Institutional Change: A Renewed Perspective on Grocery Stores Operation in Mauritius

Abstract

The retail industry is characterized as being dynamic and especially recently the “rules of the game” for retailers seem to have changed. These changes in retailing as well as changes in its environment have become an increasing area of interest in research. Retail institutions may modify their strategies, formats, and retail activities to remain competitive and be able to serve and satisfy its customer segment. Worldwide, the technology, more precisely the Internet, is propagating at an increasing pace. All stakeholders of the society have somewhere used these developments to their advantage. For businesses, they are using these opportunities to build their strengths by innovating and creating an edge over competition. In the grocery retail sector around the globe many major players have used technology and the Internet to develop a new sale pitch. In fact, apart from their in-store activities they started to sell grocery on web portals to increase their revenue and face competition. In many countries this new business model has been successful as several advantages like time saving, convenience, and better information have been welcomed by customers. Online grocery shopping has been launched about 2 years ago in Mauritius, and till now, it seems that this concept is very unpopular in the country and many Mauritians are unaware about it. There are several factors like trust, risks, shoppers’ behavior, advantages related, and attitude among others that contribute either to online grocery shopping success or failure. Consequently, it is of upmost important to explore these factors in the Mauritian context to know about the readiness and adoption dimensions. Big societies in Mauritius have invested massively in the development of online grocery shopping services, and after 2 years, it is high time to find adequate strategies for a real kickoff and upturn of these services. Failing to do so, both companies and customers will be deprived of new opportunities. For companies, the return on investment will stay low, which will in turn affect profitability leading to possible closure. Concerning customers, they will miss the opportunity of simplifying their shopping and other related advantages. The objective of this study is to shed light about the readiness and adoption of online grocery section, and also go through a deep investigation of customer’s view and opinion about the different factors mentioned earlier. The final recommendation will be directed toward online grocery shopping providers so that they get a better insight about the actual situation and what are the next moves to take for the buoy up of e-grocery in Mauritius.