large number of researchers in the analysis of the factors that influence consumer decision-making on the purchase of organic food have dealt with the motives of buying organic food and consumer attitudes about organic food. The authors pointed out that the attitudes of consumers of organic food and their purchase intention are significantly influenced barriers (i.e. high price, inadequate availability, poor labeling and extra time required) (Nagy-Pércsi and Fogarassy, 2019), and that organic food consumers are not very interested in branded products, but rather they are looking for product groups or opting for system characteristics related to product sales that are based on consumer confidence. In addition to the price, one of the biggest barriers in buying organic food is the lack of availability of organic products (Lea and Worsley, 2005; Zanoli and Naspetti, 2002; Hughner et al, 2007)

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