Food Retail Market Research Articles

An Overview of Malaysia’s Retail Organic Foods Market and Its Consumption Behavior

Growing global awareness of health and environmental sustainability has significantly increased the demand for organic foods, a trend gaining traction in Malaysia. This research provides a comprehensive overview of consumer consumption patterns and purchase intentions for organic foods in Malaysia’s retail sector, identifying key factors influencing their choices. The study examines Malaysia’s broader food retail landscape, focusing on the growing organic segment and its evolving consumption patterns. It also explores the organic food market, considering domestic production and the availability of imported goods that shape consumer choices and market growth. The study offers practical insights into consumer decision-making within the retail food market by examining consumption behavior, such as purchase intentions. The review uncovers critical insights into the organic food market, including its size, rising demand and consumption trends, government and retailer initiatives, and the demographic profiles of consumers who purchase or intend to purchase organic foods. These findings contribute to existing research on organic food consumption in Malaysia and provide valuable guidance for policymakers, government agencies, and retailers aiming to enhance the adoption of organic foods in the Malaysian retail sector.

Profiling consumers for their shopping motivations in modern retail formats in Oman

PurposeConsumer shopping motivations are evolving in tandem with shifts in products, services and the retail landscape. This paper primarily aims to explore what drives shopping behavior among consumers in Oman. Additionally, the paper aims to profile consumers based on their shopping motivations.Design/methodology/approachBased upon the review of literature, we developed a list of 63 items of shopping motivations. Exploratory factor analysis later led to a 12-factor solution involving 50 items, which were refined further into an 11-factor solution involving 44 items using CFA. A combination of hierarchical and k-means cluster analysis was performed for profiling consumers.FindingsFive distinct segments of consumers that emerged in the Omani food and grocery retail market were derived as Practical Value Seekers, Discerning Shoppers, Selective Online Shoppers, Social Brand Seekers and Instant Gratifiers. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.Practical implicationsIn theory, this study examines market heterogeneity by considering customer shopping motivations and applies profiling (clustering) techniques to categorize them into distinct market clusters. In practical terms, it provides valuable insights to food and grocery store managers.Originality/valueThis study is novel and the first of its kind, suggesting a typology of food and grocery shoppers in Oman. Research on consumer shopping motivations has primarily focused on consumers in Western countries, particularly in the United States.

Platform Business Groups and the Omni‐Channel Transformation of Food Retailing in China

AbstractIn the past decade, China's food retail market has undergone significant restructuring driven by platform firms, enhancing omni‐channel capabilities across the sector, and bolstering the resilience of domestic retailers. These shifts have contributed to the exit of numerous international food retailers. Despite this transformation, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the economic geography of China's food retail market, especially in terms of digital platform operations. This paper aims to conceptualise two major Platform Business Groups (PBGs), Alibaba Group and Tencent‐JD.com Alliance, and investigate their respective roles in the omni‐channel transformation of Chinese food retailing. Drawing on forty semi‐structured interviews and diverse quantitative and qualitative sources, the study conceptualises two distinct PBG models shaping the market: Alibaba's ‘Integrated PBG’ and the Tencent‐JD.com Alliance's ‘Cooperative PBG’. The research explores how the two groups utilise online analytics directly through foodstore subsidiaries and indirectly by providing omni‐channel digital services to third‐party food retailers.

Overcoming Data Barriers: Strategies for New Entrants to Achieve Differentiation in the UK Food Retail Market

The UK food retail market is a highly competitive and mature sector dominated by established players with extensive consumer data at their disposal. New entrants face significant challenges in penetrating this market, particularly due to data barriers that limit their ability to compete on equal footing with incumbents. This paper explores strategies that new entrants can employ to achieve differentiated competition despite these barriers. The study examines the critical role of data in the market, analyzes how established players leverage data for competitive advantage, and proposes alternative approaches for new entrants to overcome data-related challenges. By leveraging niche markets, innovative products, alternative data sources, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, new entrants can build strong brand identities and offer unique value propositions. The paper also discusses regulatory considerations and data governance, emphasizing the importance of ethical data practices and advocacy for fair data access. Through a comprehensive analysis of these strategies, this paper provides actionable insights for new entrants seeking to establish a foothold in the UK food retail market.

Role of Large-Format Shops in the Food Retail Market in Poland during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Role of Large-Format Shops in the Food Retail Market in Poland during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Analysis of Competition and the Level of Dominance in the Russian Food Retail Market

The article analyzes the competition and the level of dominance in the Russian food retail market for the period 2015-2022. A total of 36 companies were analyzed. The Lynd and Herfindahl–Hirschman indices, as well as the SV (strength/variety) matrix, were used as analytical tools. As the results of the study showed, the food retail industry in Russia is highly competitive. Over the past eight years, the combined share of key players has increased, but does not exceed 30%, and therefore it was concluded that there is no dominance in the food retail market in Russia. Due to the active process of acquisitions and mergers by key players, 2 main players have formed: X5 Group and PJSC Magnit, and there is also a high saturation of small companies. It is worth noting that despite the pandemic and instability.

Introduction of digital technologies in the food industry of Kazakhstan

The food industry can be attributed to one of the most popular industries for attracting investments. One of the most important tasks facing the country in matters of digitalization and control of the country's food security are the task of introducing digital technologies into the food industry. If we look at the results of the general marketing analysis, we can see that the food retail market in Kazakhstan is insufficiently developed. In case of attracting investments necessary for the modernization of production and the use of new technologies, food production will also improve. Due to the incomplete development of production and processing of agricultural products in the country, the share of imports far exceeds the share of exports. Even in the food industry, despite the presence of an export-oriented movement, there is a predominance. Innovations leading to digitalization achievements in the direction of transition to an electronic platform, information exchange data using a scanning code that allows you to find out food prices and all relevant information in the country are also considered. Therefore, at present, recommendations and studies have been given that domestic food consumption is not sufficiently provided with domestic products to consider their priority areas.

A longitudinal assessment of racial and ethnic inequities in food environment exposure and retail market concentration.

This paper assesses trends in food environment and market concentration and racial and ethnic inequities in food environment exposure and food retail market concentration at the US census tract level from 2000 to 2019. Establishment-level data from the National Establishment Time Series were used to measure food environment exposure and food retail market concentration. We linked that dataset to race, ethnicity and social vulnerability information from the American Community Survey and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. A geospatial hot-spot analysis was conducted to identify relatively low and high healthy food access clusters based on the modified Retail Food Environment Index (mRFEI). The associations were assessed using two-way fixed effects regression models. Census tracts spanning all US states. 69 904 US census tracts. The geospatial analysis revealed clear patterns of areas with high and low mRFEI values. Our empirical findings point to disparities in food environment exposure and market concentration by race. The analysis shows that Asian Americans are likelier to live in neighbourhoods with a low food environment exposure and low retail market concentration. These adverse effects are more pronounced in metro areas. The robustness analysis for the social vulnerability index confirms these results. US food policies must address disparities in neighbourhood food environments and foster a healthy, profitable, equitable and sustainable food system. Our findings may inform equity-oriented neighbourhood, land use and food systems planning. Identifying priority areas for investment and policy interventions is essential for equity-oriented neighbourhood planning.

Smart Contract to Traceability of Food Social Selling

Traditionally, food sustainability has been considered solely in the stage of agricultural production. However, globalization, the expansion of the food production industry, and the emergence of supermarket chains that control the retail food market require specific significant changes in supply chains in the food sector and, therefore, we need to address the economic, social, and environmental impacts of these events. On the other hand, social selling has increased rapidly in recent years, with a further boom, following current events related to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This explosion of social sales, where there are usually no control and regulation entities, can bring problems associated with mishandling items. In this paper, we expose how Blockchain technology supports the traceability of social sales by validating the data provided by the chain participants such as digital health passports, production and transport data in the sale process; the proposed solution generates recommendations on product management considering the agreements previously made by the network actors. To evaluate the proposed smart contracts, we use Hyperledger Caliper, obtaining an average throughput of 12.6 transactions per second and an average latency of 0.3 s for the asset update process. We also use a study case to evaluate the proposed project platform’s selling-transport stage using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.

Russian Practice of Promoting Food Delivery Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The article discusses the Russian practice of promoting food delivery services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is based on the analysis of documents with elements of statistical and comparative analysis. The authors attempted to collect and systematize data on the use of communication tools by business enterprises during the lockdown period. The article presents data from various studies of the food retail market and the delivery of ready-made food in Russia. As a result of this study, the authors come to the following conclusions: (1) websites and applications of delivery services have become the main platforms of interacting with the audience, which in turn have become a separate object for promotion; (2) major market players managed to shape public opinion on delivery services, a new type of consumer behavior and people’s habits through communication. The study also showed an increase of GR in the communication activities of companies during the pandemic. One of the most popular communication tools that ensure the interaction between business and government has become regular offline and online meetings of entrepreneurs and heads of executive power at various levels.

Perceptions of online shopping and determinants of consumers’ online purchase of food groceries in Polokwane local municipality, South Africa

Online purchase of food groceries is a development in the food retail market that is being driven by recent advances in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Consumers are, therefore, complying with these emerging trends by testing some of the online shopping platforms to form a behavioural compliance as required by some cashless economic policies being implemented in some African countries. Although considered to be convenient, online shopping is bewildered with a lot of risks. The aim of this study was to analyse the perceptions of consumers on online shopping risks and determine the factors influencing them to purchase food groceries online. The data were collected from 173 respondents selected by simple random sampling. The data were collected using structured questionnaire that was administered by trained enumerators. Descriptive statistics and logit regression were used for data analysis. The analyses were carried out by STATA software. The results showed that 11% of the respondents were using online platforms to purchase food groceries, 57.2% were aware of the existence of online platforms to purchase food groceries, 84.4% perceived online purchase of food groceries as convenient, and 62.4% perceived it as risky. The results of the Logit regression model showed that delivery fee, level of education, employment status, use of phone tablets for internet browsing, use of laptops to browse the internet, perceived online convenience and perceived online risk had statistically significant relationships (p<0.05) with consumers’ decision to purchase food groceries online. It was recommended that in order to encourage active online sales, there is the need to educate consumers on the benefits of purchasing food groceries online, using broadcasting platforms such as radio, television and social media. There is also a need for the South African government to strengthen policies to reduce associated risks of online transactions. Key words: Consumers, food groceries, delivery fee, online purchase, South Africa

Statistical learning to estimate energy savings from retrofitting in the Norwegian food retail market

Buildings worldwide consume about 40% of all produced energy and are major contributors to GHG emissions. Hence, to reach the 2030 European energy efficiency target it is vital to reduce the energy consumption in buildings. An important barrier that hinders renovation projects is uncertainty regarding the expected savings. The main objective of this paper is to present two different statistical methods to estimate energy savings. The two methods are easy to implement for practitioners within the energy retrofitting industry, and at the same time has acceptable precision and reliability. The two methods are applied at 5 different food retail stores that undertook renovation in 2019. The models are trained on data from 2018 (one whole year before any of the retrofitting's took place) and are further applied to estimate the energy savings in 2021. The first method is the Tao Vanilla benchmarking method (TVB). The TVB model predict energy consumption in buildings on an hourly level. The model has received a lot of attention within the load forecasting literature and has previously proved its performance in machine learning competitions. The TVB has a straightforward specification, and the model parameters are easily understood. This is the first study that apply the TVB to estimate energy savings in a large retrofitting project within the energy and building sector. The second method relies on a more common industrial approach, which is to use weekly data and energy temperature curves to document energy savings. In addition, we demonstrate a novel approach of using broken line (BL) models to estimate energy savings. The suggested BL approach can simultaneously estimate all the model parameters and yield a full covariance matrix within a standard linear regression framework. The results from the retrofitting projects demonstrates considerable energy savings between 25% and 55%. Furthermore, both the TVB and the BL models deliver reliable precision. The estimated energy savings from both models are coinciding. This indicates that they could jointly be used to gain insight that may lead to more informed decisions for energy saving projects. The TVB model proves to be a proficient benchmarking model that can give detailed hourly information about the savings. The BL model is used to gain intrinsic details about the buildings varying cooling and heating needs depending on the outside temperature during the year.

National brands in hard discounters: market expansion and bargaining power effects

Abstract In this paper, we analyse the strategic role of the recent introduction of national brand (NB) products by hard discounters (HDs) in the French food retailing market and its impact both at the retail and manufacturer levels. We use a structural econometric model of vertical relationships and consider the competition between mainstream retailers (MSRs) and HDs, and between NBs and private labels (PLs). We apply this model to the French dairy dessert market, which is characterised by a high penetration of PLs and a high concentration at the manufacturer and retail levels. Using a counterfactual analysis, we show that the introduction of NBs by HDs clearly increases hard discounters’ profits. Consumers benefit from this strategy. Moreover, we find an increase in the profit of manufacturers of NBs but at the expense of MSRs. We also show that the introduction of NBs by HDs does not only act as a means to attract different consumer groups and extend their market share through a variety effect. It also serves to improve their bargaining position with respect to their PL providers.

Инвестиции как фактор конкурентоспособности компаний розничной торговли

Maintaining a high level of competitiveness is the main task of any enterprise in a market economy, which cannot be solved without some investment. The purpose of the study was to consider investments as a factor in the company’s competitiveness and to determine the influence of investment activity on the level of competitiveness using the example of the retail food market. The objectives of the study were to study the theoretical foundations of the relationship between investment and the competitiveness of a company, assess competition in the food retail market in the Russian Federation and compare the level of competitiveness of market leaders with the level of their investment activity. To solve the set research tasks, the article used the methods of system analysis, comparative analysis, methods of statistical analysis. Based on the results of the study, a relationship was defined between investment activity and the components of the competitive potential of companies. The article provides statistical data on the state of competition in the food retail market of the Russian Federation, reflects the market shares of the largest players. Based on the data from the financial statements of the companies, information is provided on the volume of investments in retail networks of the Russian Federation over the past 3 years. Based on a comparison of data on the market share of retail food networks and the level of their investment activity, it was concluded that there is a direct positive relationship between the volume of a company’s investments and its market share, as one of the indicators of competitiveness. The article also presents promising areas of investment in retail food networks to increase the level of competitiveness in a strategic perspective.

Statistical Learning to Estimate Energy Savings from Retrofitting in the Norwegian Food Retail Market

Statistical Learning to Estimate Energy Savings from Retrofitting in the Norwegian Food Retail Market

APPLICATION OF ELECTRE METHOD IN PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF FOOD RETAILERS IN SERBIA

Various methods of multicriteria optimization have been developed and have recently been widely applied in trade. With this in mind, this paper investigates the performance of food retailers in Serbia based on the ELECTRE method. The goal and purpose of researching the efficiency problems of leading food retailers using the ELECTRE method is to see as realistically as possible their position on the food market in Serbia in order to improve in the future by more efficient control of critical factors and implementation of relevant measures. In addition to the challenges, topicality, significance and complexity, the reasons for researching the given problem in this paper are reflected in that. In addition, by applying the ELECTRE method, more realistic results are obtained in relation to the ratio analysis, especially in combination with other methods of multicriteria analysis (TOPSIS, AHP, ARAS and others). The results of the research show that Delhaize Serbia is the best company in terms of performance. This is the result of Delhaize Serbia's good position in the retail market in Serbia. It applies new business models (private label, sales of organic products, multi-channel sales - stores and electronic). It applies modern concepts of cost management, sales, assets, capital, customers, product categories and profit. In addition to all that, the digitalization of the entire business is at a high level. These and other factors have positively influenced its good positioning on the retail food market in Serbia.

Platform ecosystems and digital innovation in food retailing: Exploring the rise of Hema in China

Although online retailing has expanded dramatically over the past decade, research on the topic by economic geographers remains sparse. One recent hitherto unstudied trend has seen online retailers establishing physical grocery store networks in the Chinese market. This paper utilizes a case study of Alibaba’s Hema grocery store chain to identify and analyze the distinctive and innovative methods that online retailers are adopting in the Chinese food retail market in the context of developing physical stores. Four aspects of innovation are examined, namely: format innovation involving the store as a local fulfillment centre providing efficient last-mile delivery; developing a more consumer-centric retail model; transforming domestic supply networks; and sourcing live seafood globally. These developments are all achieved and facilitated by the strong data-driven capabilities of Hema in the context of the wider Alibaba platform ecosystem. Overall, the paper demonstrates how the digital data capabilities of online retailers embedded in wider platform business groups are rapidly altering the competitive landscape of the food retail sector in China.

Testing of Standardized Advertising Slogans Within the Marketing Communication of Sustainable and Local Foods in Order to Reveal Consumer Preferences

Marketing communication concerning the consumer in the retail food market is currently undergoing significant changes, based on a shift from the passive supply to manage the consumer, toward an effort to understand his needs. The changes in communication are influenced by the technological revolution, which has also significantly affected retail and consumer shopping behavior, resulting in the modern changes in how to approach customers nowadays. Marketing communication must respond to changes in purchasing behavior with the greatest possible flexibility and ability to follow current trends. The presented research will aim to present the importance of the topic and emphasize its topicality by defining specific forms of communication causing an increase in consumer interest in local and sustainable food. Part of the aim of the presented work will be a general proposal for applying specific forms of marketing communication, increasing the interest of consumers in local foods characterized by the attribute of sustainability. The theoretical basis of the work presents current knowledge focused on marketing communication about sustainability in the food chain and consumers' relationship to local and sustainable food, which builds the communication. The work is based on collecting primary data and their subsequent management by mathematical and statistical methods. Friedman's test as a method used for data processing allows us to reveal differences in consumer preferences between various forms of standardized marketing communication to increase local, sustainable foods to engage the consumer. Independently of the Friedman test, the Chi-square test allows us to find races among the individuals corresponding to the respondents. The research results reveal that the differences between the various forms of standardized marketing communication bring a new perspective on the role of communication with the consumer. The results also reveal the role of a specific label expressing the sustainability of local foods. The benefit of our work is to set recommendations for producers and distributors of local and sustainable foods in the field of marketing communication.

Effective recommendations and proposals for the development of marketing activities for participants in the retail food market

Effective recommendations and proposals for the development of marketing activities for participants in the retail food market

LEDA, the branded food database in the Netherlands: Data challenges and opportunities

Food label information for approximately 100,000 branded foods has been collected in the LEDA database in the Netherlands since 2007. Data from five providers is uploaded daily. Label data is used by the Netherlands Nutrition Centre for consumer information and by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment for research purposes that support policy development. The database covers approximately 75 % of the Dutch retail food market. Mandatory food label information is available and sufficiently covered. Non mandatory information, e.g. micronutrient values, portion sizes or state of preparation is not well covered. Adding harmonization steps, at data entry by providers, e.g. using codes instead of free text, could improve branded food data collection and use. Validation procedures have been developed and implemented. To enrich branded food data with (micro)nutrient values and with other types of data, tools are under development. Open access may further extend the potential of the LEDA branded food data. Close cooperation with data providers remains essential to achieve all aims.